Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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down. These quick, straight-shooting, young gunners are feeling good, they certainly make no effort to conceal their pride. I have watched these boys at target practice on several occasions, was amazed at their extreme youth, most of them look like high-school kids. They have had com- paratively little target practice but they met this swift surprise attack today in the manner of seasoned veterans. They have just demonstrated how quickly the average American youth acquires a new know-how . . . learns how to handle a gun. The gunners on the port side gun galleries grumble about the guys on the starboard side having all the breaks, for the lap planes came in so low, the port gunners didn't get a chance to shoot, couldn't even see them. As the Lex was steaming past the burning wreckage of the first plane shot down, the port- side crew saw the Iap insignia, the bright red disc, on part of a plane's wing and were able to guess what happened. I hear one lad laughingly tell his chief about seeing some of the gun crew throw all handy loose tools at what looked like the heads of lap airmen bobbing around in the water. The chief explodes with, What the hell did they want to do a fool thing like that for, waste good tools, why didn't they turn the machine guns on the bastardsP,' Frank Morris comes along wearing the same style grin most of us are flashing. I-Ie is protesting that he has been out in the Pacific with the Navy for six months looking for action and nothing happened until this trip. You are either a Ionah or a rabbit's foot, depending on how I look at it, is the way he puts it to me. ihlong the flight deck everybody displays an expansive friendliness. War has moments when it seems almost like a ball game or a horse race. YVe,re the winning team out here today, we,re the jockey receiving a big Horal horseshoe after the race. I know I couldn't join in all this festive excite- ment if the trigger-happy 20 mm gunners, that failed to identify the I-Iellcat this morning before peppering it, had killed that pilot. VV hat a tremendous difference it makes, who gets killed . . . who throws the monkey wrenches and at whose heads . . . bobbing around in the water. I O15 'Q L it i A I 7 EXPLODES-CRASHES INTO THE WATER cREATEs AN IMPGSING FUNERAL PYRE 99