Hollandia (CVE 97) - Naval Cruise Book

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THIS SUPPLY DEPARTMENT had the first taste of heavy labor. Lieut. Nichols reported to Astoria as Supply Officer, aided by Lt. Qjgj Otis Brown as Disbursing Officer, Lt. fjgj Bill Rees, and Chief Pay Clerk Dave Davis. These officers found plenty of work awaiting them. Checking, sorting, and verifying kept them busy for I' ,I if I Q' o ., 5 ,125 9.0, lt' f..t ,' . nx:,o.,',4 some time. Then came the -x o . 'EX' loading of stores and gear. Chief Storekeeper Pauly and -3 Chief Commissary Steward as 7 Homer and a large contin- sg I gent of storekeepers and i.., ll ship's cooks all pitched in. H, The material was carried aboard, allotted to the proper 1 E de artments, and laced in i th? storerooms-End there are plenty of storerooms aboard a CVE. All this was done with a minimum of con- fusion, and at last the men were able to sit back for a while and relax. Or so they thought. But the work didn't end there. It never ended. Supply had the all-important job of handling the groceries. This was a :B14,000-a- month business. Ask any of the many passengers carried on Old 97 about the food. The HOLLANDIA ate as well as any ship in the Navy, and better than most. Another tough job was handling that payroll. Disbursing a monthly total of 3B100,000 is no child's play. Add to that the monthly clothing business of 33500, and the post office funds. It was a real job. But nobody was ever short- changed, and nobody ever had to wander around ship with no shoes. Credit for that goes in large part to Otis Brown. Probably the most difficult, if least colorful, job in the department was estimating require- ments and maintaining sufficient stocks of avia- tion material and general stores at all times. Items handled ranged all the way from a com- mon pin to an airplane wing. Not only should this material be aboard when needed, it should be aboard before the actual need is known to exist. Administering this deal required all the knowledge of an A-1 crystal gazer. Bill Rees and his storekeepers qualified 100 per cent. The Supply Department also ran the laundry. Phil Cheney swears they had one machine de- signed for the sole purpose of turning black socks green, and O.K. johnson claims the laun- dry was guaranteed to tear the sleeves of all shirts, shrink clothing beyond all recognition, and mash each and every button-but the com- plaints were few and far between. The laundry did a fine job. Then there were the tailor shop, cobbler shop, Coca-Cola and ice cream bar, two barber shops, and a store which sold anything from a Tootsie Roll to uniform equipment for officers and men. Dave Davis ran all these establishments. He ran them well. THE AIR DEPARTMENT also had its work cut out. The HOLLANDIA had no squadron, to be sure, but there were plenty of planes aboard throughout its life at sea. And planes mean work for the the Air Department. Ask Ja. any of the men who had to remain aboard to load or un- load planes while more for- tunate shipmates were enjoy- ing liberty. .95 There are three Air De- - partment divisions, V-1, V-2, L ,Y and V-5. V-1 was the flight W j ' if deck gang. Lieut. Ted Hele- ' Q f l X VQJ otes was in charge there until sent to another ship, when he was suc- ceeded by Lt. Qjgj Win Hodge. Their men handled catapult and arresting gear and the planes which landed or took off. There were many landings and takeoffs. We qualified squad- rons in the States and at Pearl Harbor. We flew off those Marines to Okinawa. We flew off planes to Halseyis Task Force and took aboard many of his flyable duds for transportation back to Guam. That all meant work for V-1, and for tri-lltffii-lgilili

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OLD 9 7M THE STORY OF THE U.S.S. HOLLANDIA BY LIEUT. ARTHUR C. WALSH , ILLUSTRATED BY LT. CDR. PHILIP L. CHENEY HIS is THE STORY of Old 97, U.S.S. HOLLANDIA QCVE 975, its ofiicers and men, and its work as a wartime ship of the U. S. Navy. It is not a tale of a glamour ship. The HOLLANDIA made no headlines, yet it did all-important work, work that made it pos- sible for others to make Page One, as they drove the enemy back and back and finally to complete defeat. We carried planes and fighting men to the Far Pacific. We flew off Marine pilots to Okinawa airstrips. We replenished Admiral Halsey's big carriers for those last big strikes at Honshu. We did much we will want to remem- ber in years to come. It is hoped that this book will help keep those things fresh in our minds. It all started 18 June 1942, when the 97 was authorized to be built by Kaiser Co., Inc., Van- couver, Washington, under direction of the United States Maritime Commission. The keel was laid 12 February 1944, the ship was launched 28 April of that year. Sponsor was Mrs. W. H. Wheat, widow of a one-time Illinois congressman, who smashed a bottle of champagne Qdomesticj across the bow and christened the ship U.S.S. A.rir0labe Bay. But the Navy changed its mind, as often it does. So on 51 May the name was changed to U.S.S. HOLLANDIA, for the Battle of Hollandia Air Base, New Guinea, which had been fought 22 and 23 April. The following day, 1 june 1944, she was commissioned at Astoria, Oregon, with Captain Charles Loomis Lee, USN, taking command. Commander john Thompson Brown, USN, posted the first watch as executive ofiicer. U.S.S. HOLLANDIA was a Navy ship. Captain Lee, a native of Swissvale, Pa., was graduated from the Naval Academy in 1924, took his Hight training at Pensacola in the class of 1926. He served aboard U.S.S. Lexington, U.S.S. Portlfmd, U.S.S. Alifex, U.S.S. Honolzzlu, U.S.S. Ranger, and U.S.S. Charger before taking command of U.S.S. W0!ve1'i1ze in 1943. From the Wolverine he came to Old 97. Chink married Thelma Collins in 1927. They have one child, Charles Loomis Lee, jr., now 13 years old. Commander Brown is a native of Virginia. He was graduated from the Naval Academy in 1927 and received his wings at Pensacola three years later. He had a tour of duty in cruiser aviation and six tours of carrier duty before re- porting to the HOLLANDIA from U.S.S. Kalinifz Bay, CVE 68. He was married to Cary Hanckel of Norfolk, Va., in 1929. QUR WORK had started long before commis- sioning and it continued with no abating. Organization of departments started at the CVE Pre-Commissioning School at Bremerton, Wash- ington, weeks before commissioning. Officers came along in driblets as the weeks passed, and before long there was a large group of HOLLANDIA officers mustering each morning, then dispersing to enjoy the country club life of the Seattle area. But when our enlisted personnel arrived, the play ended and the work started. Men were interviewed by officers and placed in the depart- ments in which they would be of most value. There was very little departmental work done until we boarded ship, but the organization task wasn't easy and kept everyone well occupied. ff yin l

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all the other Air Department personnel as well. Of course the men had to learn most of this at sea, during actual operations. But they re- ceived their first taste of loading aircraft at San Diego before the first trip out. Chief Carrington was the big man. He had served aboard CV's and really knew his stuff. Truly an expert at loading and spotting planes, he could fit a TBM into a spot hardly big enough for a bicycle. His strident voice made the men hop to it. They beefed of coursegwhat would the Navy be without plenty of beefs ?-but they got the work done. Before long they were setting records in loading and unloading aircraft. Plane pushers and the men who worked on the barges which brought the planes to the ship in many ports-they all worked hard and well. Those barges had a wicked way of hopping around on the waves, but the men took it, and fixed slings and hooked the planes to the boom day and night during the loading and unloading operations. Lieut. George Rumsfeld's V-2 gang ran the hangar deck-and a hangar deck was something some of the men had only read about until they boarded the 97. That deck always was a busy place, planes or no planes. Bombs and tanks were stowed there. Gear was stowed in the ele- vator pits. And there were the elevators them- selves. If rain came and the elevators were not raised promptly, it meant water in the pits and on the hangar deck. V-2 boys spent plenty of time swabbing up rainwater. And when there were planes aboard, Rumsfeld and his gang had to check constantly to see that all were well lashed down, that no one had tampered with them. George's leading petty officer, Rood, was a valuable man to have around the hangar deck. And the rest of the boys pitched in also. They learned fast and they learned well. V-3 Division completed the Air Department. Lieut. Vance Alexander, our fighter director, was division officer. His specialty was radar, but he had to see that all was well in aerology and photography. He did a swell job until finally he was handed some of that lovely stateside duty and was succeeded by Lieut. Bill Lewis, who carried on without a break. All the radar boys had received good training -the officers at St. Simons, the men at Point Loma, San Clemente or aboard the Camblazmz. But they didn't really learn what radar was all about until they put to sea and ran into the actual situations they'd studied in almost exclu- sively synthetic form. At sea they learned what a pip looked like, what it meant, how to get a course and speed on an air or surface target quickly and accurately, how to determine how close it would pass to the 97, and when. They also learned that theyid be deeply concerned with navigation, that every time the HOLLANDIA drew close to land they'd hear from the Navigator. ln addition to Alexander and Lewis, radar had Lieut. Art Walsh, Lt. fjgj Lou Darscheid, Lt. Jim Caufield, Lt. joe Turke, and Lt. Qjgj Bob Holden as officers, with Lieut. Dave Thornton also pitching in now and then. Caufield and Turke were maintenance officers. They did a thoroughly capable job keeping the gear in operation. And they had an excellent man in Chief Poole, who knew his radars from A to Z. Fellows like Moyer, Allen, Kostowski, Lord, Lacy, Brandmeyer, Curry and Bafus-and all the rest-kept radar operating at a high peak throughout. Frank Arsenault, a warrant, broke in the aero- logy gang, with their daily forecast. They never missed. They sent up their balloons to see what the wind was doing and why. They sent them up for firing practice. When Arsenault went to another post, Sleeves Thornton replaced him. He's one of the best men anywhere in the Navy. Chief Craig organized photography and carried on well with three assistants. But when he was sent to another ship, two of the others also were transferred, leaving Leigh Klotz to handle the job alone. Klotz was kept busy, but he didn't learn what the LTOLLANDIA photography job could be until it was decided to publish this book. Then Klotz went to work. He took pic- tures of everything. He worked day and night, 9