Isherwood (DD 520) - Naval Cruise Book

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of the scars of that disastrous attack had long since henlod, and it was a beautiful palm- studded paradise that our eyes were treated to. Liberty at Pearl was also an event, for al- though the prices were high, there were surf boards at Waikiki Beach, tours of the island, palatial hotels, and the city of Honolulu, all to be seen and enjoyed. Our stay was both memorable and pleasant. But this was only the first leg of the trip, and on the eighteenth of January we departed from Pear! Harbor, bound for Midway Island where, ar stay for fuel and a look at the fan. Birds, we set sail for Yokosuka, Japv ;.. Weather-wise, this part of the cruise was by far the roughest. Even ,the old salts, veteran of many a Far Eastern cruise, had never seen the Pacific so rough for such a great length of time. It seemed that as soon as we forced our way through one gale, we were severely battered by another. Much of the time it was unsafe to walk on the main deck, and during the height of one storm, the ship, because of a ten degree list imposed by the wind and the sea, was subjected to rolls of up to fifty-five degrees to starboard. We didn ' t dip our stacks but we came damned close to it! Undaunted, the sturdy Ish battered her way through each succeeding gale, and on the twenty-seventh of January, carrying a somewhat more sea- soned as well as hungry crew, she limped into the Port of Yokosuka. During this part of the trip we had heard rumors of Chinese Communist activity in and around the Tachen Islands. What part we of the Ish were to play in that area was soon to unfold, for on the thirty-first of January we departed Yokosuka enroute to join Task Force 77, a fast carrier attack force whose apparent purpose was the defense, if need be, of the Nationalist evacuation from the Tachens. Dur- ing the crucial days that followed, we soon discovered what a Condition III watch was, and we shan ' t soon forget the urgent clangor of the General Alarm at 2200. All of this we learned after we had stood Plane Guard and were sent out on solitary patrol. For some thir-

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FAR EAST CRUISE 4 JANUARY 1955 — 19 JUNE 1955 Call me Ishmael. So commences another great saga of the Sea, but we, the crew of the Isherwood, did not have a captain named Ahab, nor were we in search of a white whale. However, on 4 January 1955 after an unevent- ful trip from Newport, Rhode Island, through the Panama Canal, and on up to San Diego, the U.S.S. ISHERWOOD DD-520 set sail for Far Eastern waters. Prior to this time, the Ish, which was based on the East Coast and operated under the aus- pices of COMDESLANT, had made several cruises to the Mediterranean. Then, after suc- cessful completion of a training cruise to GTmo Bay, Cuba, it was announced that the Isher- wood along with some thirty other ships of the Atlantic Fleet, was to be transferred to the West Coast. Actually, the West Coast was no stranger to the Isherwood, for during World War II she was based at Long Beach, Cali- fornia, and saw continuous action in the South Pacific. At the end of World War II, the Isher- wood was de-commissioned, put into moth- balls, and along with a good many of her sister ships was seemingly doomed to a plasti- cized death. However, with the outbreak of the Korean War the services of the Ish were again required. After spending Christmas away from home, most of us envisioned a Far Eastern cruise as something of a picnic, but at that time if we had been able to foresee the future I ' m sure our departure would have been a bit more solemn. Notwithstanding, we departed San Diego for Hawaii and points east, our spirits and hearts somewhat quickened by the play- ing of Anchors Aweigh. We were off on the first log of our very long journey. Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 10 January 1955, the Isherwood steamed down Battleship Row, past the sunken hulk of the Arizona, and on up to the pier. It was almost impossible to conjecture that here, some fourteen years ago, our country suffered the greatest defeat of its history. With the exception of the Arizona, all 15

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teen days we played watchdog for the main part of the Task Force acting as radar picket, alert to pick up signs of a Communist air at- tack or any other suspicious activity. In this period of time we had many scares and many alarms which were, fortunat ely, all false. Needless to say, word of the successful evac- uation was more than welcome, and shortly thereafter, our lonely vigil was terminated. We now headed toward Subic Bay, for tender availability, and what was more important, for Liberty and much needed recreation. There was also Alongapo — enough said. 28 February 1955, our ship cleaned and re- painted, ourselves exhausted yet refreshed, we head for Manila after taking on provisions. En- route we operate with a couple of carriers, and again try our hand at plane guarding, much to the dismay of the deck force. During this operation Cogswell loses a man over the side. It is early evening; the sun has not quite set. We should find him easily. We don ' t. The whole task force searches endlessly. Small boats and searchlights criss cross, methodic- ally scanning the area. It is now late at night; most have given up hope, but still we search. A man is out there in the water, and he is alone as one of us might be. We search until morning. We find nothing. Manila Harbor, still littered with the broken hulks of World War II derelicts, stands somno- lently in the early morning haze. Here in Ma- nila, which is only now being fully rebuilt, stands a monument to World War II, the Walled City, a place of memory, of concen- tration camps, of bitter defiance, and of suf- fering and death. But these are past memories, and ones that are not fully shared by most of the crew, so we visit the Hot Spots , take tours, get slightly drunk, but in general behave ourselves well. For those of us that took the tours a more realistic picture of the city was perhaps af- forded, with visits to bombed out cathedrals, the colleges and universities, the President ' s Palace, the Walled City, and other points of interest. For the two days that we were there.