Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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+i2+:'efsaa s any twig, :Vx K .pig X 1 , - --- a Q Y I, ,..,m,x. - G kv:-O 'J 1 -b ,L l -gang, 1 Q 1- ' 53.-. 37' A - Ag, ,s U ' -'13 '.. - - 99- , .,.' 1'8-1o-f-- av V Q, T xii'-Qg-. .I -g. A - L! ' ' 'A A ' .c..x'T'.- 'l'lll' l.lXS'li Pl..XXlT NIAKIIS APPROACH-LANDS duce printable images on the film. The Captain calls air control. asks how many more planes to comeg Comdr. WVorkman signals with open hantl. tive. 'lihe faces of air group commantler Snowclen and of air officer Sutherland and stall plainly register their concern. Nothing that has happened on the ship, up to this time. has seemetl as interminable as this business of getting those last tive planes home. Une after the other they Hy clown our port beam. make a long sweeping turn astern, then come up on the approach. The signal otlicer is apparently not taking chances, and unless the pilot's approach is perfect he is given a waveotl. When the last plane finally hits the tleck the Captain goes into the wheel-house, the Lex begins to swing, does a tighter turn than I have seen her tlo before. XVe use flank speed to catch up with the task group. The deck crew sails into the job of respotting the planes on the deck. Now that the Lex has caught up with the task group again the Captain relaxes. asks: How about some supperP,' In the excitement of the surprise attack by the lap torpetlo bombers at noon, I forgot about lunch. 121

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It is dark, our planes are all in and accounted for, the tired deck crews have respotted the planes on the after-half of the deck. Everything is shipshape, all set and ready for whatever tomorrow may bring. The Captain and I are finishing our supper from trays across our knees. There is an obvious effort to make our conversation casual. We are still among enemy islands steaming hell-bent for leather out of there. An enemy bogie is picked up on our radar at 48 miles. The captain goes right on with our small talk as if he had not heard the report over the squawk-box. We are talking about the soil-less culture of plants. He calmly speaks of his retirement someday to a home in the country and a garden, a small place but he wants to grow things in a big way, and the scientific angle of hydroponics appeals to him. The radar reports more bogies 30 or 40 miles away from different directions apparently searching out our task force, of which two groups are traveling parallel to each other 8 or IO miles apart. The tension evident during the plane landing operations now becomes pronounced. Here is something more definite, more specific, and more ominous than any- thing the ship has experienced before. Enemy planes are ranging from I5 to 25 miles from us and there is as yet no indication whether they have located us or are simply maneuvering for position. A few filmy clouds are dabbed across the sky. Nothing in the aerologist's forecast to pin any hope for the concealing darkness a cloud cover would give us. lt is going to be a clear moonlight night. A stream of reports are coming and going via the intership phone system-TBS. Our own radar follows the enemy maneuvers and radar plot phones the information to the bridge. The Captain lends one ear to the voices and sounds in the wheel-house, the other to our conversation, as if he were carrying on two chess games. He delivers observations and directions to his officers in the pilot house in crisp staccato tones. When the cross talk in there gets to be a little hectic and confusing he barks, There is too much chatter going 125