Boston (CAG 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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radical since the inception of the CA- 69. There.. were now the jet aircraft and atomic bomb, both of which re- quired improvements of the World War ll AA batteries. Perceptive minds in the U. S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance and Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins arrived at the Terrier, a weapon which they felt should some- what mollify t'he menace of the nuclear bomb and supersonic airplane. On paper the Terrier appeared capable, but a true test was needed. So in April of i952 the Boston was plucked from the Reserve Fleet and given a task as momentous as the one she had under- taken in 1943. The task: Prove the oper- ational capabilities of the guided mis- sile cruiser. Her conversion was lengthy and extensive. The 40 MM mounts were replaced by new 3 rapid-fire mounts, new fire control and search radars were installed, the ship's engi- neering and propulsion units were over- hauled and messing and berthing spaces modernized. On the Boston's after end the metamorp-hosis was more startling. The 8 turret was replaced with two missile launchers. Below decks, appeared a great maze of elec- tronic testing equipment and missile handling equipment. By the summer of 1955, the Boston was still a cold hulk of unused machinery and disarrayed compartments where yard workers made havoc from 0800 to l700. But as the breeze off the Delaware lost its summer balm and became a bone chill- ing fall wind, the steel helmeted swarm was diminishing in favor of a neater, more comely breed, the American sailor. Red lead polka-dotted the bulk- heads, eventually mellowing into haze gray. Rust succumbed to the ear shat- tering metal chippers. The soot laden main deck took soap, sand and holy- stone, and glistened. Then, on l No- vember l955, the USS Boston became officially the CAG-l as the commission- ing pennant unfurled and the Naviga- tor took the first quarterdeck watch. Commissioning was followed by two cold, work-filled months in the shipyard at Philadelphia. Then under the com- mand of Captain Chas. B. Martell the Boston headed south via Norfolk for two and one half months of shakedown training in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. These months were filled with engineer- ing drills, weapon firings and the in- evitable playing host to visiting digni- taries. The Boston's supersonic Terrier l6 BOSTON'S WARTIME RECORD -