Rochester (CA 124) - Naval Cruise Book

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OPERATION KOREA Beer pariies on a beach Sasebo, our major liberty port We passed 'che admiral and his sfaff to MOORE

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. . Helicopter talces breather during TF 77 operations - Occasional dip at Okinawa . OPERATION KOREA Busy windmill pilot Young Our helicopter pilot, LTJG Young, got his first taste of what was to be standard procedure before too long on that day. He picked up his first survivors, from the VALLEY's splashed Windmill. Most of us were clutched, taut, ready for anything in the early hours of this Korean fracas. Talk in the messhalls pretty much agreed that it wouldn't take long to settle this mess. Some conservatives worried about getting back to the states by November 22, but no one seriously considered that we would be delayed.

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The- busy flag bag Y OPERATION KOREA Buckner Bay, Okinawa, became the operating base for TF 77 in those early days. We remember it as a hot, very blue, and very drab place to which we returned only to refuel, replenish and take an oc- casional flp off the fantail. Beer parties on a beach held up by a coral reef pro- vided a small outlet for pent up energy, but the majority of the crew spentrthe day trying to duckX..tl're hotsjuly sun. j Seventh Fleet was aboard at the time. That, to many is just a short sentence, butfgtothe men aboard it meant a tighter strain on living space, fresh water and putting in more effort to make Vice Ad- miral Struble's flagship the sharpest in the fleet. The signal gang was ever busy keeping the flag informed of task force movements. The snipe troops had to gear themselves and the ship's engines to sud- den bursts of speed to assure that enough wind blew across the carrier force's decks for flight operations. We! were the guide, and also the guiding light. We supported landings by the First Cavalry Division near Pohang off the East coast on 19 july, pushed through the edge of a typhoon and continued flight operations for another three days. It was then that we were introduced to Sasebo, japan, a port on the southern tip of Japan which turned out to be our major liberty port through. the next seven months. Some got one foot ashore. Most didn't. We got underway for the operating area during darkness the same night. ,fi - ' Vadm. Struble plans with British, captain, Radm. Hoskins and the Flag Officer Second in Command British Naval Forces Far East, Radm. Andrewes