Samuel N Moore (DD 747) - Naval Cruise Book

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ta32ae5?W?'f 'i J iTNWWs i i 4 l slit i he-- s, A sQ :p 2L1+idj. ., 5 ' . T 1 3' Qyh2The Fleet ' 'v Recreation Center isn't much when judged by Kindards, but it is 1 nd r it are nan pl.ying football oking into the 3 ale in tl midst of a tropical storm. They are aked to the skin L + n sailor is used to tHnt, and, thoush the il may stick tc their chess, it doesn't roll. THGY knew that YOU ln't need a shine a hundred miles off Tokyo, and there are no trees Bree ' t d. There is a softball game, co plete with fans, in full Wfp, Lthe drizzling rain. Xen in dnngarees walk through mud and u I , 1 f Tung ,'. 'is 1:4 i ' ' . 1 ' u l ' e'i . v, f sf' ' ' 'O P : I .. ,Q 1 ing dry. Ther r nan l8HQlHg, carrying their cases of be opic sun is Ou r leer s lls easily at a dollar a can. if n had h l 4 .,w ,f-- Q- cc ld hav' m-u' 1 fortune None of ther known how good a glass of nilk could be until they had been With? , Then the sun breaks throqgh, and before you know it, the mud vA l k .' e :ve no e re .'l l . . n' a shady spot, The beer had been cold when they started, but the n h t. Pven we 5 ' 'i se i f ' T t me Gi a f n. th ce bu , 1' xc c a's L . ' d . . O ' U ,' t it for so many months. Itfs like that with a lot of things. T pf Aboard the ships hen are at work. Equipment in constant use yen eds frequent overhaul and wears out quickly. 'Steel exposed to the! vnges of the sea nust often he repainted. The rent bulkheads must' repaired - the caved-in gun shield replaced. The boilers must be eaned and the engines ready to carry the men and guns where they KQ a going when they are needed. The radar must be picking 'em up, it 1 the ship's communications in perfect order. The guns must be in rfect shape. Stores and ammunition must be brought aboard and :wed below. A warship must be nore than seaworthy, it must be Ztlewbrthy, and the time is short. - Ae the sun drops below the horizon the forecastles of the myriad .ps are crowded, and, as dusk deepens into dark, movies are start- g. All unnecessary topside lights are out. Only the men who have an there know how necessary the movies can be. Men sit through Y apical ruin squalls to see musical conediesg sit up half the night. ' good wnrless drama. Sometimes they have seen the show before. , t doosn't matter as much as it used to. Movies are the nearestlfi ngs they have to the people and places they love. They cen't walk! 0 ' rw --. in - . -X e- e corner drug store and older a choclate malt and leaving, droi ickol onto the news stand for the evening paper. They can't dropv o their favorite bar f Q -fc' ' - 'st ' or n cock,uil and a chat before dinner. The 't raid the ice box, Motion pictures bring the innumerable little nge they have learned to appreciate closer to them. But most of , movies furnish relief fren the strangely monotonous life they, d. They know new that monotony does not always go with idlenees Perhaps there is a flash red - an enemy plane in the vicinity. projectcra blink off, the flickering welding arcs disappear,s Shing signal lignts je cnt,'the area is black. Then there is ep streak across the sky. The Tag has been successful only in his cide. .He was alone, +The lighas go on. The men return from' 3 nn..-, .. ,, . p. . o listen to a Oneneriul oionli sinuing a love song on the Q J W to laugh at the wise-cracks of nnerica's greatest comedians. Below decks is a man who has just finished a but. ly soaked with sweat 't' f ls, Wln Port , wri ing a letter to'a loved o I? , - Xiiiiiikktiiiiii E F i -llv v 'bpd' Eggs,-1 ,' at ' ' s?mq'f+ev: - T L . i

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x . PACIFIC PORT y Norman Jo Mcmeekin xxxxxaaaaxaaxaaxxxsxxx H4415-:Quai -- ' ' A' ' i- , - f... '1--1 sun beats merciless a tired task group ' A tropic u ly down upon U fu -L rs-3' -xr-y r-1 ., -. -L .wc as lu oceans on toward an unchorw age in the vast west central pace ific, The ships have bcap under- VJ85' fill' K- -ff' eval-'TLg Tiliill' Sidi-BS are stained with rust, their super- stroctores are torn and twisted - smashed by the wrath of wind and seal., or by war, Their smokey- lese eLa-lS give xo hint of the i il 143 r of the turpines which have ' ' drifan than iaitnrully across ijiifhf io'i c o WQj,'clc jp,p alloc , ,,c oodibl :S miles or ocean, The crews are just as tired as the ships they man. And they are just as tough, and jaat as scaworthy. Hut men are creatures of the land, and they look tc solid ground as howto Tho saltiest of them, although they may love the sea, long for the sight or green trees after days and days of empty blue, who feel of solid earth is wel- come to a man who has walked for months on a rolling, heaving dcck. Finally an anchor chain roars out in a cloud of rust, and a sh- ip lies dead in the water at last, Whey are still in thc forward area, but the men who have lately como from battle, unscratchod, and with the knowledge that they can beat an enemy who dares to die, fc- el far removed from the fight: Th y no not feel far removed from the war, nor will they until they see the hill rising above the Am- erican coast once more. warships being fitted to go forth to fight again, in a lagoon sheltered by crumbs of coral, or a bay surround- ed by jungled mountains, are not removed from war. The harbor is alive with boats, the taxis of the fleet, there are whale boats carrying hifh r-w'?ca officers to conferences and on various operational and longs le vissions. There are launches with supplies, working paztiosl ani ver Bound for the beach, Ships too'are underway, A tanker li Cffllf 511 ',i'g a battleship wh ch is getting ready for se. n if L. it 1 4 CMT of thi horb0r OH submarine patrol. A repair snig has ji.-,h,d gatching up a wounded carrier and is returning to its berth, 3 eestrcycr is tying up al- ongside a tender. Across the calm water glides an LGT, :rr 'ing a cruiser's re- creation party to the beach, Across its bfi .f-v of FT a motor launch filled to the gunwales with men fra: a DDQ AS ii2Sv acn disembark they hear CvL's liberty party being called to the dock, c ' ix -x+ we-veaeae ., -19- Lf ' , ' I, ' 'X ,1 p g., . ' , , A, 1i'wl,'L,Q Y P 3 ' ' .35-.fof 1 QM. j V A. , ' ' -7 5' Cl. 1. l ' A, V Hi p -Ma, . f h 5 LHR

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MS 'Im ' ' 'E i ' . THEXTOKYO BAY SQRTIE EY DESTROYFR SJUADRON 2'. 61 CEep1-15 nt Ni3'fG'il Tleloasefi I NINE UQSJ DESTRCYERS BLAST JAP GONVOY , ' - ,urs F-..l.dm::L-1 125 TOKYO BAY 1 Qwith Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet of T 'Japan July 26 -,- Miami Tribune - - W J , On the dark and windy night of 1 q .Lb 4 M,V, July 22, nine destroyers oi the Third T 5 Q'if-e Fleet catfooted into Tokyo Bay and E blew hell out oi a Jeyiuose convoy in T an operation comparatle to a Japanese 5 fp' W sea raid on hlcatraz Island or a Nazi ,gQH 'F W swoop around the Statue of lzborty, T Mitw ' Captain T. H. hederman, Mashington,D.4 5 comhanded the sensational op nation, , which was carried out without the los: ? of a single ship or a single man. Tl l was disclosed today by Lieutenant H,h i Beal, 28, Lakeville, Connecticut, an . officer on Hedorman's staff. y prised by an earthquakc,H Beal told ct I respondents. uu ,, ' -1 ' HThe sea was choppy and a storm was blowine un north not far ewa H Bt c a said. Uwe moved in off O Shima lshanu and saw the twinkling lights along the little island chain at the e- rance to the bay. We thought all hell would pop then, but it didn't O Shima.Island lies directly athwart the entrance to Tokyo Hay. It is Japan's corregidor. The nine'cans', running in a colum. at high speed, swept into the mouth of the bay about midnight. Suuccnly we picked up targets in the vicinity of Norkinai Suki Peninsula, and at that range we knew they were bigger than picket boats or destroyers. It was a big convoy trying to sneak out by night along the coastline We closed to l0,000 yards end operzd fire with our torpedocs. It wa so quiet W0 could hear down the line, as the tin fish hit the water, exclamations of 'two torpedoes away' and other signals from other destroyers. In less than four minutes 18 torpedoes were streaging through the water at the same time the 'tin cans' opened up with the fiveminch guns. It was apparent that not until that moment were the Japanese aware of the destroyers' presence. We saw one-half ship rxplode and then another caught fire. They tried to turn and run aw. but we reversed course and blazed away. They tried to fire back, bu apparently the enemy was shooting anti-aircraft guns. Some of our think thc Japanese think they were under an ai: attack. U.S, Planes had been overhead as we started the attack. The one-sided battle lasted less than half an hour. The convoy, which consisted of three merchant ships and one escort ship, was left sinking. One was knowr to have escaped. We can officially claim two ships sunk, one possibl sunk, and a damaged escort vessel.N 4 The raid was the first surface action in history inside Tokyo Bay. T HThe Japs would have been less su