La Salle (AP 102) - Naval Cruise Book

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Drydock Co. in Oakland, California. Although built for the U. S. Maritime Service, she was commissioned into the Naval service, after one voyage as a merchant ship. Her maiden voyage as a Naval transport took her to the Fiji Islands loaded with Seabees. In June, 1943, she landed Seabees at Guadalcanal in the closing phase of that campaign. A trip back to the States and a run to Pearl Harbor completed, the Lucy shoved off for Wellington, New Zealand, to pick up a part of the 2nd Marine Division. These troops she landed in the hell that was Tarawa on D-Day. On February 1, 1944, Lucy delivered elements of the 4th Marines, this time it was the Roi-Namur CKwajaleinJ, Marshall Islands, invasion. Following overhaul in the U. S. she loaded Marines of the 4th Division and headed for Saipan, where she was one of the first transports to participate in the assault operations on June 15, 1944. Then on September 16, 1944, the Lucky Lucyl' was a part of the fleet which, after a feinted attack on Babelthuap, Palau Islands, put the 81st Infantry Division ashore on Angaur. October 20, 1944, found the Lucy doing her bit in landing assault troops of the lst Cavalry Division on Leyte's hot beaches. Gamely, she returned a month later with reinforce- ments, after barely clearing the area where the Battle for Leyte Gulf was staged. I b At H-Hour, January 9, 1945, of the gigantic Lingayen Gulf invasion she was busily occupied landing troops in spite of severe aerial attacks, but her luck held and she departed from that operation none the worse for the wear. After returning to Leyte, she headed once again for Luzon to land U. S. forces just north of Subic Bay in the successful attempt to cut off retreating Jap forces before they could reach Bataan. L Arriving off Okinawa 11 days after the lirst U. S. troops went ashore, the Lucy unloaded her soldiers and supplies, and for I-ive harried days stood off shore so close that the crew had a fifty-yard line seat to the Pacif1c's greatest artillery duel. Although under Jap air attack much of the time, the old Lucky Lucy again pulled out unscathed and nosed toward Guam. There her skipper was relieved by Commander E. M. Doar, Jr., USNR, of Tappahannock, Virginia, who brought her back to the West Coast where she will undergo overhaul before return- ing to action. Lucky ships have to be good ships. l5l-

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746 !w4g1w, 6amw Smzewze HE LUCKY LUCY is back home again after two and a half , years in the thick of eight Pacific island invasions with nary a scratch to show for all her service. The Lucky Lucy is a 15,000-ton Navy transport which earned her nickname in her first major action, the invasion of T arawa, when 8-inch Jap shells fell so close, as she was unloading Marines and supplies, they almost singed her paint. Her luck held on subsequent D-Days at Roi-Namur, Saipan, Angaur, Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, San Antonio CLuzonJ, and Okinawa. Her skipper in command of the ship from her commission- ing through the Okinawa action was Captain Fred C. Fluegel, USNR, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Her executive officer is Lieut. Walter G. Bisek, USNR, Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Lucy was launched in November, 1942, at the Moore l4l .

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COMMANDER E. M. DOAR, Jr. Commanding Officer' Commander E. M. Doar, jr., CDEQ, USNR, enlisted in the Naval Reserve, during the first World War, as MM2c. With the educational background of three years at Clemson College, S. C., he was sent to the Naval Academy for a year, and received the commission of Ensign, USN, upon com- pletion. The U.S.S. Oklahoma was his first assignment. He resigned from the regular Navy in 1920, and joined the Reserve. He served on U.S.S. Yale, Utah, Lamson, Smith-Thompson, Tracy, Ruben James, and others. His assignments during World War Two have been twenty months as Engineering Officer and seventeen months as Executive Officer of U.S.S. Orizaba CAP-241. After eight months as Captain of Ferry Command Number One, he took command of the U.S.S. La Salle, 20 May 1945. ' wir ik if LIEUTENANT W. G. BISEK Executive Officer Lieutenant W. B. Bisek, CDMJ, USNR, graduated from Pennsylvania State Nau- tical School in 1939. From November, 1939, to February, 1940, he was employed by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Febru- ary, 1940, to December, 1940, found Mr. Bisek sailing on one of the Matson Navi- gation Company's Passenger Liners. Dur- ing World War Two, he has been Com- munications Oflicer of the U.S.S. Sepulga from january, 1941, to February, 1943. He came aboard the La Salle in March, 1943 and served as Navigator until October 1944, at which time he relieved Lieut. Comdr. Earl N. Clark as Executive Officer 7 9 o