LST (925) - Naval Cruise Book

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We added thirteen officers and twen- ty-eight enlisted men to our passen- ger group so Gallisath had to break out more paint Scrapers- twenty- eight more. And we almost had three OOD's, but the battleship Iowa com- plained saying they were not to be outdone by any LST afloat, and they had only two! September 22 Without any fanfare we left the good old USA and headed for Pearl Harbor. LST 580, LST' 68l and five YMS's accompanied us this time. As usual, we were the caboose. just out- side Pearl we knocked down our first sleeve. Every gunner on the ship con- gratulated himself. Those twin-forty's were starting to look pretty good by now, but they certainly could not im- prove too much. October 2 This morning we rounded the great fortress of Diamond Head and after passing through the nets at the en- trance to Pearl Harbor we headed into West Loch. A road hog got in our way and as a result we picked out a rusty looking black bell buoy and ran over it-just for fun. Almost made our first unofficial beaching but with the aid of Ensign Langer's small boat brigade and seven P. A. systems we finally did get tied up. Here we were, out in the middle of nowhere with the remains of seven burned out LST's for company. And we were headed out! What a feeling! T. I. Bell, Rogers, Hutchinson, Golden, Gray, Graham, Hurst, Huston, H. T. Smith, Mr. Molloy, Mr. White, Spencer, Alm and Gordon came aboard to help us man all of those-extra guns we were going to acquire. We swapped LCT's and got a whole one in the trade. It was sure a nice place to sack off. Coatney became thoroughly disgust- ed at the lack of Hula Girls. A strange cargo was put aboard. It was almost as dangerous as aviation gasoline, but NOT QUITE as explosive. No- body seemed worried. October 17 Leaving Pearl Harbor meant doing things in a big way and taking things really seriously for the first time. We were part of a group of nine LST's, five LSM's, and three YMS's. The Russel Islands were our destination, and they were NOT in the REAR areas. We experienced plenty of tac- tical maneuvers, had numerous fire drills, general quarters, and abandon ship drills, and that port booby hatch burned up two or three times. Might as well cut that thing off, it's just a fire, hazard anyway. October 25 Mid flashing lightning and clash- ing thunder Neptunus Rex came aboard in all his stately pomp, es- corted by his royal subjects. The old boy dealt pretty harshly with a large gathering of lowly pollywogs, and although physical damage was held to a minimum, Mr. Ullrich's pride was thoroughly trampled, and those cute lace panties did something to Gallo- way. The trip would not have been complete without a fancy battle prob- lem in which everybody got killed, but unfortunately it didn't last quite long enough and we had to ring GQ again in order to let the Chief make necessary repairs. Mr. White almost created a problem of his own. October 29 ' We arrived at Renard Sound in the Russel Islands today and beach- ed on Blue Beach. Prestwood said that the beach didn't look blue at all, but just like a lot of others. This place certainly did not compare in any way to Park Avenue, and all those beautiful South Sea Island babes we had been waiting to see were defi- nitely missing. The Marines had the situation well in hand, but cigarettes, beer, or meat would buy anything. Graddy was the first man to make a serious bid for state-side duty. He dropped a hatch cover on his head. His request was denied and Brown repaired the hatch.

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somewhere, so they went. Hagadone, Tomasso, and Nunziato came aboard. Tomorrow we would go alongside the 1028 for the first time. Our week in the Navy Yard brought the usual routine repairs and alterations, and everybody made a concerted effort to have a pretty good time. Schneider ran into a couple of boys who became such good friends of his that they came all the way back to the ship with him, but they didn't stay long. Tut! Tut! August 11 y We headed out for a run up to New York today-most of us, that is. Cun- ningham was having such a good time in New York that he didn't get back to Norfolk in time to go back to New York with us. 1-le was a little surprised about the whole affair. August 15 Three days ago we tied up at Pier 51, North River, and so far there have been no casualties. Moyer, McBee, Prestwood,XGi1bertson and Beverly reported aboard today. Cunningham came back to see how we were mak- ing out and decided to stay. Two hundred and ten dozen eggs were brought aboard. Most of us only got to work over one hundred and five dozen, as those things are divided on the fifty-fifty basis, you know, fifty for me and fifty for you all. Once again the fire alarm had to be accom- panied by the No Drill announce- ment over the P. A. Schmidt had to put bac kthe rescue breather. Picked up about ninety airdales today, and tomorrow the LCT crews will come aboard. More deck scrap- ers will have to be broken out. August 20 1 Yesterday we sailed in convoy for, the first time and had our difficulties maintaining station. GQ morning and evening! Zeiss still isn't convinced that da Bums is no longa de Woild Champs. August 25 This afternoon we arrived at Guan- tanamo Bay, Cuba. Before we could enter the harbor we had to wait for an outbound convoy to clear the nets so some of the boys went shark fish- ing and managed to haul a pretty fair sized one aboard. For awhile it looked like Higgins might put his cleaver to work, but no one wanted to clean it so Hand shoved it back into the drink. The liberty in Guan- tanamo was a big success, but there was nothing else of interest. No stores worth piratingl The trip from Guan- tanamo-down to Panama entailed painting, and painting. September 1 After two rugged nights in Coco Sola, one at the expense of Ensign Langer, we entered the Pedro Miguel Locks of the Panama Canal at 1350 and passed out of the Miroflores Locks at 1521 today. LST's 1029 and 708 were with us as we headed up the coast of 'Mexico for San Diego and our last home port-of-call. September. 14 One small fire is all the log re- corded during this stretch, but then, writing the log had already become a somewhat boring task. We arrived outside San Diego Harbor around 0300 and as was the custom, prompt- ly set the special sea detail. A few moments of delightful cruising were enjoyed by all before we tied up Cat 08305. You can never guess who we tied up to. What! You did guess? Well, you're wrong. lt was the 1028 and not the garbage barge A. L. Davis thought it was. September 19 Bubak and Moon joined us today, but our net gain totalled only one as Mr. Bennet left for the hospital two days ago. Mr. Foyle assumed. the duties of the executive officer, and Mr. Flynn completely defeated Mr. Verchot in their hard-fought contest for the title Queen of the Showers.

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November 5 Tension ran a little high as we launched our LCT, and Captain Mc- Quire could not be persuaded to ride her over. Made quite a splash. Cne look at our main deck sent every deck hand to sick bay. We had been told it would rain out here, but some- how we didn't expect it to rain all of the time! November 11 . ' Left the Russels three days ago and the war was beginning to get a little dull until seven unidentified planes livened things up a bit. The record for manning battle stations was just about cut in half. They were ours! Tomorrow would be the Chief's first busman's holiday. He would have to raise and drop the anchor only eleven times before we would finally get settled in Hamburg Bay, Emirau lsland. November 15 Weighed anchor for a three day trip to Hollandia, but when we got there our orders had been changed so we turned down the coast of New Guinea toward Milne Bay. We tied up to the SS George Taylor on the twenty-fourth. The hospital ship Be- nevolence, which was a stone's throw away, did not prove very benevolent. lt turned down our invitation for thirty nurses to come over and see a bas- ketball game???, We forgot to men- tion our etchings. November 30 Today we loaded our side-carry pontoons and the Gamadodo pon- toon handling part from Gaba Ga- buna Bay Cwhat lu-lus to spellll came- aboard. Gale took that boy-scout- good-deed stuff too literally and the Captain requested him to keep Frei- tas company for ,ten days. December 3 The old girl seemed a little slug- gish with her new bustle, but after a two day trip we arrived in Borgen Bay, New Britain, where the army had been camping for some nine months. That afternoon we beached on Yellow Beach and were able to lower our ramp on dry ground. Prest- wood claimed it was no yellower than any other beach.. Tifme he caught on, isn't it? Miller discovered we were moored to two dead men on the beach and immediately put in for a transfer. December 7 lust as it was a few years ago, this was an eventful day. The army came aboard with their artillery and mobile anti-aircraft equipment, and the lO28 got stuck on the beach. We had just dropped the hook and secured the special sea detail when we got the word that we were going in and tow them off. Cn the third attempt we managed to pass them our stern an- chor cable, but somehow it got en- tangled in our own stern anchor. When we took a strain-Carnivale requisitioned a new stern anchor. December 9 ' A two day trip saw us safely at anchor in Seaddler Harbor, Manus, in the Admiralties. We were loaded for business now, and we sure had plenty of company. lt looked like the whole Pacific Fleet was there in the harbor with us. Cn the fifteenth we shoved off for a big rehearsal down at Markham Bay. lt was rather ob- vious what we were rehearsing for, for Markham Bay is an exact copy of Lingayen Gulf, and Tokyo Rose seemed to have her information straight from the feed bag. December 19 After a few days of rather inactive practice, McPhail decided that mar- bles in the back yard was far more exciting than war. We would go back to Manus tomorrow. December 24 After running around the bay this afternoon, Mr. Ullrich and Cunning- ham found that one of the spots we had gone over was only four feet