Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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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.

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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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■wlictlicr i)r 111)1 the hoinl) ;i.s armed, tlir ( ' .a|)- Ftain had oix- of our torpedo l)oml)er pilots lly viii[;-()ii oil I.t. Foster, as close as possible, to see if the- annint; wire was still secured to the fuse and that the honih was secured to the rack. ' [ lie torpedo Ijoinher pilot ' s reply was, Aflirm- ative. The (:a|)lain tiu-u asked I, I. I ' oster if he wanted to attempt a laudinir al)oard, and his reply was, If you think it advisable, 1 will land aboard, dantain. Lt. Foster well knew that his life was at stake; yet he made his reply in keeping with the finest traditions of the Naval service. After another ti ' ii minutes of maneu- vering, trying again to .shake of] the bomb, Lt. Foster came into the landing circle. All planes were taken below to the hangar deck except two which were spotted forward on the flight deck, and for w hich there was no room on the hangar deck. All Fire Parties manned their stations and everyone was on their toes. Lt. Foster first made a pass at the ship, flying (lose to the bridge, so that the Claptain and Lt. (jg) I ' alena could ascertain that the Iwjmb was secure. Facing assured that the JKjmb wa.s se- cure, the Captain ordered Lt. Foster in. C;ommander Eastwold and Lt. (jg) I ' alena were the only ones on the flight de k when Lt. Foster came in on a very good landing. For a fleeting moment th e bomb remained intact on the plane, but the impact of the arresting gear loosened it, and it slid bounding down the deck in the direction of the parked planes and where impact with the planes might detonate the bomb, throwing liquid Are all tjvcr the ship, and possibly causing the loss of the ship and many of our personnel. Lt. (jg) Palena was standing near the island, and, as the bomb slid beneath the third barrier, he took out after it and caught it between the barrier and one of the planes spotted forward to starboard. He straddled the bomb and yelled, Damn it! •Somebody give me a wrench ! A big pipe wrench appeared out of nowhere, but it was Fighter returns safely from Iwo Jima with wing section damaged by enemy flak.