LST (925) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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deep, instead of four fathomsl Either the ship hiccoughed or the bottom ducked, or perhaps it was that shal- low spot we IUST missed at flank. Some fun! December 25 Christmas day, a day of thanks- giving, prayer and loy! For us it was a Christmas with no presents but plenty to eat. Almost every light in the harbor was shining that night, and the whole place looked like one big Christmas tree. We heard carols over the radio and speeches from the U. S., but somehow the atmosphere and spirit just were not there. Ashton was no longer counted AWCL as somebody found him behind a beard which was eating turkey at the table. Day after tomorrow we would leave for the Big Show. Ianuary 4 After eight uneventful days we fi- nally sighted the Philippines. Need- less to say, we were all a little on edge for this was lap held territory, and the laps were now within easy bombing range of our convoy. We didn't have to worry about the look- outs staying on the job. Icmuary 7 The sun was beginning to sink-be- hind the horizon and the clouds were a dripping blood-red. We were all at our battle stations when we got our first good look at a lap plane as it dove in out of the glare, dropped a couple of daisy cutters near a little PC, missed, and then tried to climb away. No sooner had the bombs ex- ploded than one less lap was left to account for. l-le had been instantly bracketed by a heavy barrage of anti-aircraft fire. McPhall fired about five rounds at him. Guess that was all he figured was necessary at a range of only five miles. Marbles is still a good game, though! Ianuary 9 , As we entered Lingayen Gulf, Lu- zon, in the Philippines this morning, we were but one small ship in the On Orange Beach at Lingayen Gulf