Point Cruz (CVE 119) - Naval Cruise Book

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the ship gunnery . . . that first day, I suppose I was a little eager, but then . . . Wrell, I was fresh out of boot camp, bright two stripes on my sleeve, salt spray in my crew cut from the ferry ride across Puget Sound, and a basic navy vocabu- lary of 700 four letter words on the tip of my tongue. Ten days of leave just over, the ship and the brow in front -of me, and bolstered up with the sea stories I told the folks at home, I clambered up the side of the ship, saluted the fo'c's'Ie, ignored the Officer of the Deck and handed my orders to the Air Officer who was standing at the quarterdeck waiting for a jeep. Then I got lost- Iost in the growls of officers, introductions to people I forgot, lost in a maze of passageways, decks, bunks, lad- ders, people, and when I rediscovered myself, I was quietly chipping paint on the fantail. I was in the Gun- nery Department. . . . . . there was a lot of painting to do: the ship's sides, compartments, passageways, the fantail, and the fo'- c's'Ie, and it seemed like that was all we did until we got underway a bit. Then it was different, for everytime we anchored or tied up to the dock, we were out handling lines and operating the winches. The first time we fueled a can was a lot of work, jerry-rigging the equipment so we could pump some oil across the trough of water that seemed almost to wash the spons-ons out from under us. The first time we dropped the boats in the water I man- aged to get the job of bow hook. That wasn't much of a job, so I began working as coxswain-and ended up a stern hook . . . The watchers weren't too bad either-sit- ting around as side-boy or walking around checking se- curity between cups of coffee . . . wonder just how many cups of coffee are drunk by the navy during a year . . . I guess I wanted most of all to get a bo's'n's pipe and try a little reveille piping myself after the first week or so of hearing it every morning, but that was Ieft up to the rated men who stood that watch. But then, there was always the painting to do again or watch the gunner's mates in the division work on their mounts after the Iast firing practice . . . tear them apart and put them back together again . . . paint a little and watch the firecon- trolmen test out the director controls of the radar mounts . . . until finally the inevitable pipe would sound, The following departments send the following number of men to the quarterdeck for a working party: Air, four men: Gunnery, six men . . . Hey, you, com'on, they've g-ot some supplies to bring aboard. Report t-o the quarter- deck to Gedunk, SK2-you heard me, MOVE! . . .