Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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Explo BiMtiarck Sra following Kamikaze hit. when we secured, and it was a tired and vvear -, yet grateful group of men that crawled in their bunks that night. We had hardly crawled in. however, when the Captain talked to us over the general announcing system, at which time he highly commended all hands for their con- duct during the terrific attack. He went on to say that he was proud to feel that every man on the ship had done his job well, thereby contrib- uting just that much more to our success. He expressed the sentiments of all hands, in re- ferring to the gun crews, when he simply said. They were magnificent. Once again, we had met the test; we had come through another crisis with colors flying. Once again, too, we were thankful that we had been put through such a rigid period of training in prep- aration for just such emergencies as this. It was nut. however, with a feeling f f cockiness that we stood around tlic loud-speak Ts listen- ing to the (Captain. True, we had suflicient conlidence in ourselves to meet any emergency, but it was. rather, with a feeling of profoimd humility and gratitude U .Mmighty (Jod that we had been spared to fighi on to rotnplelc and l(jtal victory. Heroism Off Iwd Jima li was during this operation that one of the most exciting, one of the most thrilling, and one of the most heroic incidences of our first year occurred. Lt. Bud Foster had accompanied other planes on a direct support hop o er Iwo Jima in his Wildcat fighter, and a part of his mission was to drop a Xapalm (fire) bomb on his tar- get. When he go t over his target, however, it develojjed that the bomb relea.sc was faulty and he could not relea.sc his bomb. . fter completing the remainder of his mis- sion he returned to our operating area and called the C aptain and told him of his plight, requesting instructions as to whether to bail out or attempt a landing on the ship. The Skipper had Lt. (jg) Max Palcna. our avia- tion ordnance officer, report to the bridge where the ' went into a detailed discussion of Captain and .A.CJ.I. officer inspect wing section of Kamikaze k on our flight deck after hitting after part of island structure.

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Third Kamikaze, after being shot down by our AA guns, bursts into flames just before flitting after part of island structure. . fter leaving starboard wing and wheel behind, third Ka bounds blazing over port rail into the sea. apparently misjudged our speed. We on the guns felt mighty lonely for a while as we stood by, contemplating what a narrow escape we had had, but that loneliness was soon dispelled by the voice of the Old Man speaking to all hands over the Bull Horn, telling them to keep up the good work. We were no longer alone; we were again reminded that we had support from the bridge to the engine rooms. ' Ws, throughout the ship, e ' ery man was on his toes and doing the job assigned him in the man- ner in which he was supposed to. While all this was going on, a sad sight came to our eyes. The Bismarck Sea (C VE qj), one of our Sister ships, was hit by a Kamikaze, just 2000 yards on our starboard quarter and she was burning rapidly. We soon learned that Captain Pratt had wisely given the order to abandon ship, but, seeing that blazing inferno and the explosions that followed, we knew that, though total casualties might be comparatively light, some of us would almost undoubtedly lose a friend on board her. We had started out together and had been together so much that we dare say there is not a man on board the Lunga Point who didn ' t have at least one close friend on that fine ship that was gradually settling beneath the surface of the Pacific. It was a strange feeling, but it made us want to fight all the harder to avenge the loss of the men in the Bismarck Sea. Jap planes were still attacking other ships in our Task Force, and the sky was so full of shell bursts that it looked like a mammoth Fourth of July celebration. We had gone to General Quarters at i 708, and it was well after 2 1 00 Our flight deck was ablaze that night, but ■ fire parties quickly extinguished the fires.

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Wing and wheel of Jap pla e that hit after part of island siructur 2 1 Februan-. the release system of the bomb racks. After considerable discussion, it was decided to as- sist Lt. Foster in further attempting to release the bomb, and, in doing so, they put him through most every maneu er conceivable, in- cluding Hying on his back, but even fifteen minutes of this failed to shake off the bomb. The Claptain then called Admiral Durgin over the TBS (transmission between ships), and requested advice as to whether he should order Lt. Foster to bail out or attempt to bring him aboard. It was a tough decision to make. If Lt. Foster were to bail out, he would, in all probability, be picked up unharmed, but we would have been short a fighter plane. On the other hand, if we attempted to bring him aboard and things didn ' t work out perfectly, there was a distinct possibility that many lives would be lost, including that of Lt. Foster, not to mention the possibility of losing our ship and planes. The decision was left entirely up to our Skipper when Admiral Durgin said, Do what you think best. Good luck, Gat! ' On receiving these instructions from the-Ad- miral, the Captain and Lt. (jg) Palena went into another discussion on the possibility of the bomb ' s fuse being armed and the possibility of the bomb being released by the impact if a landing were attempted. To ascertain The Old Man ■ bridge on 22 Februan ' 1945.