Dauphin (APA 97) - Naval Cruise Book

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FORT PIERCE TRAMMING BOAT GROUP Ft. Pierce, Florida, was the Amphibious Training Center of the Atlantic Fleet and it was here on 8 June 1944 that one hundred and twenty enlisted men and twelve officers began their training in amphibious warfare. From the start, rugged was a mild word. Classes in navigation, seamanship, gunnery, communications, recognition, engineer- ing, and ship to shore occupied the first three weeks of intensive primary training. Mosquitoes, sand flies and what have you dedicated their lives to making it miserable for all concerned. Inspection after inspection, occasion- ally followed by a forty-eight hour pass, eased the pain somewhat, while all hands digested the cities of Palm Beach and Miami. Practical work in the boats ensued for ten weeks. Boat handling slowly improved, competi- tion became keen, the group more coherent. High surf, long hours in the blazing sun, circling until that minute, all-night ship to shores with the beach party, put us wise to amphibious ways. Opera- tion with other boat groups, the Army, demolition teams, scouts and raiders. Group 161 said good-bye to the island off Flor- ida ' s coast, the sand flies, the jetty, the six mile buoy and Coon Island on 20 September 1944. With orders to report to the Dauphin, then lying in Baltimore harbor, the L division looked for- ward to a new phase of both personal and Navy life, a strange one and one which the remainder of this year book well pictures. BEACH PARTY The prime purpose of the Beach Party was to work jointly with Army or Marine Corps in Am- phibious operations, to land with the assault troops, evacuate the wounded, keep the incoming boats in their designated slots, handle ship to shore, visual and radio communications and to keep the beach clear so men and equipment could move without congestion. Preparation for such a diversified assortment of tasks required a lot of training and the men of the beach party got just that. For eight weeks they received intensified beach training under simulated battle conditions, then several months of tactical and strategical maneu- vers. This training included learning the basic fundamentals of demolition, becoming acquainted with underwater diving gear, and firing the differ- ent types of weapons. Instructions and practice with hand grenades, bazookas, and all types of guns from the 45 calibre pistol to the 3-inch all purpose gun made all hands familiar with their weapons of offense. Most of the fellows qualified as expert riflemen and helped establish a range firing record for the 30 calibre carbine at 100 and 200 yards, using all firing positions. The Beach Parly with this training and their simulated battle experiences under their belts, boarded the Dauphin ready to fulfill their assign- ment as an integral part of the ship ' s organization. LAUNCHING AT SPARROWS POINT FORT PIERCE. FLORIDA On the morning of June 10, 1944, the Dauphin stood ready for christening at the Bethlehem-Sparrows Point, Md., Shipyard. Miss Carolyn Conway, student nurse at the Staten Island Hospital and daughter of Captain Granville Conway, Deputy Administrator of the War Shipping Administration, had been chosen as sponsor, and after a brief and fitting ceremony our ship was launched with the traditional bottle of champagne. . . . The U.S.S. Dauphin slid down the ways, righted herself, and proudly joined the society of ships destined for the United States Navy.

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PRECOMMISSIONI NG TRAINING 1VEWPDRT, H.I. Approximately 70% of the crew received pre- commissioning training at the Naval Training Sta- tion, Newport, Rhode Island, on the shores of Narragansett Bay, a fine harbor since Viking days and the scene of much of America ' s earliest naval history. The Dauphin detail was formed in mid- summer of 1944 and organized into the various divisions required to man the ship. Some experienced men, and many who had never seen a ship, made up the ship ' s comple- ment. Classes in seamanship, navigation, gun- nery, engineering and other subjects were held daily from 0800 to 1700 in the classrooms and laboratories spread over the acres of Coaster ' s Harbor Island and Coddington Point. It was always necessary to march from one place to another on the station, and this was usually accomplished to the cadence of unrecognizable dirges, swing and tobacco auctioneering. In the weeks of proc- essing and precom training, one was expected to become at least a third class swimmer, and to be able to administer first aid to the injured. Days were given over to cargo handling on mock- ups, firing at Price ' s Neck, and hair-singeing ex- periences at the elaborate fire-fighting school on the island. Along with this regular training, a quantity of work was required of the ship ' s officers and yeo- men in preparing the Ship ' s Organization Book. This included the numerous bills organizing the entire personnel for battle, damage control, cargo handling, debarkation, collision, special sea de- tail, and so on, through scores of various evolu- tions. The Watch, Quarter, and Station Bills and Division Notebooks were likewise prepared by the Division Officers during this period. Although on land, all procedures were followed as if aboard ship. Watches were set, bedding aired, decks swabbed, quarters for muster and inspections held, and liberty granted according to sections. To complete the training schedule, the officers and crew were given a week ' s cruise on the U.S.S. Chilton (APA 38), which the Dauphin later re- lieved as a training ship, and still later sailed with in convoy in the Pacific. This time was employed in getting used to shipboard life, and in addition to standing regular watches in their various de- partments, the crew was given an unscheduled two days ' experience in riding out a hurricane. On return to land all hands were properly in- itiated as salts, and on September 22, with bags and hammocks lashed in proper fashion, shoved off for Baltimore and their new ship. BALTIMORE, MD. The Baltimore phase of the pre-commissioning period consisted of very little training — that is, in the usual sense of the word. At first personnel consisted of the Captain and his staff of yeomen, the Chief Engineer and his assistants, the First Lieutenant and his assistants, and the Supply Officer and staff. Later on, as commissioning date neared, the Gunnery Officer and the Senior Medi- cal Officer reported. Our working address in Bal- timore was three-sided, and the jeep (when it was finally procured) never ceased running between 37 Commerce Street where the Captain ' s Office was located, the Supply Office at Port Covington, and Sparrow ' s Point where a mass of rusty steel was gradually beginning to take on the appear- ance of a ship. The crew lived at the Coast Guard Barracks at Fort McHenry except for the family men who could live in the city of Baltimore. Instead of formal training, classrooms, and short cruises at sea, the Baltimore group learned mainly by experience and hard knocks. Principal of the tasks was assembling a mountain of stores at Port Covington ' s warehouses and attempting to main- tain records of what had been ordered, what had arrived, and what was yet to come. Our store- keepers and those of Port Covington worked long hours as they segregated and tagged and stacked and marked and culled out material which had been sent to the Dauphin (APA 97) by mistake instead of to the Duphin (AKA 87). The yeomen, too, had their long hours and weekends of work as they began assembling official publications and circular letters from every U. S. Fleet and every Navy Department Bureau. The tempo increased as September 23rd came nearer. The week just prior to commissioning brought the Builder ' s Trials of the ship and all hands went to sea for a day as the Bethlehem Ship- building Company assured itself that the ship would float, move forward and backward, and turn on a dime. During the week following com- missioning, which was the last in Baltimore, our time was consumed in transferring the mountain of supplies and foodstuffs from the warehouses to the ship ' s holds and getting the majority of the packing cases back on the dock. Finally we re- ceived the good wishes of the Port Covington staff, our co-workers during the pre-commissioning months, took a last ride to Commerce Street to insure that nothing had been left behind, and shoved off for Norfolk and the Navy Yard. — 6-

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1 H. E. TALMADGE, Lieut.. U.S.N.R. EXECUTIVE OFFICER 23 September 1944 to II September 1945 McRAE, GEORGIA C. F. WYMORE. Lieut., U.S.N.R. EXECUTIVE OFFICER 11 September 1945 FIRST LIEUTENANT 19 April -10 September 1945 GUNNERY OFFICER 23 September 1944-19 April 1945 JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI