Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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Homeward bound pennant. Point Loma; our first view of U. S 237

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adjoins Toyko, was fvcn more modern in its an liitcriurc than Tokyo; liowtvtT. Ixjili f itits arc about ()0 [X-r crnt destroyed in lh -ir bus- iness and indnstrial areas. Shoppini was niiK li better in bntli ol these cities, houcxci-. A rokvo cirbu tiian in W ' akanonra. because the stores that were left were modern and you could usually find someone in them who had lived or been educated in the States and who could speak very good English. In fact, some even spoke American. Actually, there were few blocks left in the business section of Tokyo with more than one building standing. C onsequently, the crowded streets were even more congested by make-shift shops set up along the edge of the sidewalks where buildings had been burned or bombed out. In any event, just visiting Tokyo as we did was well worth while. The most important thing that happened to us while in Tokyo Bay, though, was getting our orders transferring us from the 5th Fleet to Magic Carpet duty, meaning that thencefor- ward we were a transport CVE. Our orders further told us to start loading passengers and, when loaded, to proceed to Pearl Harbor and Uncle Sugar. It didn ' t take us long to start looking for passengers; however, for several days, it seemed like we weren ' t going to gel any, they came al)oard in such small numlK-rs. Meanwhile, we had si-cn in the Sims and Siri jfs that the Army was giving a Jap rifle and l)ayonel to every .soldier going back home on orders and we .saw n(j reason why our Blue- jackets shouldn ' t get .such a souvenir also. Cion.sequently, we sent a working party up to ' okohama and talked the 8th Army into giving us rifles and i ayonets. Therefore, (■ cry officer and man in the ship ' s company iiiui .Scjuadron has at least one good souvenir to take home from the wars. While we were waiting for sufficient passcn- i ers , ' dmiral Durgin again demonstrated his desire to show the men under him how much he appreciated their efforts, this time in the form of a letter, of which we are very proud, and which we fiuote as follows: To the Officers and Men of the U.S.S. Lunga Point : Prior to your departure for the States I want to tell you once more that I am most pleased with the excellent work done by the crew of the LUNGA POINT. We started out together a little over a year ago and have gone through Youngster eats his lunch amid ruins of Toky 2.36

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Welcome Home sign, ; entered San Diego Harbor. many interesting and trying moments during the strenuous campaigns of Leyte, Luzon, Iwo, Okinawa and the East China Sea. We have learned from the Officers and men of your gallant ship that, when the need arises, there is no limit to the endurance, the will-to-do, the fighting spirit and the courage of our sailor men. I speak not only for my staff but for all the Escort Carriers when I say the LUNGA POINT is an outstanding ship and we are happy to have had the privilege of serving with it. All of you have every reason to take pride in the achievements of your ship and for your part, which was much more than most of you realize, in our overwhelming victory. I am proud to have been one of you and will miss the good old LUNGA — We all felt safer when she was by our side. Goodbye and good luck to you all. No other ship more deserves a Well Done. (S) C. T. Durgin Rear Admiral, U. S. Navy Commander Escort Carrier Force Finally, vc managed to get our passenger capacity aboard and we set sail for Pearl Harbor on 28 October at 0749, flying a Home- ward Bound pennant 604 feet long and with 38 stars: a foot for e er ' enlisted man and a star for e ery officer on board who has been away from the States a year or more. To say that we were happy to sec that pennant streaming out o ' cr our fantail assisted by the buoyancy of sexeral acrological balloons is not only putting it mildly b« i| absolutely superfluous. What would otherwise ha e been such a plea.sant cruise, however, was fraught with many things to make it almost unpleasant. We had rough weather all the way to Pearl Harbor; the longest stretch of rough weather c ha c had in our history .It was so rough that not too much sleep was gotten en route; it was almost impossible to stay in one ' s bunk at night. Add to that the matter of low ra- tions, most of them dehydrated, and then add a serious water shortage that made it necessary for us to institute water hours and the .sum total wasn ' t too pleasant. If it had not been 238