Essex (CVA 9) - Naval Cruise Book

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Y ' if - I TWG VIEWS CDE THE ESSEXI I I I I I

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Bremerton area and played at dances and concerts throughout the state .... Our baseball and soFtball teams took on the best in the Northwest and were a credit to the Essex wherever they played. The ship sponsored tourneys in tennis, golF and Fishing which drew many oF the crew into the Fresh air .... Camp McKean became the site oF many a hilarious divisional party. And then one day, late in July, a Fire was lighted deep in our hold, then another and another and soon all boilers were steaming again. August came and test-dead-loads rocketed From our catapults, elevator horns blared again, the anchor winch was exercised and one Saturday morning we cast oFF all lines and sailed up Puget Sound For our post-repair speed trials .... we were back in commission again. AFter a Final reFit on August 21-L, IQ53, the Essex sailed For Alameda via Bangor where we restowed the tons oF explosive ordnance needed For the days ahead .... The Golden Gate For Labor Day week-end and Finally San Diego again. l-lere began the exhaustive task oF rebuilding a combatant crew .... Through the long days and nights oF Underway Training Exercises Flight deck crews learned again what it means to push planes For eighteen hours a day .... learn-ed to Fight Fires, right upended aircraFt, spot jets on the catapults, bring a plane out oF the arresting gear .... Below decks, damage control parties drilled at shoring bulkheads, rigging casualty power lines and administering emergency First aid .... Gun crews loaded, unloaded, reloaded and unloaded again until they reached a peak oF smooth wor- king eFFiciency .... Deck hands rigged For highline transFers, took cargo on at Burtoning statkons and reFueled From tankers at sea .... ln GC, the brains oF the ship, the vast network oF inFormation began to Function again and plotting boards looked Familiar covered with the cryptic signals oF the modern Task Eorce organization .... And then Air Group ILL came aboard to qualiFy. The First all weather jets landed aboard the Essex and the lonely wail oF VC-13's Banshees in the night became a Familiar sound... Success was not immediate For us. It was a slow, long road back but we did pass UTE and on November II, IQ53, our own Air Group, ATG-2, which had made the second Korean tour with us, reported aboard For duty. Only two weeks were available to integrate them as a member oF the team and during those days we were oFten plagued by bad weather and a pitching deck which made qualiFications impractical and hazardous.l,The sailing date loomed ever closer and as November passed we knew that our training days were oven T

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