Columbia (CL 56) - Naval Cruise Book

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BIA and the DENVER are believed to be the first major U. S. surface units to see the Philip- pines since the occupation. While at Leyte, she was in the thick of the famous battle of the Surigao Strait, during which she was credited with assisting in the sinking of two BB's, one CL, and one DD. The Gem progressed from Leyte to Mindanao and then Lingayen Gulf, and it was here that she took the punishment of three Kamikaze planes. The results of this were the silencing of turrets three and four, loss of steering control, the flooding of nine compartments, the loss of the forward directors for both main and secondary batteries, plus a number of casualties. It was February, 1945, that a battered but undefeated COLUMBIA arrived in San Pedro for repairs, the hero of many a Stateside newspaper reader. Back to the Pacific in May, the COLUMBIA aided in the invasion of Borneo, and then pro- ceeded to patrol the China Sea. Then peace! The third and last battle cruise of the COLUM- BIA was completed. The COLUMBIA has now completed its fourth cruise-a voyage to train the men who may someday have the duty and honor of pro- tecting their nation. It was commanded and administrated by such able men as Captain B. B. Adell, an old submarine man, Commander H. F. Gorski, Executive Officer, and Com- mander F. O. Iffrig, Navigator, and the cruise was made more enjoyable and purposeful by Chaplain T. H. Bodie and Lieutenant Com- mander L. E. Bromberick. And though crowded, it was a home after all, and one that fulfilled every criteria for a 'Lhouse on the sea. We hope that we did as well as a 'ffamilyfl Our first act after coming aboard was to determine the location of our bunks and lock- ers. The compartment numbering system that had once been so clear again became an unin- telligible mass of digits and letters. We wan-

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it may have been, but a ship is more than that. It is a home away from home, everyone aboard was a member of the family whether we liked it or not. And it is a family that tolerates no drones-every man must be the breadwinner. Ask the plank owners whether or not the COLUMBIA was a good house, whether she ever failed in time of stress. True, she was not built as we would build our home: unseen by the future tenants from the laying of her keel in August, 1940, to the final commissioning exercises in August, 1942. But she housed the men that lived, prayed, and died together in the years to follow. The Gem's chance to prove herself was not long in coming. After her shakedown cruise in September and October of' 1942 she proceeded to the Pacific, and joined a group of seven other cruisers and four destroyers. With the later sixteen arrival of other units, Task Force 18 was formed and carried out extensive operations during the Solomons campaign. Transferred later to Cruiser Division 12, she continued operations in the Solomons area, participating in the attacks on New Britain and New Guinea. Not until April, 1944, did she turn for home. Thus finished the first battle cruise of the COLUMBIA. She had been through the Solomon Islands campaign, and had seen the first signs of a change in the tide of the Pacific war. She was now a fighting ship. Leaving the dockyards in the latter part of August, 1944, the COLUMBIA started on her second battle cruise-this time to the Palau Islands to support that invasion. From thence to the Seventh Fleet, and Philippine operations along the east coast of Leyte, in the middle of October. In the lead Task Group, the COLUM-

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dered in the maze of passageways and compart- ments until by luck or sheer fortitude, we found our berths. Later, when the bilges were cleaned, two half-starved, dazed men were found whose first statement was, Our names are Henderson and Gilmore. Please tell us where B-302-L isf' The way back to the main deck was care- fully retraced to prevent any further confusion. We now waited for our luggage. It soon came aboard by the netfuls. Pictures that had been carefully packed away were broken or bent by the ponderous weight of twenty other bags piled on top. Lighter fluid carefully packed upright was spilled over everything when the bags were turned upside down. We all gained, however, the great truth of Burns that The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agleyf' We then struggled back to our compartments to start the task of stowing our gear. With the help of a book of math tables and a slide rule fwhich each of our professors at the various universities told us would be indispensablej we integrated the area of our lockers and indi- vidually found a secret formula by which we could pack, squeeze, and cram the most in our lockers. The rest we stowed away again in our bags. The compartments became congested beyond description. To walk ten feet was to step on at least one foot, get hit in the stomach 'by a very hard elbow, to trip over some hapless soul pack- ing gear in a lower locker, and to say, pardon me until it became a reflex action. for I-at-F. ., Uniforms were hurriedly carried to a com- partment and stowed there until the steel rods assigned the gargantuan task gave up with a creak and collapsed. Then they were put in every conceivable and a few inconceivable places. Peacoat lockers were filled to the over- flowing and each corner was solidly Hlled with bags piled in Leaning Tower of Pisa fashion. Later we wandered around the ship trying to orient ourselves. Much to our embarassment we wandered too far, for we were shooed from place after place declared as restricted territory until we discovered ourselves just wandering around our living compartments making notes of the ventilator ports. That Hrst night as we slumped wearily into our sacks and fell into the arms of Morpheus, we were carried away to a night riddled with nightmares of lockers with bulging sides ex- ploding a geyser of clothes, or a locker door opening to release an avalanche of clothes, papers, bottles, etc. on the hapless owner. But we had a feeling of getting settled, for we had at least claimed and cleaned a place to sleep. We were not long in discovering the in- evitable lines, for as soon as we left the ladder to come aboard, we were greeted by a line to collect our orders. This, we discovered, was only the beginning, for our whole existence soon became centered around a certain routine of lines. Upon awakening from our sleep, we would -roll out of our Beautyrest mattresses and dash 0 l -fx le-as ssgkxi- 'fiilll fl i Q-it ,ji QL:-1