Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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Top: -Over the side all side cleaners ; below: A yeoman gels his hands dirty in the all hands evolution of scraping and paintin? ship ' s bo torn in dry-dock at Guam. 105

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Top: Just before flooding the dry-d dock. bfloif: In dry- lop: Enterine di Lieutenant. The Skipper had told us to relax; so that night, all hands turned in their bunks, relaxed from utter exhaustion. And, though we had soon been in the relaxation area for some days, the Field Day went on and on. Little wonder we were all anxious to get orders to a port where we could really relax, and those orders couldn ' t be coming through too soon for us, because it had been rumored that we would soon be getting underway for our first visit to Guam Nhere we would probably be for ten days or two weeks. Victory L Europe Sure enough, we got those orders on 6 May, and immediately got underway from our op- erating area. Nothing of importance occurred en route to port until we got word of the uncon- ditional surrender of Germany. While we had been more or less expecting Germany ' s com- plete collapse momentarily, it was with a great deal of pleasure and .satisfaction that we re- ceived word that Germany had ollicially gone down in ignominious defeat. Aside from the satisfaction derived from any Allied victory, we knew that Germany ' s surrender meant a quicker termination of the War in the Pacific. We knew that increasing help would soon be coming our way, and that we would all soon be celebrating a real -ictory — a victor - and un- conditional surrender over the most despicable race that ever walked on the face of the earth. With that certain knowledge to console us for all we had been through, we turned again to the business at hand, and on ' Friday, ii May 1945: 12-16 Steaming as before. 1205 passed Orote Point and Buoy No. i abeam to starboard. 1207 All engines stopped. 1208 Pa.ssed Buoy No. 2 abeam to starboard. 12 13 Pa.ssed through anti-submarine nets. 1 2 1 5 Starboard 104

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cnuinc .ilicad i i . 2 H Port engine ahciicl J ■ . a (• stojipccl. IJ. 3 Mancinciint; lo lake station in Brrth -,()■ . U ' i Am hoicd in Rcrtli -,( -• Apia Harbor, (Juam. in i() fatlioins of water. 7;, I ' atlioins of ( liain out to tlic star- hoard anchor, on tin- Ibllowins bearings: Rani-e 1 1 - ° T. Beacon A iHH°l ' , Beacon B i4J.H°r, Beacon D ioo°r. Beacon G (K)C)° ' I ' . I ' -•4 ' 5 Sei iiicd lUiiin engines. ( il AM I ' ew uieii on board had e er been to (iiiam berore, and it was, therefore Cjuite a treat to us to liave the opportunity of visiting this impor- tant outpost of the United .States. As a matter of fact, we would have appreciated an oppor- tunity to set foot on land almost anywhere at that time, because everyone on board was ut- terly exhausted from ha ing been underway on the Okinawa operation for Hfty-onc days without stop. In this connection, with the exception of ten days in Ulithi between the Iwt) jima and Okinawa operations, we had. by this time, been underway on combat operations for exactly ninety days, and that ' s a long time in anybody ' s language. Small wonder, then, that we were ready for a rest at this port that was bustling with the business of winning the war. Although, our forces had re-taken Guam from the Japs only about nine months before we got there, from the looks of things, you could well imagine that the japs had ne er been there, because there was little outward e idence of their long oc- cupation of this beautiful, mountainous island. The . rmy. Navy and Marine activities there were doing a man-sized job in logistics and otherwise preparing our forces for the advance to the Empire. Our installations were tremen- dous and far-flung. Even Admiral Nimitz had already established his Advance Headquarters there, so that he would be just that much nearer the fighting front. We found that they already had just about every facility necessary for ser- icing the Fleet, and we found the authorities most cooperative in every respect. The Old Man and the Exec, realizing that we were tired, gave us all the liberty they could. As a matter of fact, during the time we were in dry dock there, when all hands are normally supposed to be over the side, cleaning, scraping and painting the ship ' s bottom, they let our liberty parties go ashore on schedule just as if we weren ' t in dry dock. To show their appreci- ation for this uninterrupted liberty, our men turned to on our liiill so eagerly (hat they had scraped, cleaned and painted (jur bottom in lli - record time (jf thirty-two hours. I ' he real treat of our stay in (iuani (jcrurrcd. however, when a representative of C!om. irl ' af came aboard and ollered to let groups of lifty men and ll c oliicers at a time spend a 48 hour liberty at a rest camp over in the hills. The rest camp was one that they maintain for the rehabilitation of .Squadrons just returning from combat, and you can bet your life we were (|uick to accept their most gracious invitation. Gon,sec|uently, a large number of the .Ship ' s Gompany were able to enjoy the facilities of the rest camp, where they could sleep as late as they wanted and not have to lift their hands, because everything was done for them. Except for the ones who were fortunate enough to go to the rest camp, the rest of us didn ' t get to see much of Guam. Our liberty parties went to the Gab Gab Kir n-nion .Area £ !lK lop: Ex bids squadron farewell; below: Squadrc responds to Exec. 106