Louisville (CA 28) - Naval Cruise Book

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170 Balloons blink 6'Welcome Home Under the Golden Gate again. Home again, but not for long.

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I I 1 i Officers, who directed the course by ob- servation from their respective vantage positions. Heroism became commonplace. The entire foremast was engulfed in flames. The starboard side became the funeral pyre of many of those men who were sta- tioned in the area of the hit. Men hor- ribly burned stumbled to assist firefighters. Persistently, relentlessly, damage con- trol parties fought to save the ship, to beat back the inferno. In the after half of the. ship, men, choking and gasping for air as the thick smoke, stinking of burned flesh and paint, enveloped them, stood their ground feed- ing the anti-aircraft guns. They blazed away at two other suiciders closing on us, making a total of six Hred upon in a few minutes. Lingayen Gulf became a holocaust. The forward portion of the ship was a tragedy of twisted plates, twisted bodies, and twisted minds. High in the superstructure in the main battery fire control station, men wondered if they were trapped. On bended knees one of them prayed. On the open bridge, an officer who had miraculously escaped injury, screamed in crazed, instinctive re- flex, HWho9s fighting this ship! Fire those gunslw Out of the flames, broken, burned bodies pulled themselves over blackened fire hose, through stinging salt water, along the buckled decks to the arms of those who mercifully injected morphine, applied rudimentary first aid, lifted them into the wire-meshed battle stretchers and lowered them to safer areas. Gradually the fires were brought under control. The distasteful, ghastly business of cleaning up began. With the Admiral on his death-bed, the Captain painfully burned, with over 125 men swathed in bandages, and overflowing the sick bay into neighboring sleeping compartments and into officers' country, the ship for the first time in her history 169

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was unable to complete the task she had begun. Grievously wounded, we were or- dered to safer waters and the protection of a group of CVE,s steaming off the gulf. It was during this disaster that the Medical Department was observed. With- out any fanfare the corpsmen and stretcher bearers moved about the decks collecting the wounded and carrying them to first- aid stations in the wardroom, chiefis quar- ters, and to sick bay to wait their turn for the operating tables. First the most severely wounded were cared for. Blood plasma in large quantities was adminis- tered. What a God-send that was! It was new life blood for these men who had left theirs on the deck overhead. Then gently but quickly the wounds were bandaged, and the doctor, without faltering, turned to the next patient while corpsmen carried the previous one to a bunk or cot. Hour after hour this went on far into the night. When the last patient had been cared for the doctors turned their attention to the dead. Each body was positively iden- tified. Then it was prepared for burial. Sailmakers stitched for hours making canvas bags for shipmates who had given their lives. The chaplain moved among the men, comforting them, administering last rites, hearing last words and confessions, saying prayers, holding this man's hand as the pain mounted, or lighting a cigarette for another. A quiet, calm person who was always present to do some small task others were too busy to do. Then as the men quieted down and slept, he prepared his service for the morrow. The ensign was lowered to half mast as we buried our dead. On the well deck the chaplain read the service, said prayers for the repose of the souls of these men Who had paid the sacrihce that our nation under God would always be free. The silence was broken as military honors were 53 given, three volleys were fired and the bugler sounded taps. Then gently the bodies of our shipmates were committed to the deep waters of the South China Sea, and we turned away to carry on where they had left off. Among those buried was Admiral Chandler. Though he had been with us only a short time he had earned the respect and loyalty of all hands. With successful landings at Lingayen on the ninth of January, the Louisville returned in company with transports and damaged combatant ships to Leyte Gulf. There the wounded were transferred to hospital ships. We then turned our prow towards Manus and from there to Pearl Harbor. The word to leave for uUncle Sugari' came on January 31, and the Louisville headed out of Pearl Harbor bow pointed for San Francisco's Golden Gate. It seemed like centuries to all of us before we finally steamed under the Golden Gate Bridge on the morning of February 6, and Hdropped the hook in San Francisco Bay. It had been a long time, fourteen months, since the ship had been home. We all eagerly anticipated our leaves and reunions at home, and all the other things that are meant when we speak of the ship being back in the States. With repair of the ship and rehabilitation of the crew completed, we knew we would set out again for the last long, hard push to Tokyo. Meanwhile we intended to enjoy uStateside,7'-uOh, brother! 171