Hollandia (CVE 97) - Naval Cruise Book

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ting on the beach. We had learned much about loading and unloading on our first trip out and we really were in the groove. The Fleet Ofllcers' Club looked like Madison Square Garden the night of a championship fight. Third Fleet oflicers really took over. And they deserved it, because there was hard and bitter work ahead of them. We left Manus 12 October, stopped overnight at Majuro in the Marshalls on the 17th, then went on to the Hawaiian Islands, arriving at Pearl Harbor 23 October. It was our first visit to Pearl. Naturally it was most interesting. The destruction wrought by the Jap sneak attack long since had been repaired, but skeletons of a couple of ships which had been sent to the bottom were visible. But Pearl Harbor was 10070 efficient. We remained overnight, then proceeded to North Island at San Diego, arriving on the last day of the month. Then out again with more planes and passengers on 3 November, to Pearl, Manus, Guadalcanal, and Espiritu, returning to Pearl Harbor on 9 December. ADMIRAL GINDER made his inspection on ll December, and a rigid one it was. He went over the 97 with a fine-tooth comb and he found that we were a clean and efficient ship. Sidelight of the inspection was an incident during the Admiral's review of personnel. It was a hot morning. Admiral Ginder was doing a thorough job, and that meant a slow job. Finally he came to V-3 Division. He hardly had started down the line when there was a thump on the walkway. Art Walsh had fainted and fallen from the flight deck to the hard steel of the walkway, re- ceiving a healthy--or rather unhealthy-crack on the head when he landed. He had to spend nearly a month and a half in two hospitals before returning to duty 27 january 1945. While he was at Pearl, the 97 made its first trip to Ulithi. And Ulithi is another place to which the natives are welcome. We reached Ulithi on Christmas Day 5562, If 411101 .:11. xl Q 12217 - ly Q ANC-if -...1I ' 1- -i-f ,... from Guam back to Pearl. And from Pearl to the States where we had our second availability at San Diego Repair Base. Then back out to Pearl and then to Guam, with more planes and passengers. We returned to Pearl for another stay and from 5 March to 11 March we were in the practice area several miles off Pearl, qualifying squadrons in both day and night landings and takeoffs. Capt. Lee was a master at handling landings and takeoffs, and more than 1000 landings were made on the 97's flight deck. There was one fatality when a plane crashed into the sea. Another pilot took off from the catapult without benefit of the gear when he misread a signal. He took off all by himself using only 80 feet of deck, but smart work on his part brought his TBM through unscathed, although his wheels must have brushed the water. Following these operations the HOLLANDIA again went to Manus, and from there to Ulithi. On this trip we had Marine pilots and planes aboard. After leaving Ulithi we proceeded with three other CVE's to the neighborhood of Oki- nawa. We remained approximately 120 miles south of that island with another of the CVE's while two of them proceeded to within 60 miles, where their pilots flew their planes off to land at an Okinawa airstrip. A Jap suicide plane attacked those first two CVE's but was shot down a few hundred yards from one of them. When the ships re- tired, they passed close to us and reported to Capt. Lee, who was and celebrated the day as happily as was possible in such a place. Then from Ulithi to Guam and BEE. OTC, what had happened. So when we started up, we knew

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f' Terminal Island from 29 AUgUSf fo 20 Sflatfm' SHIRT MANGLER long enough to see much. The officers were a bit more fortunate. Russ De Alvarez, Kris Kristofak, and Art Walsh bummed a ride to a hospital, MOB 8, where Russ was pretty certain he'd find at least one doctor he'd known in civilian life. He found two, and Kris found another he'd known at indoctrination school at Princeton. They proved to be good hosts. There were a few pretty nurses at the club there, but all the HOLLANDIA boys could do was look. But that was something at a place like Guadalcanal. From Guadalcanal back to Espiritu for another short stay and for more work, then back to the States. We were routed this time to Port Hueneme, up the coast a way from Los Angeles. Coming into Hueneme on 27 August we en- countered fog that really was fog. We were delayed for hours getting to our berth. But we finally made our assigned position, and again there was plenty of work unloading air- craft. But there was one good thing about our two-night stay at Hueneme. Because of a foul-up, we had received no mail after our first stop at Espiritu, and the HOLLANDIA was hungry for letters. They came-and how they came! Some men received 70 or 80 letters, some a bit less, but everyone had plenty of mail to read, some old, some new. And when you're a seagoing man, there is nothing like mail to cheer you up. It shortens the weeks and the miles, for it lets you know that the folks back home are thinking of you, are with you in spirit. From Hueneme we proceeded to Terminal Island at San Pedro for our first availability, We were at ber, and what a madhouse was the I-I0x-I.AIsIDlAl Yard workers took over completely. TINY '1PPCd and they tore. They removed this, installed that, and by the time they had finished, the 97 seemed like a new ship. They installed, Admiral's quarters, and We thought we were going to be made 21.fla85h'P' But we never did get an Admiral. They improved the flight deck, the hangar deck, the sleeping quarters of both officers and men. They prettied up the open bridge. They overhauled the engines. They did everything. It was here that the hrst leave was granted. Six days for the starboard watch, six for port. :BEFORE LEAVING San Pedro we spent two days at a cargo pier, which meant more work for all hands. Then on 21 September we were off to Manus again with more planes and passengers. We reached Manus 10 October, and what a dif- ference! On our first trip to Manus wehad seen a few ships in the harbor. Although Seabees were working like mad, the base still was in a forma- tive stage. But when we arrived the second time, the harbor was just jammed with ships of war. CV's, CVE's, battleships, cruisers both heavy and light, destroyers, transports, and tankers were everywhere. And the base itself really had grown. The Seabees had accomplished plenty. We soon found out that all those warships made up the Third Fleet and that they were about to start on a really important mission. What that mission was we didn't know at the time, but we knew it was big. As it turned out, the Third Fleet was about to steam over to the Philippines for the invasion of Leyte on 20 October. Wfe had no part in that invasion of course, but many of the planes and passengers we had carried out took an important part in the bitter fighting necessary on land and sea before Nimitz's Navy and MacArthur's Army secured that foothold which led to complete liberation of the important islands we had lost at the start of the war against japan. We were at Manus for only two days, but both officers and men were a bit more fortunate in get' fi 'i.4E-IFAWCO' 1

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I wJ f LQ? trouble might come our way. But we went up to the same area, 60 miles off the island, without mishap, fiew off our Marines in near-record time, and retired south. During our four days near Okinawa we con- tacted a number of unidentified planes by radar, and one plane sighted was believed to be a Jap Val. But no enemy plane attacked us. Still, there was plenty of fighting in progress both on and around Okinawa while we were up there, so we were in potential danger. And for that operation all personnel aboard the HOL- LANDIA and the ships with us became entitled to wear a battle star on their Pacific Theatre ribbons. We returned to Guam, then to Pearl and back to the States, where Capt. Lee turned command over to Comdr. Brown, having been given a new and important assignment as chief of staff to Commander Fleet Air Wing 18, based at Tinian. Everyone hated to lose Chink, because he had been an ideal skipper, a boss with ability and understanding. HEN A sHoRT TRIP to Pearl, with jim Leslie filling in as Exec. At Pearl our new perma- nent Executive Officer reported aboard--Comdr. Charles Eastman, USN. Comdr. Eastman, born in Winchester, Indiana, 24 August 1914, was grad- uated from St. johns College, Annapolis, Mary- land, in the class of 1934. Entering the Navy, he completed flight training at Pensacola and was assigned to patrol bomber duty in Panama, followed by two years in fighters aboard the old Warp. During this period, on 28 Decem. ber 1940, he married May Shipley of Savage, Maryland. They have one child, Ellen Elizabeth fcalled judyj, now two years old, After lm duty on the Warp, Comdr. Eastman spent two fx.