Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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, le l l i 'K xi. I 51 I l e I 2,1 il : I Q Y 5.4 .5 l 51 . F4 5. ali We f i, , ill l f I l, ill , . FE 1 is , all I lf! . R51 H xl 'w kr f lllggli 'alll .,,w, ,'. 5. 1 nu, iii- 7 if ll- - ui' r l. .1332 .--'::- 1 ,ff .mfr .gi 3 'Q li l l I l it i f 5 .l z ra' Ui il 23 lx' i ll l L 5 of cordite and hot brass. Five Betties had caught their last glimpses of a setting sun and were lost in an inferno of smoke and Hame sent up by our guns. The ship's war diary would show you accounts of many other sum- mons to- battle stations, of otheractions, and of countless hours spent by these men at their guns . . . waiting, when the enemy didn't come, and when he did come. The gunners have done their job well. Boss of the Gunnery Department was Com- mander James C. Shaw, class of '36, USNA, Whose experiences in war and peace constitute an odyssey within themselves. He succeeded Commander W.R.D. Nickelson, USN, last spring, both of these officers had gone through the epic battles of the U.S.S. Atlanta together, from her commissioning to her death oH Savo Island in November, 1942. Commander Nick- elson deserves a round of lasting applause for his job in organizing the Gunnery Depart- 'DFI ment. All during the pre-commissioning days, he, assisted by Commander Shaw, spent hours of unrecorded worry and planning, theirs was the task of shaping a new sea giantess for the fights that lay ahead. Commander Nickelson left the ship to become executive ofiicer of a new cruiser. Prior to his wartime duties, the present Gun Boss spent a tour of duty in the Asiatic destroyer fleet, where he came to know Hrst hand the temperament and methods of his present enemy. Manila, Mindanao, Shanghai, I-10ng-K0ng, and even Yokahoma were a few of the Far Eastern points he became familiar with. During a stay in Manila he was con- fronted with his first spur-of-the-moment com- mand, when he took a destroyer to sea for four days during a typhoon. COITlmander Shaw, who is a native of the Great Middle West CMinnesotaD, is both a capable leader and an efficient administrator. A tireless worker, he has always been aware of the .gf-1 ,JV ,fd J' -cur' I .. wr' rw' fl, 'ZH' Jgqfbi' , constantly changing needs of his departmentg he is a combination of an ideal student and a searching professor. Assistant to the Gunnery Officer was able Lieutenant Philip H. Bradley of South Orange, New Jersey, who came up from the First Division oHicer's post to take over the duties left vacant due to Lieutenant W. H. Mack's transfer. Lieutenant Bradley was a veteran of the Atlantic Fleet, having served aboard the U.S.S. Massachusetts before coming to the Bunker Hill. During his tour on the North Atlantic, the Massachusetts spearheaded the battleship attack on French Fleet units dur- lng the Hrst days of American landings on the North African coasts. Prior to 1942, he served with the Navy Department in Wash- lngffm, H job most Naval ofiicers only dream about. As control oHicer manning the fOr- ward director, Lieutenant Bradley chalked UP an enviable record, chief incident of which occurred off Bougainville when he brought down two dive bombers with one five-infill

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E GUN ERY ,K ,::--...-- ,t , hm ,,,. y ,,k,,m,t,,,,,,,,,,-,A , H -we s. dx dv 'M ----...,,, X A JN L xx Clime and again the gunners proved the knew their jobs well The long line, two abreast, halted. Several hundred strong and clad in undress blues, the string of young manhood stretched out from the very tip of the huge South Boston Drydock to the portside brow of a new carrier whiclz lay moored to the sides of the freshbf flooded dock. Her steel was a new and resplendent gray, her lines were sharp, interrupted evidences Q' power and kinetic energy. 1 W . ,W . . Y , -:....,....-v. ... .-.ww hen came a word from the quarter- deck : Bring them over the port brow. The line moved, single file this times and the Gunnery Department per- sonnel, having left their Fargo barracks be- hind, climbed aboard their new home-which for many was their lirst sea-going home. They came aboard, seven deck divisions or- ganized, including a Marine Detachment, and began the long, strenuous process of learning and practicing. Ahead of them lay a task that few of them could visualize, defending the ship against intruders that would find their way through a Hghter plane cordon . . . real enemy planes that would be shoot- ing at you and dropping bombs down a line of sight that always pointed at your right eye. They were undertaking a job that would re- quire twenty four hour vigilance, in addition to an expert knowledge of the variety of weapons provided in the ship's armament. Now these same men who a year ago were little more than boots are tried and experi- mm- W.-.-.. -.--an-f -F s...-,M ..,, -me Ja- 1-f.,a-,.,..fs.fg,m.,-ws-.. w.1,..f,...-.-...fav--..a S..-n,1......-...-....m. -,m.,.,,,.,,.,..,.,,, enced gunners. While they trained-there were tow planes and lifeless sleeves-it was beyond their scope of imagination to visualize what was in store for them. Track that imag- inary target . . . keep your sight steady . . . watch that low Hying torpedo plane . . . there come the dive bombers out of the sun-there! right there! now simulate reload . . . ah, hell . . . it goes on day afterday. Then one day of-F Hawaii they got their lirst taste of what real smoke from a burning plane smelled like. Subsequently, a memor- able November 11 came, and the heat of a South Pacific sun became more intensified. But some Vals came down burning, as did several Ka-tes and Zekes. From there the story is best measured by events, for weeks and months are hard to keep separated. A night oli' Tarawa, when between the ship and the sun sixteen tiny specks appeared, low on the water. These specks grew fantastically fast, and in a matter of seconds guns were blazing and the air was heavy with the smell

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nlvo. Like the Gunnery Ofiicer, he came to the Bunker Hill early in 1943, and before the ship was commissioned he served as ofiicer- in-charge of the Gunnery Department for the Bunker Hill detail stationed in Fargo Barracks. These two oflicers were charged with the job of keeping in a lighting, trim unit the scores of gun mounts and batteries carried by the Bunker Hill. Their assistants were the division officers and junior division ofiicers of each of the seven major departmental units. THE ' DIVISION ORGANIZATION Lieutenant William Linenberg, formerly the Second Division officer, was leader of the keepers , of the forecastlej' the mighty ninety-man First Division. His team of huskiesf manned the forward five-inch gun mounts, took care of the ship's ground tackle, and handled a share of the mooring lines. Pre-war days found Lieutenant Linenberg making convoy trips down Pennsylvania Ave- nue in Washington, Where 'he was assigned for dutyg but early in 1942 he put to sea on the U.S.S. South Dakota, which was later to earn the title of the Mighty X, and blast her way to fame and glory in night actions off Guadalcanal, at Santa Cruz, and in several other engagements of lesser importance. Bill still occasionally harkens back to the night surface engagement, which he considers more of a nightmare than finding Mayor Hague on Rittenhouse Square, which happens to be in his home town-Philadelphia. Assisting Lieutenant Linenberg in division- al duties were Lieutenants B.pH. Ridder and Paul R. Levine and Ensign James Holbrook, USN, who, as their junior, claims a lion's share of the work. If you ask any one of them how many enemy aircraft the First Division has accounted for, the answer would probably be: How many planes have come after us in the past year? Stanley Capp, CTC and a salt from the word go, keeps 'em firing down on the mountsg and S. F. Scruggs, BM1c and line heaver par excellence, was the leading deck petty oliicer. They supervised a division which--as a Sec- ond Division man said one day-is first in more than one thing, especially the chow line. The lighting characteristics of the Second Division's senior ofiicer date back to his childhood in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he held a hometown record for knocking out street lamps. Lieutenant K. C. Casey Somers Cno relation to the at-the-bat poetized heroj is the man to whom we refer, and his after five-inch mounts claim one plane less than Tojo had when the war broke out. In spite of their burly enthusiasm, however, the Second Division personnel was a colorful unit. Their color dates back to a boatswain's mate by the name of D. L. Henderson, who was a Hrm believer that the four-stack destroyer could be and would be America's secret e.. ,.,.........,a .........,. va., .nm .,1,u..,. .......-..-...---.1 . ' in 'Tl'I '--l '- - --e-v:q,,.-:.- ,ff weapon. Henderson's school of thought car- ried over into more recent petty ofiicer ad- ministrations, and even today you're likely to hear about the ship such Hendersonia as: airplanes and ships ain't got no business lighting each other. Under Lieutenant Somers' leadership the Second carried on high standards of gunnery and seamanship. Their portside collateral duties included taking care of a boat boom and a gangwayg and they divided equally the live-inch gun mounts with the First Division.