Randolph (CVS 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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. :sL,f...-1 ' - Sw ' ..'.'.1..Q..I, . . .I .- '..t . V-,.....,g...Q'5 i ': Ij I I ' I N A 1 I Q ' 4 A ' a n '. - Ill -' I I I-'I-lm I 'I I- 'I l I- ' Il I I Q me ..i.,..- .ie ,.w,.,,,.,g TSG- Poised and ever-alert, RANDOLPH waits in the clouded Pacific with other units of VADM Mitscher's Task Force 58 . . . Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Again a Randoo Candoof' The second Randolph, a part of Task Force 58, launched raids on Chichi Jima, and lwo Jima, and returned to Ulithi for replenishment. At the same anchorage was the carrier Bunker Hill. . . . The first thing we saw was a pillar of smoke, white in the glare of a searchlight, pouring from an Essex- class carrier nearby. Fire was eating at the base of the pillar, and every few seconds the whole stern of the ship shuddered under an explosion, and the fire leaped, and the smoke boiled. 'There she goesl' Someone kept yelling. 'There she goesl' No one knew which carrier she was, or what had happened to her. Rumors were flitting around like chimney swifts: the victim was the Hancock, and a torpedo warhead had exploded, she was the Essex, and a kamikaze had hit her, she was the Randolph. . . . By the time the fire was under control . . . the facts began to filter through, the ship was the Ran- dolph, a kamikaze had plunged through the after end of her flight deck. There were two, both of them twin- engine bombers with crews of three . . . lt's not certain where they came from, but the logical presumption is that they refueled at Yap. One pilot evidently mistook the lights on an island for a ship, because that's where he crashed, injuring fourteen men. The one that hit the Randolph killed twenty-six and injured one-hundred five more. Even so, she was lucky, if the attack had come a little earlier or a little later, or if the plane had crashed a little further forward, casualties would have been much, much higher. . . This account was published in Aircraft Carrier, by LCDR Joseph Bryan, USNR, aboard the Bunker Hill at the time of the attack. The men of the Randolph saw this: . . . There was a movie on the hangar deck called 'A Song to Remem- ber.' We may have forgotten the song, but we'll always remember the night- IVlarch 11, 1945. At seven min- utes past eight a twin engine Japanese bomber slipped past the radar net and interceptor patrols, roared out i8 An F6F leaves the starboard catapult bound for the Japanese mainland. of the night, and crash landed with bombs at the edge of the flight deck, starboard side, aft. At this moment one showing of the movie was just over and the other was about to begin. lVlen were getting up from their seats and others were moving in. The explosion was terrific. A great hole was torn in the flight deck, a col- umn of flame shot into the night air. Hot ammunition began to detonate, planes were burning like torches. We had never faced an emergency like this, but some- how we were equal to it. This incident was the first close contact with the realities of death and destroyers that the new carrier had felt. The men were equal to the task, and after repairs were made, the Randolph rejoined the fleet. On lVlarch 25, 1945, she became flagship for Admiral G. F. Bogan and joined in operations against Okinawa, Napo, Shoto, continuing to restrain enemy aircraft movements on the Japanese mainland. ln lVlay, the Randolph became flagship for Admiral lVlitscher. Relieved of further support requirements she sailed for Guam, then proceeded to Leyte Gulf, Philip- pine lslands. A month later while replenishing depleted bomb supplies a U.S. Army P38 crashed into the for- ward part of the carrier's flight deck. Resulting explo- sions caused considerable damage, killing 14 crew members and injuring 11 more. After completing repairs, the Randolph got underway for her third war cruise as a unit of Admiral Bull Halsey's Third Fleet. This was the beginning of an extended battle and the final campaign against the Japanese. Many targets were brought under attack by planes from the Randolph during this campaign, in- cluding the battleship Nagato and the carrier Hyuga. The latter was completely destroyed. During the Randolph's wartime activities its air groups accounted for 143 Japanese planes in the air, 160 on the ground, and 87,000 tons of shipping. Thankfully - and inevitably - the war came to a close, and the Randolph was pressed into clean-up operations. Her planes dropped supplies and medicine

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S -AW Mrs. lvy M. Gillette, wife of Nebraska's Senior Senator, prepares to commission CV-15, USS RANDOLPH, at launching from the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Virginia, on June 28,1944. Another blow for democracy is struck -as the war-hardened 1944 shipyard employees guide the mighty carrier into her first taste of salt water

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,A 4. . .f fluM!.-.-5.4-. - I A . 3s,,. f M, we - .... x,....-- . .... 5-ugh 'Q .44 , .1-A .....,... A. W- ww if ' 'V-fm Ready and eager for combat, the RANDOLPH leaves Virginia in October 1944, headed for the Pacific. Her final destination - Tokyo Bay. Commodore Arleigh A. Burke plans operations with Vice Admiral Mark A. Mitscher in RAN- DOLPH's Flag Plot in June 1945. The USS ASTORIA CL-90 and RANDOLPH fire at enemy aircraft aft of sister ship USS ESSEX CV-9 during Task Force 58 opera- tions. LAL... X ,ff