Point Cruz (CVE 119) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 13 text:

leer i Rear Admiral Goldthwaite Commander Carrier Divisio the barge along side with two stars on the bow exchange of honors and Seventeen official calls . . . ceremonies, operations and a hunter, killer, diller party at the end. - u I f i 1 2 5 4 iilHFZIftifllI,ilHi!El the commands of the OTC. Early in the week the movements were slow, sometimes mistakes were made, and every-so-often the word would be passed around that the ship was only torpedoed five times in the morning. At the end of training, subs were often seen on the surface-subs that had been ordered to surface because they were considered to be sunk. And then the ships would return and there would be more hon- ors again, and the post-sailing conference, where the mistakes were talked over and action taken to correct them. Then it would start all over again with different destroy- ers-the training, the commands, the mis- takes, the corrections. Patiently the staff worked to perfect each ship in its duty of hunting, tracking, killing any enemy subma- rines they might in the future encounter.

Page 12 text:

. . . Commander Carrier Division Seven- teen came aboard in April, and in May sur- rounded by his staff, the Point Cruz be- came the guide in a formation composed of eight destroyers, the aircraft carrier, and two submarines lthe latter which seldom showed themselvesl. And the Anti-subma- rine Warfare training began. First the 'oper- ation plan would appear from the staff of- fice, then in the midst of a rush of honors to be rendered, the captains of all the taslc group would arrive for the pre-sailing con- ference. And the next morning the long line of ships would move out for the begin- ning ofthe exercise. The formation -of the screen, the basic plan for the flight sched- ules, the orders to avoid torpedoes, the movements of each ship were controlled from the voice of flag plot: and the forma- tion turned, zig-zagged, darkened ship, with Rear Admiral Eckstron Commander Carrier Division ComCarDiv 'I7 . . . beep beep, beep beep beep, beep the ever present command of all the actions of all the division. the commands and orders and the endless string of new situations to deal with. Seventeen

Page 14 text:

. . . there were two captains during the Far East cruise. Captain C. C. Marcy took com- mand long before the ship left Bremerton, and it was he that brought the ship through the hurricane off the Washington coast and down to San Diego for underway training. He was the captain that built the ship from a mass of men and steel int-o a coordinated group-with the men controlling and oper- ating the steel. ln May the ship began the Anti-submarine Warfare training for which it was designed. And soon the team of men were skilled in more than simply moving a ship around. . . . ln July a new captain arrived: Captain J. T. Hayward, who concluded the ASW training. Then under his command the ship went West-to Korea, a marine squadron aboard. A new captain and a different rou- tine, for the ship n-ow patrolled the coast to prevent any infractions of the newly signed Korean truce. Then there came Operation Platform with twelve hundred helicopter landings and launches. Through his efforts the ship adopted an -orphan from Korea. And when December came with the con- fusion of deployment to the states, the ship undertook one last maneuver and conv-oyed a group of cargo ships home-in time for Christmas.