Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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YI . 5 A .-r i iq i comer was Hin. Nothing could match the aplomb of a Marine approaching the Key Man. In fact, he rather condescended to be drawn into the line. No eagerness, mind you! The chow is probably rotten anyway, but what-the hell, it's part of your pay, Mac. Dependent upon their esprit de corps and organization, other divisions entered into the spirit of the thing and poor in friends indeed was the man who 'could find none in the line to give him entry. -. sf K TT iff --fe ' 'flair 4 V' . . ., ?'z ff-iff' ' ,. :'y. i me -fs -fi me fail QL Q 'ct Liiffsxl' , fffffl QR rEf 'f'1gffff f 31 A' ij JN J. :T '55 32 'Nif 'fffl 7'iFf.'1?7,'fi , : ' -f fl I - 'ii' J . iff 'fifwk ilfi.,4if,-' fm: -, X' ws ff if 5 : Qld 'S' ya P, ing' .Q ' -if. if' ffew: 4 ,.4. 1. . f Nw' !'W-.. 1 'f'x A g ,ff ' if f. ,f's.'iX-.f1.'fi .5 ' 1 i . 'fi' If f F' i f 'f X W iii- flip is f-- i r ff: i Yfififfi 'QS-Z Pe -. ' 4 3 Y ' Rx :xi , ' . . Q: Wmffi-1' g'FT1.mir'.,, i'r ' I ' 'i A 677 A 'l x 2 , 4k,,,-ff? X00 ,L my i 1M,,ff-- - I A' X. 'LJ Q 1 u f i aaie a 4 1. as - x 4 , We could not, in 'all fairness, in a discussion of lines, or queues, fail to make mention of the godlike characters who would go directly to the head of the line, and smiling blandly, bowing slightly, step gracefully in front of one as though it had been thus ordained since time out of mind. Some dark day, defying all his high placed friends among the MA's and other powerful interests, I shall cut down one of these supermen, catching him just under the ear with the edge of a mess tray-a. hot one. V A After acclimating himself to the confusing atmosphere created by pre-occupied workmen, amid a steady din punctuated by the ear- shattering roar of an occasional pneumatic cutter, our new man found himself curiously Watching Navy Yardmen fouling the air with cutting and welding gadgets. Alas, as it turned out, this was the wrong thing to do, for soon he had a regular task set for him, namely, watching welding and burning but with the stern rule that he must watch until said operations had been finished, and in Company with a CO2 bottle Weighing in at 51 pounds but increasing from hour to hour, When the watching got monotonous for all concerned, he and the Welder would sit and watch each other, casually discussing the baseball scores, Spinoza, or the relations of man to Art. If the conversation became too deep, they might, in a moment of weakness, Hee the cares of the war-torn world, and find escape at the cinema, some carping individual having intimated that the bulk of Hollywood's efforts were escapist in nature. When not employed watching would-be pyromaniacs among the welding crews, our jaunty salt often was called upon to effect the moving of various stores, sometimes food, to storage and refrigerated spaces below decks. Sometimes, unable to resist the pro- vocative Navy labels, he was known to sample the contents of such boxes and cans that might readily be opened with the tools at hand. This spot sampling is an important and Widespread system in the Navy whereby the enlisted personnel ascertain whether or not the goods in question merit all of the energy expended in such transferal. A goodly amount of food finds its way into other than the intended storage spaces but as the eventual destination is the same, this booty is regarded as the legal reward of a hard-working stores party and, it might be added, the diversion of such edible goods requires an inordinate amount of ingenuity and guile. Of chipping, scraping, wirebrushing and sandpapering, there was much and, of course, the inevitable painting. Soon the ancient and bitter war between the deck seamen and the painters broke out with renewed Vig01', the painters crying angrily that the whole of the Navies of the United Nations couldn't suf- Hce to keep the deck divisions of this ship out- fitted with brushes, such was the carelessnr-BSS of the men. The painters felt strongly about the manner in which the seamen--With malice aforethought!-left brushes in pots, with and without paint, and then proceeded to forget about the pots entirely, leaving the discovery to some benighted soul on his WW ' fg ni, ' .wif 1 rf' if' ' ' :f , '51

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swtfm of bees, to infest the first, second, and at least third and fourth trolley cars to roll glong. By three or four in the morning, 9, gogd deal of the energy had been dissipated and the yoggg bloods began straggling in, some afoot, some afoul, some by streetcar, some with Shore Patrols, and those fortunate or fore- sighted enough to have any money left, by cab, This happy routine continued for many weeks, but at last the fact that the Bunker Hill was soon to be commissioned made our going aboard a mere matter of days. One Spring afternoon we evacuated the big, squarish building and marched down the street into the Navy Yard to board our ship. To former carrier men, the aspect of the Bunker Hill was nothing particularly astonishing. But to the large number of the crew that had just lately come from behind steering wheels, desks, ploughs and typewriters, the out- landish looking vessel was something to conjur with. In the first place, a person standing on the hangar deck felt absurdly small and just didn't believe it! You felt it was the misplaced main floor of a manufactur- ing plant. It was simply too large, too open and too long, to be a ship and one looked forward to heavy seas with something akin to lack of confidence. Why the damn thing overhead-What is it, the flight deck?-will in all probability rattle loose! Oh, well-l Our slightly bewildered new crewman had little time to philosophize on the aberrations Of modern naval warfare, as he was hustled, willy-nilly, bag and baggage, below decks, tripping over welding cable, from time to time, dodging showers of sparks, winding a way from compartment to compartment, through devious passageways-thoroughly convinced that, left to his own devices he would like as I10t perish down there, before Hnding his way out. The locations of the sacks, lockers, heads and chow lines were ascertained in that order. . Despite the size of the task and considering the infinite possibility of any milifa-FY 01 Sanization for organizing a chaos, the embarkation of the crew was carried out with a minimum of fuss and dislocation. Meal.time meant waiting in the inevitable chow line and, of course, the inevitable udfaggingn for, as one philosopher rational- fzedi if you can't impose on your friends, who ln hell can you impose upon? With this bit Of immaculate logic, many persons daily avoided the dismal ordeal of waiting in line that seemed to grow ever longer. Perhaps 5 .ni iv X l-eff s lo f Le the most efficient group in this activity was the Marine Corps. Well disciplined, compact, working as a well-trained unit, the Seventh Division developed an infiltration technique that was the envy of all who had the dubious privilege of watching its execution and, as it turned out, many were to be so privileged. One Key Man would somehow bore into the line, in extreme cases, the Key Man waS observed to wait in line as much as five or six minutes before mess was sounded! Placing himself in a conspicuous spot, he waited- and like moths to a flame, his comrades in arms would spot the tell-tale green uniform and casually drift over to him. Whaddaya say? lVImmmm? Whooze got the chits? Izzat so? 'e did? Hell with mmmmf' Yuh. With such gem-like conversations, the new-

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wget a drink of water about two in the morn- ing, On the other hand, it must be noted that the seamen, by unanimous agreement, asserted that all of the shortcomings of the deck divisions devolved directly upon the divisional bos'n mates, and as it is heresy to Speak other than harshly of bos'n mates, the matter must go at that. In this manner, it came to pass that the Bunker Hill slipped into ways traditional with Naval life. The men soon found little places on the fantail, on the gallery walkways, and in odd spots below decks, in which to spend little snatches of time in the horizontal position, for which position the crew seemed to have developed a remarkable affinity. The Chief Petty Uflicers settled into comfort- able positions, drank prodigious amounts of coffee and told outrageous lies with perfectly straight faces, and the junior ofiicers became scarcer and scarcer when it came time to censor mail. The ship was contemplating going to sea. The last liberties were more than slightly alcoholic, as everyone endeav- ored to make up for an indeterminate period of time that was going to be lost. We'd have done more had we but known! Boston was finally left behind ina haze, and after the ship had been at sea for a day, it was found that the underway routine was considerably less hectic than the in-port routine had been. The event of immediate interest was the embarkation of the Air Group, an event which gave some concrete meaning to all this Vast expanse of deck. In the bright haze and occasional squalls of Tidewater Virginia, we fought the Battle of Chesapeake Bay, charging to and fro near Wolf Trap, all hands crowding the island structure to watch the amazing show of a flight deck in operation, positive, at first, that each plane would never make it. The flight deck of a carrier is, and probably always will be, the most un-Naval thing in the Navi'- Isis more like a football field than a ship, with the definite suspense, the colorful uniforms, the uproar, the strange hand and arm signals, the occasional applause and cheering for some nice timing, and of course, The Press- BOX-that reviewing stand on the fifty-yard lme-Primary Fly. The payoff is the way that people stream out onto the flight deck after a flight has been landed, and the action 1S over, identical to the manner in which spectators stream out onto a football field after a game. Except, of course, that no one offers you a nip. Norfolk, the most abused community on the face of the earth, was found wanting in some particulars connected with liberty, and many harsh words were spoken regarding it, but it was noticed that a very small minority of the liberty section stayed aboard. One bracing Spring day, Point Henry light- house was left abeam to starboard as we headed for the Gulf Stream. Soon the air became warmer, and the incredibly blue water of the Stream yielded clumps of char- acteristic weed. Flying fish broke the surface and were eagerly pointed out, with some amazement. Smoothly the Bunker Hill sped along, testing her myriad mechanisms, ad- justing and examining, training her crew, getting to know her squadrons, finding con- fidence as a ship. The shakedown had as a terminus, the island of Trinidad, one of the most historic of the British VVest Indies, and something in the way of an adventure to many of the new young men of the crew, most of whom had never been out of the States. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, British West Indies- all were foreign and therefore slightly mysterious names. Consequently the crew collected souvenirs of all descriptions, currency being the most common and coconuts the most edible. A swimming and beer party allowed the lads to scurry about ashore and the returning boats were heavier by many cocoanuts, bananas, limes, mangoes and papayas-all in various stages of maturity. Une extremist put an end to a sort of contest that had developed on the trip down. The more rugged members of the crew had broken out and sported sheath knives of