Randolph (CV 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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,.,..w-: . if-some plane capfain musf have been around. Final insulf was added fo repeafed iniury when our mascof Randy , who wasn'+ quife shipbroken yef, made a mis- 'rake on fhe flighf deck and someone yelled for a plane capfain. The job of mainfaining fhe plane's elecfronic equip- menf fell fo VZE, fhe aviafion elecfronics unif. They had fo confend wifh all sorfs of froubles. There were 'rhe planes fhemselves all iammed wifh infricafe insfrumenfs, elecfrical equipmenf, cables, dynamofers, radios, genera- fors, iuncfion boxes, radar sefs and everyfhing else ever dreamed of. The whole ouffif had fo sfruggle on a fwenfy-four hour basis during combaf fo keep fhe planes in repair. Offen delicafe radio and radar equipmenf had fo be changed in fhe dark and many fimes sha'Hered anfennas had fo be replaced wifh only seconds fo spare for pre-dawn fake-offs. The insfrumenf men were always racing againsf fime wifh gas gauges, insfrumenf panels, remofe compasses, efc. Buf plane mainfenance was fhe easy side of fhe iob. The elecfricians were always being called ouf for weak bafieries which fhey righfeously poinfed ouf was fhe faulf of eifher fhe radio gang or, mosf likely, fhe plane capfains. Their hours were long and fheir work fedious, buf fhey came fhrough. The grease monkeys of V-2 were fhe men of VZM. They called fhemselves coolies. and sweafed fhrough fhe changing of engines, wings, landing gear, propellors and almosf everyfhing else conceivable. There were fwo .V -K T is , .. J. I A sta. J' I fe i I 7 Q sx,Kn,4- -q . .Q 0 J, kinds-'rhe nighf and fhe day coolies. Nafurally each infained if had fhe heaviesf volume of work and was fhe mosf imporfanf facfor, in keeping up fhe availabilify of fhe planes. Thaf argumenf has never been group ma seffled. A The V-25 division has a whole group of rafes in if: mefalsmifhs, parachufe riggers, oxygen shop men, and painfers. They offen were considered by fhe misguided as fhe hobby shop division . In facf, a moffo of fhe division was when beffer bracelefs, wafch-bands, and picfure frames are made, we will make fhem-we also do aircraff work . On shakedown fhe mefal shop builf lock- ers, l40 of fhem, did welding for everyone from fhe mess cooks fo fhe Capfain and only incidenfally worked on aircraff. Since shakedown, fhe proporfion of job orders shiffed foward fhe aircraff side, buf fhere is sfill an irresisfable urge on fhe parf of all and sundry fo call on V-2-S fo do some odd iob or ofher. The painfers are always called on for somefhing-since PAINTING SOMETHING is an old Navy cusfom. The mefalsmifhs learned fo pafch al- mosf any kind of flak hole and could be seen af fimes, squaffing down on fhe hangar deck rivefing on a pafch. There was one iob fhaf was parficularly pleasanf-fhaf of painfing Japanese flags on fhe plane's fuselages. V-4-F Any sfory abouf fhe V4F lGassingl unif should sfarl wifh a series of confradicfory orders and a lof of con- fusion. Nof fhaf Messrs. ROUGH and KERR ran fheir ouffif fhaf way, buf iusf fo make fhe unif feel af home. Air Plo'r would say, Pu'r I0 fighfers on fhe Hangar Deck and degas fhem. Bring up five of fhose fighfers 'rhaf iusf wenf down and gas fhem. Puf gas in fhe belly fanks buf nof in fhe wing 'ianks of 'lhe bombers. There is a nighf fighfer on fhe cafapulf wifhouf any gas. And fhen, Belay fhaf lasf word. Thus when on an average sfrike day, fhe Gassing defail fakes a slick fasf moving ouffif fo keep up wifh fhe consfanfly changing facfical sifuafion and V4F has learned how fhe hard way. When 'rhe gassing defail was finally assembled many monfhs ago fhere were very few who had acfually seen a bigfime carrier operafe. The shakedown cured 'l'ha'l', and made fhem a lof of enemies besides. Thai blankefy- blank-blank sysfem had more blank-blank leaks fhan a fish ne+ , said Bowers. We would puf fhe smoking lamp ouf abouf fwenfy fimes a day while we hunfed for leaks. Hunfing leaks and holding a meefing every day in Aircraff Confrol faughf fhe lads a lof, and by fhe fime fhe shakedown was over and fhe RANDOLPH sfarfed on her way fowards fhe combaf area fhe unif knew ifS sfuff and had developed characfer and an esprif de corps' 'l'ha'l' sfill marks if. V-4 -A Half of fhe crew of ordnanceman came aboard shorfly affer fhe Commissioning Ceremonies fo augmenf fhe iwelve man Crew 'lhen aboard, forming fhe V4A division. They were capably lead by ushakedgwnn Cherry, an ex- Pefi' lon Shalledvwnsi. Then, affer a shor'l' bay cruise.

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December 20+h when our shakedown period was com. pleTed, 2025 landings had been made. We began To Teel ThaT we were now Tully capable of handling whaTever siTuaTion mighT arise in combaT. During March The arresTing gear crew was hard aT work geH'ing The ship inTo shape aTTer The hiT by The Kamikaze. In order To replace The ruined No. I arresTing engine, No. 6 engine was moved aTT and a new plaTTorm builT upon which The engine was seT. This was The TirsT Time ThaT The locaTion oT one of These new engines was changed ouTside oT a navy yard. The repIacemenT of No. I arresTing engine made The ship Tully operable Tor land- ing aircraTT and so made unnecessary The immediaTe re- Turn of The ship To a navy yard. The TirsT plane launched from The ship was senT oTT by caTapulT on November I2, I944. This was an indicaTion of Things To come: Tor, of The I2,063 planes launched up To The end of The war, 4,897 were caTapuITed. This is probably The highesT percenTage of caTapulT launchings in The T'leeT. In June I944 The crash of a P-38 TighTer on The TIighT deck resulTed in considerable exTra work Tor The crew in replacing damaged cables on The caTapulT. Repair work was The order of The day when Randy anchored, Tor major overhauls could noT be accomplished underway. V-2 DIVISION REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE In The beginning, The aircraTT mainTenance division, V-2, was known as CASD, Carrier AircraTT Service Divi- sion. IT has iTs origin and Training aT Three separaTe Train- ing cenTers on The EasT CoasT: QuonseT PoinT, R.l., AT- lanTic CiTy and Wildwood, N. J. IT was Tinally broughT TogeTher as a compleTe uniT aT Oceana, Virginia, where iT's TirsT maior responsibiliTy-Tor The mainTenance of bombers, Torpedo, and TighTer planes which were There and later To be broughT To The ship, when she sailed. We sailed Tor Trinidad-TwisTing and piTching off Cape HaTTeras, liTTle realizing how much was To happen and how long iT'd be before we'd come by There again. As soon as we reached The Carribean, TIighT operaTions commenced and wiTh iT, our real work. For our primary duTy on The Randolph was To nursemaid and docTor a loT of sTubborn planes ThaT seemed To develop every pos- sible Trouble known, and many ThaT were unknown. There were Times when one suspecTed There were some people aboard who TelT ThaT aircraTT mainTenance could be done by The pixies and gremIins , and ThaT V-2 was a very handy coolie force To be used Tor every oTher kind of work. In spiTe oT many having To sleep on The hangar deck or any convenienT corner, working parTies, field days, long Tedious chow lines-in spiTe of all ThaT, and more, The work was done. DelicaTe insTrumenTs, heavy can- Tankerous engines, obsTinaTe radar, whole wing sTrucTures -creaTed problems. NighT check crews would sTruggle To geT a dawn hop ready, only To have iT cancelled or To Tind-a propellor had chewed up The eIevaTors oT a couple planes. Shakedown isn'T an adequaTe w-ord Tor ThaT period of Trial and sTruggle, buT iT paid off. We Tound ways of doing Things aImosT incredible. We heckled and ThreaTened and screamed and even wenT down on our knees To beg. In The end, we goT The dive bombers spoTTed so The wings could be spread Tor adiusTmenTsg we goT The plane handlers indocTrinaTed inTo The reaIizaTion ThaT eIevaTors and sTabiIizers have no known immuniTy To a whirling propeller: we managed To convince one and all ThaT Those Things hanging on The planes were fragile parTs of radar equipmenTg and ThaT TracTors COULD be driven inTo Them buT ThaT iT didn'T help The radar any. To do The iob more eFl'icienTly, we spliT The division inTo Tour separaTe uniT divisions, V2F, VZE, V2M, and V255 each oT which has a separaTe TuncTion. The plane capTains in V2F had To manage The impos- sible and do everyThing buT sleep in Their planes. They were The TirsT ones up and The lasT ones To Turn in. Dur- ing The I8 hours or so in beTween, They had To Try To Tind Time Tor chow and a smoke or Two and sTill man all planes aT all Times. No sooner would a plane capTain hop ouT of his plane To go Tor a drink Than There'd be a howl oT rage from someone on The fIigh+ deck because a plane wasn'T manned. And, more Than ThaT, iT was The Things he didn'T do ThaT he was blamed Tor, Too. IT The gassing crews were forward when They should have been aTT, iT was obviously a plane capTain aT TaulTg if The radio gang leTT a puTT-puTT in The middle oT The TlighT deck, Then The only possible culpriT was a plane capTain: if a Talker's phones wouldn'T work, if a plane wouldn'T Turn up, if anyThing wenT wrong There could be only one reason Tor L.-11585

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came fhe big day. The Leading Chief came aboard wifh fhe resf of fhe crew. The ship shoved off on her shake down. Things looked preffy black for awhile buf fhe experf 'fechnical knowledge of Gunner Reade pulled us fhrough. Wifh long hours of hard work fhe division developed info efficienf, smoofh working feams. During fhe firsf week of April, we sfarfed a 57 day operafion, which found mosf ordnancemen working a 25 hour day . . . Wifh one day's resf ouf of five, during which, we replenished from an ammo ship . Due fo fransfers and advancemenfs, we found our- selves long on firsf class AOM's and shorf on chiefs, so Buck Rogers Branum and Jackie Liffle Napoleon La- Vine gof fhe call. The chiefs are sfill shorf. One of fhe general service chiefs, affer seeing Cufie LaVine, wav- ing his curly locks, said, This ioinf looks more like high school every day . The raids on Tokyo and Okinawa, plus a 30 day sfay in Leyfe, we survived, buf fhis peace wifh cleaningup, painfing, passengers, wafer rafioning, inspecfions . . . well, peace, if's wonderful. BOMB SUPPLY DUDS Two decks below fhe hanger deck, in fhe forward parf of fhe ship, was Chief Gunner Reade's mob, beffer known as Bomb Suply. Tom Egan, a Vermonf boy was firsf class in charge. His liflle assisfanf, who did mosf of fhe whip cracking, was Bob Ulrich from Lebanon, Pa. Also from Lebanon was Bob Hiesey known for fhe way he conserved his energy fill mail call and fhen broke all exisfing frack rec- ords. Jerry Honey Boy Janik also a mail hound, de- vofed all of his energy fo wrifinq. We're all beffing Jeanne gave plenfy fo fhe scrap paper drive. Mosf of fhe noise in Bomb Supply originafed from Jose The Voice Alvarez, buf when if came fo real qualify of fhe vocal cords, we furned fo Russell B. Kelley who is a definife fhreaf fo Rudy Vallee. Every division on every ship or sfafion of fhe U. S. Navy seems fo have af leasf one man who comes from Brooklyn and Bomb Supply is no excepfion. This man's fheme song is My Blue Heaven and his name is Paul Weenie Wiener. Our champion rockef liffer is Frank Sfrong Man Ambrose buf he excels in his hobby which is african golf . Vernon Nyby who spenf his early days in Bomb Supply looking for an armor piercing bomb has earned fhe fifle of No Favor Man . Along fhe same line is our fufure polifician, Roberf Sfub Sfubler. He has decided fo become a congressman before fhe nexf war and says, By gym, we'll draff fhe married men firsf nexf fime . He fold Mark Horizonfal Gibbon all abouf if while Gibbon was in sick bay having fhe maffress cuf off his back. We pause now for a requesf from Carl Nose Bradford. He asks fhaf fhe girls call him Brad , if sounds more romanfic. lncidenfly, fhis boy is fhe only man who can fake a shower and smoke a cigareffe af fhe same fime. From Texas we have Sidney Cookie Cook and R. W. Tex Crider. They are bofh horsemen from way 'Si