Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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privileges we I ' lijoy. ' •s, tlicrc u;is soinc- tliiiiK to envy in tiiis Fassari fainiiy after ail. ' I ' lie Cuiptain pondered on tliis, too. .So, in order to prevent vvliole.sale ' ■jumping siiip to talce lip abode on Fa.s.sari, lie decided to Friday, lo November 1944: 16-18 Anchored as before, itv j Made all preparations for getting underway. Stationed all special .sea details. 1(145 .Set Condition Baker. 1719 Sunset. 1725 Underway on various courses and speeds from Northern anchorage, Berth 153, Ulithi Atoll, Western Caroline Islands,on orders from Commander .Se cnth Fleet Dispatch No. 01 0321, dated 10 Novem- ber 1944. Captain at the conn. Executive Officer and Navigator on the bridge. 1 740 Stopped. Hoisted in No. i Motor Whale Boat. 1745 a,c ahead 10 knots. 1 7 ' )9 Set coin se 2i5°T and p.g.c. 212° p.s.c. The E. ecuti c Officer told us that night over the 2;enernl announcing svstem that we were en route lo Kossol Koads, I ' alaii Islands. Our geographies had failed us again, because wc were again headed for a place we had never heard of, and this also was to be a short hop, JK-cause on .Saturday, 11 November 1944: i()-i8 .Steaming as before. i(J02 a c ahead 15 knots. 1604 c c to 172°T and p.g.c, 169° p.s.c. iGjb Anchored in 15 fathoms of water, 75 fathoms of chain at water ' s edge, in Kcssol Pas- sage, Berth No. 8, Palau Islands, Western Caroline Islands. a,e stopped. On this World War I Armistice Day, we found ourselves in strange waters, anxious to prove the results of our long period of training, and determined to do our utmost to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion, and bring about another Armistice Day that would be more significant and lasting than that of 1 1 No ' ember 1918. 1 he Old Swimming Holr at Kossol Passage. 54

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tropical breeze. And, now tliat we had seen Eniwetok, on Thursday, 2 November 1944: 08-12 Anchored as before. 0934 Lit off No. 2 and No. 4 boilers. 0945 Stationed all special sea details. Made all preparations for getting underway. 1041 Underway from Berth K-9, Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, on various courses and speeds conforming to channel. Captain at the conn. Executive Officer and Navigator on the bridge. 1053 Secured all special sea details. Set Condition of Readiness III. 1059 X ' isibility reduced to JX mile due to rain squall. 1 1 50 c s to 19 knots, c c to I I5°T and p.g.c, 1 1 1° p.s.c. This was to be a short hop, because on Sunday, 5 November 1944: 12-16 Steaming as before. 1234 .Sighted land bearing 256°T and 253°T, distance 15 miles. 1433 Entered swept channel entrance to an- chorage, Ulithi Atoll. 1533 Anchored in Northern anchorage, Ulithi Atoll, Western C aroline Islands, Berth 153, on the following bearings: Beacon N 322°T, Temporary Bea- con 336. 5°T, Tower on Mangejang Island 057. 5°T, left tangent Lolang Island 083. 5°T. Although we were at Ulithi Atoll h -e days on this stop, only a chosen few were privileged to get ashore due to the shortage of boats to transport liberty parties to and from the many ships present. It seems that a grave emergency existed in the Captain ' s Cabin, because Port- hole. the Skipper ' s cat, was in dire need of a fresh supply of sand. Consequently, Boat- swain Luck was given orders to do the needful, and he did. He took, in addition to him.self, one BMic, two BM2c, three Coxswains, four Sic and Five S2C, and the Athletic Officer, Lt. DeAngelis (to provide the fishing gear), not to mention the No. 2 Motor Whale Boat and its crew of three, and the Bos ' n ' s Gig, to get that bag of sand. They were gone all day on this recreation party to Lolang Island, 2000 yards on our starboard beam, and we happened to be on the forecastle when they returned that afternoon with the Gig just loaded down with all kinds of coral, sea shells and other sou- cnirs entirely obscuring from view the one bag of sand for the Captain ' s cat. Looking up to- ward the aviation boom on the flight deck we could see Porthole ' s head looking down at that one bag of sand, with a forlorn expression on her face, as if to say, It doesn ' t look like they got enough to last until we hit port again, be- cause the Captain has told me where we ' re going. As soon as our forces took Ulithi Atoll the natives were all moved to the island of Fa.ssari, and some of us on the morning watch had a rather interesting experience one morning. We were anchored only about 2000 yards off Fassari, and, with our binoculars, we could get a very good view of the scattered native huts. Just as the sun was rising we had our glasses trained on a fairly large hut, and, as we watched closely, we could see the matted grass curtains pushed aside by a lazy arm, and, there, right before our eyes, was the Fassari counter- part of Dorothy Lamour, stretching and yawn- ing, and, apparently, hating to leave her palm leaf mat just as much as a Park Avenue Debu- tante hates to leave the percale sheets of her Simmons Beauty Rest mattress. But, being a Ulithi frau, she had her chores to do; so, finally, she got up and made a dash for the surf, splashing water all over her face and body to thoroughly awaken herself. Having com- pleted her toilet, she returned to the hut to awaken Pop. With no little effort, he finally got up, and, with spear in hand, walked down to the inlet about 200 yards from their place. After several dives into the breakers made by the coral reefs, he walked triumphantly back to the hut with their breakfast, which appeared to be two very nice fish. You could see them building a fire and cooking, and, soon, we saw no more of them until about sunset when we happened to be on the flight deck. They came sailing by in their over-sized outrigger canoe, with Dorothy ' doing most of the work in sailing the craft, and Pop and the kids lolling in the waning sun. Somehow, there was much to be envied in their way of life. We couldn ' t help recall the Presidential election taking place in the States the following Tuesday and all the sorrow and disappointment that would accom- pany it, regardless of who won. Such trivial matters never bothered Dorothy and her Old Man ; politics was something they couldn ' t even read about. Then, we thought of income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, franchise taxes, capital stock taxes, excess prof- its taxes, tax surcharges, poll taxes, cigarette ta.xes, gasoline taxes, business licenses, auto- mobile licenses, amortizing the mortgage, life insurance premiums and the many other 53

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Convoy of LST ' s approaching Lcyte, Nove Even before we got there, we recalled that the Palau Islands had just recently been taken by our forces; in fact, all of them had not yet been taken, and haven ' t been at this writing. We were anchored about 8000 yards off Babel- thaup, one of the larger of the Palaus, and it added nothing to our peace of mind to learn, on anchoring, that the Japs still held that island. We understood, however, that though the island was heavily defended, all their big guns were pointed south in a fixed position, and fortunately, we were north of it. It was mighty fortunate for our side that the Japs couldn ' t train their guns on us, because the anchorage was literally full of all types of naval vessels. Naturally, we not only didn ' t get ashore here, but we had no desire to. It did afford us much satisfaction, however, to listen to the radio in Combat and hear our Peleliu-based pilots talk- ing to each other as they bombed and strafed the Jap installations on Babelthaup, while, out- side, we could see the columns of smoke rising from the island, proving to our satisfaction that the attack had not been in vain. About the only recreation for all hands while in Kossol Roads on this particular visit was ' ' swimming over the side, which was enjoyed by the majority of officers and men, despite the possible presence of sharks that might be sympathetic to the enemy. Foreseeing this danger, however, the E.xec posted men with riffes on the forecastle and fantail, and the Life Guards in the No. 2 Motor Whale Boat were also armed. While the swimming was en- joyed, it was marred by an unfortunate oc- currence when Dr. Tirrell, our Senior Medical Officer, tried to keep up with the young Blue- jackets by diving from one of the .Sponsons and came up with a broken arm, which later nec- essitated his being detached. Having taken on all the supplies and fuel we needed, on Monday, 13 November 1944: 04-08 Anchored as before. 0630 Stationed all special sea details. Made all preparations for getting underway. 0657 Underway from Kos- sol Roads on various courses and speeds con- forming to channel. Captain at the conn. Executive Officer and Navigator on the bridge. 07 1 5 Exercised at General Quarters as modified by special sea details. 0726 Passed through Kossol Passage; took departure on course 275°T and p.g.c, 278° p.s.c. Steaming at 15 knots. 0742 Secured special .sea details. 0747 c s to 18 knots. 0750 Proceeding to position 1000 in cruising formation 5-LS at ig knots. We were finally underway on our first actual operation of the war, and that night the Gap- tain gave us the word. It seems that things were not going too well with General Mac- Arthur ' s invasion of Leyte as far as his supply line was concerned, and the Old Man told us that they had called on the Lunga Point and VC 85 for support. This talk of the Captain ' s was the first he had made to us to keep us in the know, but, from then on, he never failed to