USS Colorado - Naval Cruise Book

Page 27 text:

There ' s an alphabet being aired there, vital flags that speak across the water clearly and without error, setting speed, maneuvering great armadas skillfully and silently. In this hideout we loaded ammo. Prohibition style. Kerama Retto was a welcome haven for great patrol planes, and here the mighty desttoyers from the famous picket stations limped home to mend the wounds of battle. And here we laid in a supply of death for Japs, over two million pounds for Okinawa alone . . .

Page 26 text:

The turrets have fired their shattering blasts, and off we go to get ammo and food and mail. At Okinawa we fired two thousand tons of main battery ammunition . . .

Page 28 text:

And after another assign- ment, another grid area blasted, Danny, or Marv, or Seaman Beeman came back aboard to tell us what it looked like. It ' s just like Connecticut, they said, or, You should have seen those trucks go up! And one day a plane failed to return and we waited in vain . . , rmmfmmmiw But this was one shot we didn ' t wait for in vain. Oh, we knew all the time we could do it, but the weeks were long un l the day. And when it came it was wonderful. The Star Spangled Banner never sound- ed better than it did with Mt. Fujiyama in the background, and the tears in your eyes when you saluted the flag were plenty real. There wasn ' t any snow on it though, and why it should be worshipped we nev- er could decide — it really isn ' t a fourth- rate mountain, but those people are funny, I tell you . . .