Foote (DD 511) - Naval Cruise Book

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A Third oT The crew sTarTed oTT Tor Their ThirTy days immediaTely and pracTically all The resT wenT ashore as one man Tor Their TirsT sTaTeside liberTy in nearly a year. There's no poinT in going inTo deTail abouT The liberTies ThaT were made and The hell ThaT was raised. ExcepT Tor a Tew highlighTs, They are memorable in anyone's book. We sTayed in San Pedro Tor Tour monThs unTil The beginning oT July when we wenT To sea again on a Trial run. The old Tub perTormed like clockwork, much To The disappoinTmenT oT many oT us, who had hoped There would be someThing wrong wiTh her, since Los Angeles was abouT as nice a spoT To TighT The war in as any we could Think oT. We wenT down To San Diego Tor a shorT while Tor Training exercises and as Tar as any oT us knew we were To shove of-T Tor Pearl l-larbor wiThin a week. All oT a sudden we Tound ourselves in San Francisco Bay wiTh several monThs oT Training duTy sTreTching beTore us. l shouldn'T say sTreTch really. DuTy like ThaT doesn'T sTreTch, iT shrinks. A Third oT The regular crew was Taken oTT and billeTed on Treasure lsland and once a week a hundred new recruiTs were broughT aboard and shown The workings oT a desTroyer in acTual operaTion. Twice a week we sTeamed down To San ClemenTe lsland and 'back wiTh anTi- aircraTT pracTice and surTace Tiring on each run. ThaT lasTed well inTo The monTh oT OcTober. On OcTober 24Th, l944 we sTeamed under Golden GaTe and headed once more Tor overseas. We were lucky, because The resT oT The l.lTTl.E BEAVER SQUADRONH had liTTle more Than a monTh in The UniTed STaTes and we had had nearly eighT. Luck or no luck, Though, iT was sure Tough To be going under The Golden GaTe bridge Tor The lasT Time. We arrived in Pearl l-larbor in The early days oT November I944, and according'To The word ThaT was circulaTing around The ship we were To sTay There Tor aT leasT Two weeks or possibly a monTh. The very nighT aTTer our arrival we were ordered alongside agdock To Take on high-prioriTy supplies To be TransporTed im- mediaTely To UliThi 'Caroline lslands. UliThi'? Where The hell was UliThi. l-'lad we cap- Tured iT yeT or did The .laps sTill hold iT. We dragged ouT every available map and abouT one in Ten had The Carolines lisTed. We goT underway nexT morning aT TwenTy- Tive knoTs and Toamed our way Toward EniweTok, Marshall lslands. which was To be our TirsT Tueling sTop. From There we wenT direcTly To UIiThi. We sTayed aT UliThi AToll long enough To geT some idea oT whaT The .laps would be up againsT when They ran head on inTo The FlFTl-l FLEET. There were ships all over The place as Tar as The eye could see. lT was sure a big change Trom The handTul oT ships ThaT had ToughT in The Solomons Campaign. From UliThi we moved on To Kossol Roads, Palau lslands, and The dope was ThaT we were To ioin up wiTh one oT The carrier Task Torces ThaT was Turnishing air cover Tor The LeyTe landings. We lay around waiTing Tor several days wiThin sighT oT The largesT Jap sTronghold in The Palaus. BabelThaup. IT was said ThaT There were sTill several Thousand acTive Japs on The island. The Japs ThaT were sTill on This island had developed The Trick oT swimming ouT To our vessels in The dead oT nighT and blowing Themselves up againsT The sides I6

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moving, and so he did. We all TelT like ThaT. When a snopper plane came overhead, we Tired on him, no one Topside knew we were going To open Tire because we ThoughT The acTion had IeTT us behind. ThaT's The sTuTT oT which grey hairs are made. The Tollowing dawn our Task Torce came back over The horizon. The USS TI-IAT- CI-IER passed us a Tow line and began To Tow us aT Tive knoTs buT iusT as The Tow line was secured 60 enemy planes appeared and passed overhead going direcTIy Tor The cruisers. They never even Tipped a wing in our direcTion buT There were a number oT TervenT prayers said while our TaTe hung on The Tip oT some Jap airwing Com- mander's Tongue. The cruisers drove The planes oTT and abouT ThaT Time a beaTuiTuI IiTTIe TIeeT Tug, The USS SIOUX, arrived To Tow us back To PorT Purvis. IT may be only a Ii+Tle rusT-buckeT To some, buT ThaT morning The Queen Mary couldn'T have looked any beTTer. We arrived in PorT Purvis a Tew days laTer and sTayed a monTh alongside The USS WHITNEY geTTing paTched up well enough To make The Trip Trom There To EspiriTu Tor Tinal repairs beTore reTurning To The UniTed STaTes. We had no screws, we had no rudder, all oT The aTTer TwenTies and The depTh charges were gone and gun :l:l:5 was iammed in Train, everyThing up To The base oT gun :l:l:5 was a ToTaI loss and The resT oT The ship was buckled like a model T chassis. On November 28Th I943 we sTarTed Tor EspiriTu escorTed by The USS SELF- RIDGE who had had everyThing blown oTT Torward oT The bridge in a running baTTle wiTh some Jap desTroyers. ThaT was on odd sighT, an auxiliary Tug Towing us and a crippled desTroyer escorTing us. We sTayed in The New I-Iebrides unTil January 2OTh when we were suTTicienTIy paTched up To reTurn To The UniTed STaTes behind a I9I9 Tanker, The S.S. GULF STAR. The BOBOLINK IATO I3II, which had Towed us Trom PorT Purvis, was To be hiTched asTern oT us and used as a rudder. We moved along aT a speed ThaT varied Trom 3 To 6 knoTs unTil we ran inTo rough weaTher, The Tail end oT a hurricane, and snapped our rusTy Tow cable. We rolled around helplessly Tor Three days while The crew caughT sharks Trom The quarTerdeck and beaT Them on The head wiTh chipping hammers. We were Towed To Pago-Pago, TuTuiIa, American Samoa, To awaiT The arrival oT a new Tow cable and The boys goT The TirsT look aT reasonably civilized womanhood. We conTinued our journey on February 4Th I944 and arrived in San Pedro CaIiTornia on March 4Th I944. There sTarTed The greaT days. lmmediaTely upon arrival in San Pedro we were puT inTo drydock. By The Time The ship was well inTo The dock The TirsT liberTy parTy was sTraining aT The leash. The dock Toreman called over and Told The G.Q.D. ThaT he'd have The gangway over in abouT Two hours, iusT as soon as The keel seTTIed on The blocks. By ThaT Time The whole bunch scheduled To sTarT on leave was sTanding on The TorecasTIe shiTTing Trom one TooT To The oTher. The execuTive oTTicer, LT. Comdr. M. S. Schmidling, came ouT and yelled over To The Toreman, I'II give you Ten minuTes To geT ThaT goddam plank over here Tor These boys or I'm going To know The reason why! I 5

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or occasionally boarding a vessel wifh a low freeboard and frying fo carry off supplies or slhf a few fhroafs. Accordingly. a number of fhe boys were insfrucfed in fhe use Q l fi fornmy gun and posfed fore and aff as senfries. Nofhing ever happened . . . lusf like if never does when you're all ready for if. A few days lafer we sailed off fo rendezvous wifh several carriers off Mindanao. We escorfed fhem for a couple of weeks and several fimes were affacked by small formafions of enemy planes. Affer a few weeks we puf in fo lvlanus Island in fhe Admiralfy Group. A If was here fhaf we gof our firsf look af ships fhaf fhe Jap's Kamikaze flyers had plowed. The AULICK had faken fwo of fhem. The CLAXTON was also fhere wifh a couple of shell holes in her. Bofh ships were members of our squadron. While we were fhere in lvlanus some of us wenf ashore for recreafion. Recreafion consisfed of a fwo hour boaf ride, a couple of boffles of beer, a hof sun, and plenfy of sand. Lafe in November we moved up fo Leyfe. A couple days prior fo our arrival fhe air raids had been numerous and fierce, buf affer we arrived fhey suddenly slacked off and excepf for an occasional Bogey if was quief mosf of fhe fime. Abouf fhe middle of December we escorfed fhe firsf resupply fo Mindoro. The landing ifself had been a snap and fhe damage fo fhe fleef had been very lighf buf affer we had been on our way for abouf fhree days we sfarfed fo gef Bogies quife frequenfly. Af firsf fhey were iusf single spoffer planes. An occasional lighf bomber would sneak in over fhe wafer and drop a few bombs info fhe convoy buf we suffered no damage af all unfil fhe evening of December 2l, when we wenf fo general quarfers in earnesf. Fiffeen planes affacked fhe formafion and fhree of fhem headed for fhe FOOTE. All were suicide planes. They iusf kepf boring in. The five inch guns opened fire and fhen fhe forfies, and fhen fhe fwenfies, and fhen fhere was a wrenching and crunch of an explosion and fhe OLD FOOTE liffed her fail ouf of fhe wafer and shook herself all over like a wef dog. l'lif sure as hell! Buf we weren'f hif we were iusf shaken up preffy badly. Thaf plane was a Jap Toio and fhe official reporf sfafed fhaf he crashed fen lIOl yards off fhe porf beam. Af fhe same fime a second plane came up fhe sfarboard side and fried fo crash info our bow buf fhe capfain gave fhe com- mand Hard leff rudder and fhe plane exploded in fhe wafer a bare hundred' feef away showering fhe decks wifh pieces of fuselage. The fhird plane came direcfly over- head buf changed his mind and decided fo affack fhe convoy. According fo several eye-wifnesses he was hif and smoking when he furned away from us. We suffered no permanenf damage buf power was ouf fhroughouf fhe ship for several minufes. Two of fhe LST's llarge slow fargefsl in fhe convoy were damaged and sunk. There were a number of cifafions given for performance of dufy in fhis acfion all of which will be lisfed in ofher porfions of fhis book. We picked up fwo of fhe survivors from fhe LST's. One we fook aboard from a merchanf ship affer fhey had picked him up, fhe ofher we picked up ourselves iusf as if was geffing foo dark fo see. Thaf boy was preffy badly burned buf was fhankful fo be alive. Anofher few minufes and if would have been so dark fhaf we would have missed him complefely. I 7