Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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yen bggch, that radioed the signal for our Mt-n 9' War to lift their gunfire inland, and at ex- actly 0930 the first wave of troops hit tht- bt'zu'h followfd at perioflit' iittervnls by other waves. Our forces of surface craft and plant-s had nn- doubtedly left the eneniy clam-tl by their so heavily conCentl'aitecl attack, bt't':iiist', nnieh to our surprise, the actual landings wt-re niade with practically no i'esistant't-, and, const'- quently, with hardly any castialties. VVt- were, therefore, able to put ashore literally thousands of troops, vehicles and other tnaterial that lirst day, and OLII' troops aclvancetl on S Day to the point that they had hoped to reaeli on S plus three. In any event, the hardest part of the Battle of Luzon had been won. On SS plus two, I 1 january, we were par- ticularly pleasecl to receive from Admiral Durgin the following dispatch: V 'CI AM MORE THAN PLEASED WITH THE WAY OUR SHARE OF THIS SHOW IS BEING ACCOMPLISHED X WE UN- DERSTAND THE REASONS FOR MOST OF YOUR DIFFICULTIES AND ARE TRYING TO CORRECT THEM X YOUR LOCAL COOPERATION HAS EASED THE PAIN OF MANY HEADACHES X SHIP HANDLING IS GOOD X OUR LIT- TLE FRIENDS HAVE RESCUED EVERY PILOT AND ARE TURNING IN THEIR USUAL TOP FLIGHT PERFORMANCE X OUR AVIATORS ARE EXECUTING THEIR MISSIONS LIKE VETERANS AND ARE MAKING THEIR PRESENCE Assault echelon en route to Lingayen l'eaclit-s on SS Day. ricixi' AT 'rnia 'rA1toIf3'r X FLIGHT AND IIANGAR ntaczk cziuaws ARE nomo A wonniaiufui, ,lolz X IQLVEKYONE HAS vi rcznicn nvro A D11+'FieUL'r TASK wi rn Sl'I,l'1NDID SPIRIT X WELL DONE X77 l,t. fjgj ciII,KI'1Y 'LAKES A 'TRIP We hung around for some time after USU Day, with our planes continuing to cover our troops as they advanced South toward Manila, and they did a bang-up job of it, too. We were fortunate, however, in losing only one torpedo bomber in the entire operation, but thereon hangs a long storyg too long for Lt. fjgj Arthur W. Gilkey of Front Royal, Va. and his two air crewmen. CHis story will be found at the baek of the book.j Lt. tjgj REILLY CRACKS THE WHIP Like all other aircraft carriers, we occasion- ally have a barrier crash on the flight deck with usually nothing more than superficial damage to the plane,s propellor or engine cowling. On l7J21f1U21I'y, however, we had a barrier crash that is undoubtedly unique in the annals of Naval aviation. Lt. Cjgj R. C. Reilly was bringing his torpedo bomber in for a landing. The China Sea was rough that day, and the Lzmga Point was pitching and rolling to beat the band. Lt. Reillyas approach was satisfactory and the LSO CLanding Signal Ofhcerj gave him a 'ccutf' Apparently, he held off too long, and, as he flewjust a few feet Lingayen Gnlfbeaehhead on SS Day, 30 minutes after H hour. Air strip in centerg Alligators in foreground.

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l , i is 's i 'z 'e I 4 5: xl 1 If -i 'f r, ,K ll li I I H t I I Lt. Cjgj Ramey has his steak and cake for splashing Jap plane. Ramey shot down a Zeke,w the Hrst enemy plane shot down by our squadron. There was much celebration, because our squadron had proven thereby that they could dish it out. Consequently, that night in the Wardroom, Lt. Cjgj Ramey had the tradional steak and cake for dinner, while the rest of us had our usual Wardroom meal. And another Jap flag was painted on our bridge. This was destined to be a big day in the life of the Lunga Point and her Squadron, because A FIRST JAP SHIP H12-I6 Steaming as before. 1445 Received orders from OTC to arm four VT's with tor- pedoes. 1527 Four VT's ready to fly with torpedoes, and four FM2's with rockets, to intercept reported Japanese destroyersf' Twoenemy destroyers had been sighted just off Luzon about 20 miles away, and our planes, in company with planes from two or three other Squadrons, went in for the attack. The net result was that, with our rockets and tor- pedoes hitting their target, two Nipponese des- troyers reported to their Honorable An- cestors, and a Jap ship is now among the decorations on our bridge. All of our planes returned safely to the ship. That same afternoon, our Task Force was subjected to a rather heavy enemy air attack, and, while a number of our ships were hit, there was no great damage done any of them and their casualties were small. While we aircraft came within range of our guns, al- though we could see the other ships ln our l ask F orcc repelling the attack Although we were attacked a number of times and had many a Snooper coming in to get a look at us, we arrived off Lingayen Gulf on the appointed day, and our planes immedi ately began their bombing and strafing runs on enemy shore installations, while our Battle Wagons,,' cruisers and destroyers stood off- shore right in Lingayen Gulf, giving the enemy beaches a withering gunfire day and night were at General Quarters this time no enemy CC 33 ' S S 5 . W, wah- 'T i N, ,J Y 5 ' K, X Ith- 1 f 1::'::T? v 'V K- , -1- -- g 3 v'.','il 'ii If 5 ww:-.----,-M, , -U . 5 J!! e'7'l'T'AT?fffii .-'f Eff: ,J-filmms T , li? N 5,f'iLg --L roi , S , K .4 . , , - , 2 'J i ' ',: I I l l '25 ' '-pq r T ...-f ,. -.6 F 2 'S , v ,,- A A y. N - ' , 9' wi, . ,' , .ffi ' -'55, , ,Q as-fi ff- '4 ' A .-ASQ- 'L ' -' ' -:1 'W' -5' without let-up, literally pulverizing enemy installations, paving the way for our troops to establish their beach head. CCS!! On CCS Day, 9 January 1945, it was a Lunga Point plane, flying high above the Linga- 1 Direct hit on fuel dump at Aropong, near Baguio, Luzon, S --L

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L, i S ii si 1 1, 1, ' I i 1 ,-an wise-.sane Top Enemy trucks destroyed by our planes during Lingayen op eration below Underground ammo dump near Santa Cruz Luzon S +5 bove the flight deck the heavy sea pulled the deck down so that his hook would not grab the arresting gear cables, but, instead the hook caught the top wire on the No 2 barrier With a Bang his plane landed on the starboard side of the flight deck just forward of the island not in one piece but in two pieces The impact had been so great that it literally jerked that big torpedo bomber half in two just aft of the p1lot's cock pit It would not have been sur prising if the pilot and his two crewmen had been killed or seriously injured On the other hand, two of them came out unscratched, and the one air crewman who suffered superficial cuts was discharged from Sick Bay the next day We mention this merely to show that, while we do have accidents occasionally they do not necessarily result in death or serious injury u1te some time after S Day we were given orders to leave the Lingayen area, un doubtedly because the Army had the situation well in hand and now had sufhcient landbased air cover to release us. From here on out, the complete conquest of Luzon and, ultimately, the Philippines, seemed to be nothing more than a methodical reduction of the Jap forces by our Army. lt had been an interesting and exciting operation, but we were glad to be leaving, because we were very tired from run- ning to General Quarters at all hours of the day and night and attending to the other arduous duties pertinent to our part in the Lingayen operation. The idea of a little rest and recre- ation in Ulithi was a happy and welcome pros- pect to us all. We were also quite anxious to get to calmer seas, because that South China Sea had really been rough since we had been there, and it was a real credit to the ability of our entire Air Department, and to our LSO in particular, that our plane handling on the Hight deck had been so successful during the operation How they brought those planes safely down on that flight deck ID such heavy seas will always be a mystery to many of us Then, too, we were most anxious to get our Senior Medical Officer back to waters that more closely resembled the flat prairies of Kansas All in all, no one was sad when we set our course southward En route to Ulithi we could see further ev1 dence of the success of our operations at Linga yen Gulf because we were constantly sighting our own transport planes flying north to Luzon, unmolested, over routes that just a few weeks before would have been extremely hazardous to say the least That was all the proof we needed to convince us that we now had com plete control of the air over the Philippines Ll Cjgl Reilly s flight deck crash