Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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both to port and starboard. There is no doubt in our minds but that the planes that came at us that night were all Kamikazes, and all de- termined to get the Lunga Point, but that hail of gimfire that we threw at them at every turn apparently proved to them that their efforts would be in vain, which undoubtedly accounts for one of them doing as much damage as he could by jumping on the APD, a much smaller ship. Finally, at 1942, we secured from Gen- eral Quarters, with the satisfaction that our team had turned the trick again, leaving no doubt in our own minds that we had finally be- come a tried and tested fighting unit of tiic Fleet. W ' e arrived at our operating area olf Oki- nawa Gunto the ne.xt day and. again, set about our mission of bombing and strafing the Japs in the face of our advancing troops on Okinawa Shima, and that day, 3 April, proved to be an eventful day in the life of the Lunga Point. M.AX OVERBO.ARD ! At 1045 that day. while we were making a sharp turn to port in a rather heavy sea, one of our fighter planes on the starboard quarter of the flight deck was torn loose from its mooring, and fell into the drink. Banta, J. P., Sic, was standing watch as Surface Lookout No. 3, and he was right in the path of the plane as she began tearing herself loose. Banta had no idea of letting that plane land on him; so he just jumped ■■o er the side into the waters of the Pacific. It is said that, even as he was in mid-air on his 40 foot jump into the sea, he took off his phones, saying. Control: Lookout 3 going off the line. Fortunately, he had his kapok life jacket on, and he jumped far enough for the falling plane to miss him. After float- ing about in the heavy sea for a few minutes, the U.S.S. Patterson, one of our faithful escorts that had been with us since October, picked him up and he was retvirned to the ship via the Naha Domar following dii rpla breeches buoy none the worse for his experi- ence. Our Admir. l P. vs Us A Visit The highlight, however, not only of Tuesday, 3 April, but of our entire first year in com- mission occurred at 1141 that day, when a visiting plane came to rest on our flight deck, and out jumped ComEsC ' arForPac, Admiral C. T. Cal Durgin himself. Not one soul, e en our Skipper, knew the Admiral was com- ing over to see us. In fact, it was so unprec- Luuga Point fro

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U.S.S. Dicirrson ablaze following Kamika r liil ulf Kcrama Rcllo. and the other crashed in llamcs. At 184-) an unidentified plane started a dive on our port Ix-am and all our port guns opened up. and he, too. couldn ' t take our barrage and he turned away at 1000 yards. VVc .saw this plane no more, and. after the gunfire he went through, it is only logical to assume that he is now en- joying a bowl of rice with his ancestors. While this plane was diving on our port bow. another plane, believed to be a Nick. was diving on our starboard bow. but he also turned at 1 200 yards and attacked the Mitchell, dropping two small bombs which fell close astern of her. then heading again for us. Apparently hit by either us or die Mitchell, he turned away smoking, and .-Xdmiral Durgio (ComEsCarForPac) honors us with a isi ofT Okinawa Gunto. ( rash-cli ed into an APD, which we tfxjk lo be the Dickffson, Ix-causc the ship where the Dick- iruDi had last tx-cn seen was suddenly a blazing inferno. While th(jse last two planes were diving at us simultaneously, from Ixjth port and starboard, ev ry gun on the ship had them un- der lire. In the semi-darkness, as all guns belched forth (lames from their smoking muz- zles, our ship resembled a picture of the Gates of Hell being suddenly thrown open on a dark night. The attacks we had repulsed during that day proved to be by far the most extended period we had remained under attack, and, actually, there had been no time during our combat Banta, Sic, is returned aboard after jumping over the side lo avoid failing plane. career that we had been more vulnerable. That morning, we had been attacked while at anchor in a coral atoll unable to maneuver. Even had the Old Man decided to get under- way, it would have been slow going for us, maneu ering our way out through the hazard- ous coral reefs that .surrounded the anchorage. ■So we just had to sit there like a Clay Pigeon and fight the best we could from our sit- ting-position. That, howe ' er, proved good enough. Then, in the attack that evening, we didn t have our usual number of aircraft car- riers and as large a screen with us as we had previously had when under attack. There we were, the main target, with only our three de- stroyers comprising the Task Force to fight off all those planes. Even then, maneuvering was none too easy, because we hadn ' t gotten into the open sea when the attack started, and were bounded bv coral reefs not too far distant

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rtlcnlcd for ;in Aclmii;il tii Icjivr his Flag Ship ill thi- jutivc coinhiit one iiiui lly over to an- otlur (airier ihat ihc Old Man (diild hardly Ix ' lifvc iiis fVfs when he saw our distinniiishcd giirst i ct out of the plane. As soon as the ( ' aptain i ol clown to llv llii;ht deck to tercet the Admiral, he immediate- ly told the Skipper that, after hearini of what we had Ix-rn throuijh at Kerama Retto tlie day In-fore, he jusl had to (ome over to see us. He .Jai I :,:,jI, cli-stio ed on Okinawa. also told the Old Man that he wanted to talk to our .Ship ' s Company over the general an- nouncing system. The Captain was only too glad to comply; so, after he had lunched with the .SkipfK-r, he talked to us for a few minutes, and he could have talked to us from now on without pleasing us more than when he .said. After hearing what you men went through at Kerama Retto yesterday, I just had to come o er here and personally sec what it is that makes the Lwiga Point click. His entire talk was most complimentary and was appreciated b - us far more than he will ever know. Ad- miral Durgin is a very busy man. and he had to make his visit a brief one; so at 1334 he flew away from our decks and back to his Flag Ship, leaving us all with the definite feeling that we had reached the climax in our first year ' s operations. And, with humble grati- tude for this gesture on the part of the Admiral. we re-affirmed our determination to continue to justify our Admiral ' s confidence in us. The Admiral ' s visit was about all you heard anyone aboard talking about for sometime thereafter. We were, howe er, also pleased and grateful to recei e from Admiral Blandy, Commander .Amphibious Forces, on .} . [)ril, th - following dis|}al( h: Tin-: a(;(;ri:ssi I. simrii miow.n . . I)R :sl ' I; sAcco. ll ' l.isHl.l)B Ai.i, OF ' OL ' DLRI.XC IHF I ' .VS I W I.IK ii.w K .M. i)K 11 . i ' ri im.(;k for . n, TO BF . . 1IMBI:R 01 1 III, I F. . I X A (JR.VND .Si, AM Ff)K () R Sqi .MJRO.N Fn all fairness to ail pilots everywhere it should Ix- explained that the number of planes shot down by a particular .Sfjuadron is, to a certain extent, luck. In tjther words, the .Squadron that happens to ha e the TC.AP (Target Combat Air Patrol) duty when and where the enemy comes in is, naturally, going to splash more planes than the .Squadron simply flying FCAP (Local Combat Air Patrol) over vessels off shore. It .so happened that, up until this point, our fighters hadn ' t had much of an opportunity to show their stufi. On Friday, 6 .April, our .Squadron finally got the break they had been waiting for. We happened to have the TCAP over Okinawa Gunto that day when the .Sons of Nippon came down, and they made a Field Day of it, shooting down eight enemy planes late that afternoon. Our pilots who were resfxjnsible Destruction of large building 7 miles N E of Naha, Okinawa