Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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formation was received with ripples; in fact, waves of excitement throughout the ship, be- cause it had been a long time since we had been to New Guinea (never, for most of us). As a matter of fact, it had been so long that we had forgotten all we ever knew about the place; so much so that we were half hoping to find it populated with gobs of those beautiful South Sea sirens, the kind that Samuel Goldwyn had accustomed us to expect, waiting for us on the beach. This happy prospect almost made us forget the unhappy prospect of our coming initiation before King Neptune. Meanwhile, the Civilian Officers of the Ship ' s Company turned to in their determina- tion to prove to the Executive Officer that he was wrong. For it was none other than Com- mander E. R. Swede Eastwold, USN, who, in his first informal talk with our Officers in Bremerton on 4 April 1 944, said, and we quote him verbatim as follows: Well, I ' ve been looking over the Officer ' s Roster and I find the Reser es (he meant civilians) in the majority. I understand that other C E ' s before us have gone out under the same uncertain and shaky conditions, though, which proves it can be done: so all I want you to do is to prove it to me. I don ' t see how it can be done, but it ' s up to you. Do the job; that ' s all I want. The Exec, however, couldn ' t have realized how far wrong he was in estimating the ability of his officer personnel. He simply hadn ' t, at that time, interviewed all the officers to see just what their Naval qualifications were, because we were so fortunate as to have lawyers, engineers, chemists, bookmakers, radio crooners (a Na- tional hook-up, too), insurance men, football coaches, petroleum engineers, business men, lumber dealers, rising young business men, dry ice manufacturers, prominent young business men, lawyers, flying machine dri% ' crs, dentists, doctors, farmers (gentleman farmers, of course), lawyers, school teachers. Harvard men (a Vale man, too, and also a son of old Nassau), law students to be, salesmen, public welfare work- ers. Ministers (Methodist), law students, paper cup salesmen, filling station operators, three graduates of the United States Naval Academ -. classes of 1923, 1932 and 1935 (adding up and di iding by three gives an average of 1930; therefore, we were somewhat comforted to know that three members of the class of ' 30 were with us to keep us oflT the coral reefs that lay ahead), detectives, lawyers, lawyers, one child of the Streets of Paris, hauling contractors. certified public accountants, lawyers, boxing instructors, G.M.A.C. Bird Dogs, lawyers, obstetricians, and lawyers. For the life of us we can ' t understand how anyone can feel that all these qualifications can ' t add up to at least Top: Our escort center : . part of New G route to New G boltoi of San Francisco enroute to New Guinea: hangar deck cargo on Shakedown to Hangar deck cargo and passengers en- 33

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mcda. C.ilifitniiii. Pilot ;it llic conn. Clap- l.tin, l ' ,xc uli c ()IIi( -r iinci Naxifjator on llic luiilnr. I ' rocccclini; on various coursrs and s|XTcls out of San Franrisro Bay. i3. ' )4 Pass ' d Alcalra Island abeam to starboard. I4f f) Passed inider (iolden (Jate Bridge. 141R Pas.sed from Inland to International waters. Spn-ed 1 -, knots. Passed between Bonita Point and Seal Roek Linhthouse. On arioiis courses ronforminn to swept channel. i-,oi Stopped. Lying to. Pilot left the ship. 1 -)io Ahead s s. .Set course :ioi°r. 202° p.g.c, and 191° p.s.c. E.xerci.sed at Cieneral Quarters. 1519 .Secured from General Quarters. Set Condition III. ]-y o c c to 148°! and p.g.c. 1540 U..S. Navy Blimp K-10-, reported for duty. i. )47 c s to ilj knots. Heard among the .Sky-larkers : I got it straight from a Civil .Service Quar- tcrman Laborer on the dock at Alameda that we ' re headed straight for Brisbane. My girl friend ' s brother has a buddy who has a sister-in-law working at the Federal Builditig in Frisco, and she says we ' re delinitely going to Pearl. A waiter in the Lotus Restaurant told nie we are going to Ulithi Atoll, when-ver that is. Boy, they do have good Chow Mein at that Lotus, too. .So that waiter must know what he ' s talking about. Now, listen, youse guys: I ' ve got the drjpe, and I ain ' t hankerin ' to tell you, but, if you must know, here it is. W ' e ' re goin ' to sea! . ow, having really gotten underway on our .Shaked(nvn Cruise, all hands were told the first night, by our Executive Officer, that wc were en route to Fin.schafen. New Guinea. We are always told, after getting underway exactly where we are going, because, after all, no one is so anxious to let out the information as to want to swim ashore with it. Ihis in- Top liji: A good place lo pass by — . lcatraz: lop nghi: CaJUslhemcs on flight deck; bollom left: Caulking off on fantail en route I iollom right: Calisthenics on flight deck (Pi.xley seems to be having a hard time). 32

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one t|iialiru(l ( )lli ci -ol-lhi-Di ' ck underway. And litsidts. the Kx(( ( omplctcly overlooked the fiirt that at least one ollicer not his eommis- sion on the hasis of havinij, for many years, made peri(Kli(al trips to ( ' .ap ' Lookout and the Culf Stream in a -,o-foot cruiser in pursuit of his favorite hohby of deep sea fishing without once getting sea sick. But all this is actually Ix-side the point; we had the boat out there in the Pacific, and we had to drive it; so we tigured we might as well drive it on down New Guinea way as we had been told to do. Here wc go, boys! Hold your hats!! Sailing, sailing over the bounding main. And many a stormy ivind shall blow Ere Jack comes home again. There followed many pleasant days of cruis- ing on the quiet waters of the .South Pacific, and we all enjoyed the pleasant company of a fine group of passengers, because, at that time, we ' hadn ' t begun to fight, and we had some leisure time on our hands (Oh, how we long for the leisure, now). It was the first time in those waters for most of us, and we really enjoyed the beauty of the Pacific, with its crystal clear, emerald green water, and its many species of flying fish, not to mention an occasional whale and school after school of porpoise, dolphin and shark. As the time went on. we drew nearer and nearer to the Equator, and the great ma- jority of us, being Pollywogs, looked forward to crossing the line with grave apprehension. It was, howc -er, on E minus 4 (four days be- fore crossing the line) that the secret leaked out. He had tried to keep it a secret as long as he could, but when Xeptune ' s representatives, lining up the .Neophytes ahead of time, asked him for his Sheiiljack card, he had to admit that, even though he graduated at Annapfjjis in 1932. he was an humfjje, lowly Polly wog. Well, to say the lea.st, it was som comfort to us 800 odd genuine and unembarrassed Pollywogs to know that we had a three stripx-r, 12 years out of Crab Town, going through the ordeal with us. .So, with increased fortitude and a grim determination to undergo our coming ordeal like men of the Nyvee of old, we went about our daily ta.sks, trying to forget that Davey Jones would soon be coming up through the hawse pipes with our Royal Summonses un- til on .Sunday, 2 July 1944, we received a dis- patch on board reading as follows: = FROM: HRH XEPTUXIS REX TO: USS LUXGA POIXT (CVE 94) 302330 X IT HAS BEEN REPORTED THAI IHE USS LUXGA POIXT WITH A FULL C;OM- PLEMEXT OF GROSS POLLYWOGS IS ABOUT TO ENTER MY ROYAL DO- MAIX X IT IS HEREBY DIRECTED TH. T ALL MY LO AL SHELLBAC:KS ABOARD IXSTITUTE A RO AL ClOURT TO TRY ALL SUC:H POLLYWOGS AS MAY BE FOUNT) IN THE C:OMPANY OF REAL SEAFARIXG MEX X IT IS DI- RECTED THAT A REPORT LOG BE KEPT B ' A TRUSTS ' SHELLBACIK SO THAT XO IMPERTIXEXT POLL ' WOG MAY ESC:APE due PUXTSHMEXT FOR HIS rashxess x all such OF- FEXT)ERS SHALL BE BROUGHT TO TRIAL UPOX MY ARRIX ' AL OX BOARD AT THE EQUATOR X THIS SHALL BE PROMULGATED TO THE CREW AT QUARTERS X X 302330 We continued with our classes of instruction and our arious drills with renewed interest and vigor in hopes that we could momentarily forget our impending doom, but even the con- tagious smile of our popular instructor, Com- mander E. G. O.sborn. U.SX. did little good in helping us to get our minds off our coming initiation, because on Mondays 3 July, we re- ceived another dispatch which read as follows: 34