Point Cruz (CVE 119) - Naval Cruise Book

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recommissioning

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From: To: Via: Subj Encl an-Q View fa ir 'Fira I nt 'I u f lf ff W J u. s. s. PolNT cRuz CCYE-1191 QQFQQPQQ: cvE119fJ'rH:gf A-7 Serial: 1371 2 January 19511 cfo FLEET POST OFFICE SAN FRANCISCO. CALIFORNIA Commanding Officer, USS POINT CRUZ QCVE 1193 Chief of Naval Operations CATTENTION: Division of Naval Historyy Commander Carrier Division Seventeen Activities of Uss Po1NT cauz qcvs 1.193 11 Jan 1953 to 18 Dec 1953 ill USS POINT CRUZ cruise book l. The following informal record is submitted concerning the activities of the USS POINT CRUZ during the period between ll January 1953 and 18 December 1953. 2. Included in the enclosure is the basic organization of the ship, personnel and major events and activities conducted during the Far Eastern cruise, which the USS POINT CRUZ undertook during the above mentioned period. 3, Also inbluded. . . . . . yes, also included are the boiler tenders, the radarmen and the yeomen. And I know the story too, a yeoman second class . . . more than thirty months aboard . . . aboard when she was recommissioned over two years ago . . . ' 4

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. . . It was in July l95I, just after l'd come aboard, that the Point Cruz was recommis- sioned. Before that she was in mothballs in Tacoma, Washington, where she had been built in I945. The Point 'Cruz had the usual story of a ship just 'Finished after the Second Wrorld War. Captain Douglas T. Day was the first commanding officer and in the ac- tivities just after the war he took her through the usual shakedown activities and down to San Diego in November I945, where she picked up a Marine Air Group, MarCasD-8. Then it was carrier qualifications for air groups and carrier transport trips from Ala- meda and San Diego to Peal Harbor, Guam, Okinawa and Yokohama-passengers, army fighter planes, automobiles and household goods. Then back to the mothball fleet at Tacoma-I946. I95l came with the recom- missioning ceremonies and Captain David- son relieving Captain Butterfield. . . . We to-ok the ship down to Bremerton for yard work in December and it was then we became part of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. There were only 40 -officers on board at this time and 350 enlisted men. Every month or s-o 'we'd take the ship out on the sound or through the Straits of Juan de Fuca to operate off the coast-and pick up sea store cigarettes. In June of l952, they start- ed a six months conversion job - built a whole new island, strengthened the flight deck and put on new arresting gear. And during this time we got a new captain, Cap- tain C. C. Marcy. It was Captain Marcy who got the ship underway in January l953, now as part -of the active Pacific Fleet, and took us through the straits again on the first leg of a journey to the Far East.