Hamlin (AV 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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yr E l i I i1 ll 1 I ll 'l i '1 ,1 .z1a,1..:1 E.: f. -:Il1rf:2fanrv- fln2315'?iZ'Jx J? f. it 5 si P! is 1 . rs: if E5 if -5 fd 'll -s L1 r 1 - lic ,w 5 u 'si 1. if r 1 it .-1 J 4 1 it '11 ir F K, Q. r H V ,1 4 i f 1 1 1 r CMDR. WILLIAM G. MCKEEL, USNR Squadron Commander of Patrol Bombing Here is Commander ivicKeeI our Executive Officer. All the internal business of the ship came under him. His office kept rec- ords of every man on board, handled the liberty-if and when, got out the plan of the day and scheduled the drills. These same drills which at first wore us out later made us good Navy men. With us from the beginning, the Commander has done much to make thegship what she is. Squadron 208 during their stay aboard the HAMLIN. Respected and admired by men of bcth plane crews and ship, he has work- ed to make the once untried squadron an efficient, fighting air-group. Through their combined skill, he and his men have shown the Martin Mariner to be a versatile weapon beyond the scope of mere search-recon- naissance. We are proud to have served with such a man. CMDR. ANTON J. SINTIC, USNR Chaplain Samuel Hill Ray who is father LT. CMDR. SAMUEL H. RAY, USNR and confessor, advisor and shipmate, but most of all a friend, wanted every man to be happy, to be comfortable and to be a better man today than he was yesterday. To sailors in trouble, in sin, in doubt, or intemperate, the Navy has an answer: See your Chaplain. IIEAII c11fIIEPiIIi'I'M LT. CMDR. CONNOR LT. BREDEHOFT LT. ROACH Supply Communications Medical LT. STIEFVATER LT. KELSEY LT. figl KENNEDY ist Lieutenant Gunnery Navigation LT. iigi BOOKER LT. CMDR. LEWIS iinsetl Engineering Air This Book was published under the direction of CAPTAIN G. A. McLEAN, usN Commanding Officer '- Editor ENSIGN J. P. LeBLANC, USNR Assisted by R. A. BURKE SF Ifc, USNR W. N. BECK AOM 2fc, USNR 1 E. D. DAVIS S Ifc, usNR ART DEPARTMENT , L. D. HUFFAKER AMM 2fc, USNR H. .I. STAPLETON S Ifc, USNR PHOTOGRAPHERS l J. F. DONOVAN PhoM ifc, USNR W. W. LANIER AMM 3fc, USN F. W. MUNKNER PhoM 2fc, USNR IINTRIIIIUCTIUN This is the story of a ship and the men who sailed her, a history created by their travel across the flak-ceilinged Pacific during the greatest conflict the world has ever seen. Here in is their tale, of far-flung islands, of exotic peoples, of actions engaged in and of vast ocean expanses. It is proper and fitting that this book should' be dedicated to the USS HAMLIN and her fighting crew, for had they not been, neither would this. ' Page 4

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THEY THAT OO DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS AND OC- CUPY THEIR BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS, THESE MEN SEE THE WORKS OF THE LORD AND HIS WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ,..x , ,. ,W ,,,, N ........,,..+i-.w..--M.A,.- V

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nit coil llllSSlllllllllll Prior to l944, patrol seaplane operations consisted usually of anti-submarine and search-reconnaissance flights from shore based tending activities, at a considerable distance from the forward areas. The increased tempo of the Pacific war, coupled with the rapid advance of our forces into enemy territory, created a great need for the patrol seaplane in the immediate vicinity of maior invasive actions, before land bases could be established. Only a tender-patrol plane combination should fill such needs. lt was to meet the resulting demand for sea- plane tenders that the U.S.S. HAMLIN was commissioned. llllMMISSlllNllllll. The days of training, the man-power hours of labor, the tons of steel for construction, the weeks of planned organ- ization, all were behind, both in memory and in activity, for the day of trial had arrived. lt was at the Todd Pacific Shipyards in Tacoma, Washington, on the twenty- sixth of June, nineteen hundred and forty-four that this ship was officially granted the privilege of bearing the name HAMLIN, and so christened. The locale was but a minor incidental to the crew which was to man this ship, for their minds were yet turgid with details of the vigorous program of loading and indoctrination which had been inaugurated. No man would have dared conjecture that a ship could hold so much materials of war, so many supplies, or be loaded in so little time. Ton after ton of spare parts, boxes of Title B, crated bombs and truckloads of ammunition were winched into gaping hatches to stowage below. And then the men, the all important crew, under the Commanding Officer, took charge of the l-lAlVlLlN, to link the life of men and ship for the remainder of the war. There were rugged days ahead, time in which to settle into the routine of shipboard life, time in which to test every limit or capability of this vessel of steel, and time in which to test the men who would fight the ship. Shake- down, with its speed runs, endurance trials, maneuver- ability check and hours of drills. General Quarters, Fire, Collision, Stream Paravanes-it was all work and sweat. There were days of pleasant pastimes too, of liberty in Tacoma, Bremerton or 'Frisco, and the Commissioning Dance for all hands and their friends. Yes, June 26 was a big day. There were to be many big days in store for this ship and her crew, and the sixteenth of August was one of them. On this, the fifty- first day after Commissioning, the HAMLIN turned her stern toward San Pedro and set course for Pearl Harbor. The shakedown before was like the first, experimental drops of rain preceding a deluge, for now, error in iudg- ment, unpreparedness or malfunctioning of equipment would be measured in terms of material, of men and of final Victory. L. 2532 4' 5 if ' X 'i' v I X. With seaplane tending the primary reason for the exist- ence of our ship, the Air Department, of necessity, is the core of the ship's organization, about which all other departments are coordinated. The activities which main- tain the planes, schedule flights, control the seadrome and plot the weather are directly supervised by the Air De- partment. As composite groups within this outfit are the V and V-2 Divisions, differing in the type of work attended to but each a part of an efficient aviation team. The V Division claims to have more varied duties than any other division aboard, with divisional rates of Aviation Metalsmiths, Meachnics, Ordnancemen and Radiomen, Photographers, Aerologists, Yecmen, Shipfitters and Boatswains Mates. The important function of the Division in the care and maintenance of the gasoline pumping system. With 400,000 gallons of high-octane aviation gas in our tanks and daily topping off of squadron planes, this function carries a grave responsi- bility. lvlany tasks of lesser responsibility but still important fill the day of operation. Each new base estab- lished required the laying of seaplane buoys and seadrome lights. The seaplane crane, in constant use, demanded cleaning and painting. Photographers were kept busy in and out of the photo lab, with thousands of shipboard and aerial photographs iust waiting to be snapped. Fur- nishing both ship and squadron with advance information on the weather, the aerological group played a singularly essential role in this plane tending activity. The success of bombing and search missions, and the safe return of many planes was often entirely dependent on these weather forecasts. To keep the flying boats of the squadron armed and operating is the first task of the V-2 Division. The Patsu, as they are commonly called, is divided into four units: engineering, radio-radar, ordnance and adminstra- tion. Engineering concerns itself chiefly with the flying ability of the planes, including engine maintenance, metal Page 5 repair, instrument checking and the thousand and one incidentals so important to safe aviating. The men in radio-radar and the ordnancemen are specialists, trained for specific iobs. They must be qualified, for the lives of others depend on their work and iudgment. vi . lllifi V GUQ RY 6 f , The primary purpose of the gunnery department is to provide for external defense and protection of the ship. On this type of ship from which Patrol Bombers are dis- patched on offensive strikes, the department also furnishes the implements for such action: The bombs, depth charges, incendiary clusters, torpedoes and machine gun ammuni- tion. Our record in fulfilling these requirements can be learned by reading the ship's log covering the lwo Jima, Karama Rhetto and Okinawa operations, where our de- fensive strength was many times tested in actual combat. To carry out more efficiently the varied duties of Ord- nance and Gunnery, the department is divided into five major sub-departments, with qualified officers and enlisted men in charge. These five groups, coordinated into an organized unit, are as follows: ill Ship's guns, l2l Tor- pedoes, C3l Aviation Ordnance, l4l Fire Control, and l5l Special Ordnance. The ship's guns on this vessel, as on the maiority of non-combatant ships, are primarily anti-aircraft weapons. There are long range 5 f38 dual-purpose guns, 4OlVlM twin and quad mounts for intermediate ranges and QOMM machine guns for the planes which get in close. The proiectiles from each of these contain explosives and de- tonate either upon impact or by time fuse. These are capable of inflicting heavy damage on the comparatively fragile construction of aircraft as well as serving effectively against lightly armored surface vessels. Perhaps you cannot visualize a Flying Boat carrying torpedoes, but it has been done. Our Torpedo gang, handling, overhauling and cursing torpedoes can testify to that fact. Consider their superhuman efforts in doing