Randolph (CV 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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The Firsf and Second Divisions gol' plenfy of anchor- ing pracfice +here-ai leasi +he Second did affer il' had 90+ ifs porl' anchor in fhe habii' of running. Boa+s, booms, and gangways were shipped and rigged 'Fre- quenfly by 'Phe Fourih and Fifih in fhe Chesapeake and af Pod O'Spain. We were se'H'ling down 'lo our divi- sional deck duiies now. A+ Newporf, R. l., 'lhe ship's organizalion book had forehandedly been wri'H'en far away from acfual chocks and lines, hence every evolu- iion during our firsi' mon'fh underway was a hand-+o- mouih aFiair of assigning differenf divisions 'I'o duiies iusl' before or during lhe job, +rying +o gel' a workable dis- lribuiion. A plan drawn up originally by Reddick, BM of lhe working Second lnow CBMQ, was adopled al' Trini- dad and wilh minor changes has safisfied all hands ever since. Our chief job on shakedown was shooiing, of course. We fired nearly a 'fhousand rounds of 5 inch, nearly eleven ihousand rounds of 40mm, and over 35 lhousand rounds of 2Omm. Much of lhis shooling was al' bursls -sr--S--1 ' Ljf. at A r-V and sleds, so fhe sleeve score is noi significant Bul' lhere were some. Remember December 9? Three sleeves. On lhe 29'rh, il was four sleeves. Allhough fhe Shangri- La beal us all hollow on bond-selling and leave-ge++ing, we did be+'l'er shooling and we never hil' a 'row plane inslead of i+s sleeve. There were a few brighf spois away from work, like ihe Rum and Coca-Cola song and Judd, Cox, iilier- bugging wi+h fhe Calypso beauiy. Up al' Macqueripe in -ul

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haw fhe Kimona boys liked fo approach fheir fargefs. To gee fhe gesficulafing hands on a gun deck you mighf have fhoughf our gunners were a bunch of fighfer pilofs ghowing how fhaf nexf Jap was going fo be shof down. Ulifhi, fhe firsf fime, was a speck of green affer fhousands of miles of Pacific blue, a swim on blazing coral beaches, fhen a quick shove off fo fhe Firsf Car- rier Raid on Tokyo. We were ready. We were now a fully frained and prepared anfi-aircraff baffery, eager for combaf. Buf nofhing happened fo us. We were gunners, and we sfayed af our guns all day on Febru- ary I6, and fhe nexf day, and fhe nexf and so on, wafch- ing and fracking our own planes as fhey fook off and landed affer sfriking fhe enemy. The roufine is familiar now: we have spenf hundreds of days like fhaf. Af nighf fhe wafch mighf gef a liffle news from Combaf-per- haps fhe disfance from enemy coasfs-buf if offen seemed as if we were spare gear. On fhe nighf of fhe Zlsf, we did shoof af a bogey, and we puf up some preffy fireworks. Perhaps we damaged him, and af any rafe we drove him away, buf fhaf was all. Ofherwise we sfood our I6 hour wafch per day af G.Q., plus our one-in-four nighfly condifion wafch. Affer a week of fhis, we had a break-or was if merely a change? Fueling and replenishing af sea! In fhe middle of Dawn G.Q., fhe word came over fhe 5JP Send rigging defails fo all fueling sfa+ions. Reddick fook some hands fo forward fueling, Sfevens fo affer fueling. Swinharf gof his fowline ready on fhe focsle. Womble collecfed a few from Mfs. 6 and 8 40mm for : but