Shea (DM 30) - Naval Cruise Book

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31 l l 1 1 1 l ll ll it ll 1 1 1 1 l l l 11 1:- Q1 .1 1 l i P 1'1 1 l1 51 3. Milf f il Ll fl 1 l 1 ,l il .1 i 11 7 l 1 .l .1 r 1 1 '1 Y l The five day trip to Okinawa was uneventful except for a couple of floating mines which were destroyed and one snooper attack by a lap Reconnaissance plane which skipped out in a hurry 'before coming within range. The weather had cleared by the third day, when the mass refueling at sea occurred, and then to Okinawa. lt was a very interesting exhibition this refueling. The Sl-lEA had been refueled at sea' from the RANDOLPH one time before, but to see all the small ships line up alongside the tankers for their drink much as if it were a regular filling station routine was quite novel, - The sight of the shoreline of Okinawa and the smaller islands around it on the morning of March 23 was one to be long remembered. For the first time since leaving Pearl some natural beauty was looked upon. The islands were verdant with foliage and the -areas under cultivation all blended in with the colorful foliage to make a beautiful landscape. Especially were the Kerama islands beautiful in their peculiar rock formations. Precipitous and rustic, there was very little to be seen of cultivated crops-it had more of the park aspect and you wondered if you might be in the midst 'of some national park. Having been among the desolate, colorless -atolls for a few weeks, this sight of greenery and life was welcome and the thought of war and its desolation was afar. A chronology here of the action around Okinawa in which the Sl-IEA participated would be superfluous. But life in CIC was very much alive and attuned to every exigency. The boys soon became so accustomed to contacting and tracking real bogeys that it soon became almost common- place. On the various watches it became something of a sport as to who would pick up the first bogey reported by DELEC-ATE or one of the other pickets, or to develop and report a bogey of their own. TANTALUS soon became very well known over the voice circuits as a can who always seemed tolbe where things were the hottest but always came out intact. And indeed it did seem that the Sl-IEA was get- ting more than its share of luck, as day after day the re- ports continually came in of this or that ship was knocked off, some damaged, many sunk, ships that had worked with us often, or who had relieved us from the very duty in which they had been hit or being sent to relieve some ship on station where it had been hit, And the SHEA was all the while amassing her score of lap kills. Nerves were always tense in Comibat when the laps would start their attempted suicide run and more than once the boys felt that this must surely be their time as they watched the target steadily approach on the R-scope and then disappear with the mini- mum range, only to hear that welcome signal from the Skipper at the last moment, Splash another . The experiences on the various Radar Picket stations were many. None will soon forget the small sweep unit with which the SHEA worked in all pre-invasion duties. Wild- flower Four was a terrific unit of fire power, four AM's, the Sl-IEA, and prudent 8, the PC. There was all the maneu- vering, forming, changing positions and turns as if it were another TF 58, with corpens, rogers and wilcos filling the air, sometimes so thick that a private circuit had too' be used so the ether would not be too cluttered for use by all the other ships in the area. But PRUDENT was the blacksheep, Bring- ing up the rear in cruising formation, PRUDENT eight didn't understand all the corpens and commands from the SHEA, which was OTC, or was trying some private maneuvers of her own, because she was always out of formation or get- ting into a tight spot through some attempt of taking a short- -I 14 out to get into position. ln keeping the summary that was the headache, Where was PRUDENTT' The Skipper got quite a kick out of the PC and many was the laugh in CIC at the answers from PRUDENT to questions put by the Skipper as to why she was in her present position and how she got there. The Sl-IEA did not draw in all the picket stations, duty on each was about a week in duration or until necessary to come in for a drink . But those the ship was in all proved at one time or another to all be hot spots for trouble, and the only time duty on any could be classed easy was when the weather was bad, for the laps did not come down when visibility W-gs poor, Every return to Kerama for refueling and ammo was anticipated as a time when some relief could 'be enjoyed from the constant vigilance necessary out there. But always it was found that the anchorage there was a favorite target for the laps at night and almost nightly some ship was hit there, on two occasions the laps coming 'almost directly over the SHEA to hit the PINCKNEY on one night and two nights later getting the TERROR. The inevi- table was coming nearer and nearer even though it began to seem the SHEA had a charmed life and that luck would continue to bring us in safely from every station. 1 Butit came. That morning of May 4 on Rp l4 will be for- ever remembered by those who survived -the tragedy. Hav- ing been at GO most of the preceding night, the boys were just finishing breakfast and settling down for an hour's sleep when the call: to battle stations came again, The morning was bright, the sun was up and was delightfully warm, the sea was as a lake in its glassy smoothness, but the slight haze which had not yet been cleared by the morning sun brought visibility to dangerous minimum, And that was the SHEA's undoing. The boys in Combat had been right in the forefront of every 'action up to this time, and it seemed only natural they should be likewise here. All contacts had been developed by CIC and the director coached on to all tar- gets, the sub contacts had been plotted and the ship conned to the point of contact all on information which had been received and correlated by ClCg much of the radio work over the voice circuits was handled from Combat, and the Skipper had spent so much of the time there studying the targets and plots, and so much of the ship's goings on had been discussed and planned there, that it seemed in the natural course of events for it to be knocked out first. Shortly after Snapper had made visual contact with the lap Betty which was lurkin-g close by and had intercepted with the CAP and had made the splash, it happened. All felt that with disposition of the Betty the immediate danger had passed. But out of the haze came the Baka which had apparently been launched from this same Betty. It crashed in its tre- mendous speed into the starboard bulkhead at the spot where the forward bulkhead of CIC separates it from the Sonar shack and Chart' House, So sudden was the approach that only the 20's could be brought to bear on him and then only for two short bursts, The target appeared on Radar and was identified enemy but so swift was the approach the ship was hit before the Director could be brought to bear on him. ' ' That fateful dC1Y1 May 4th, l94'5,'will live forever in the memOI'Y of every man aboard the SHEA. Thirty-five fine Americans went to their last reward as the result of the explosion of the Baka Bomb. It was surprising to note how Well organized the different departments of the ship were and how smoothly they functioned with no confusion what- SOeVer, Every man pitched in, offering his assistance fC0nlinued on page 161 31- .

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fConfinued from page 141 wherever it was needed. Special tribute should go to the men who, w-ounded themselves, lent a helping hand to those more seriously hurt. In this paragraph I think it is fitting to pay special commendation to the Medical Department, who really proved their true worth and 'courage in. the hardest of tasks. Lt. fjgl- Iohn W. Markson and a small staff actually performed many miraculous, life-saving feats on this day. Words do not suffice to describe the scenes and the many acts of heroism which occurred on this day of catas- trophe aboard the SHEA. This is one occasion when the adequacy of man's ability to express himself thoroughly is found lacking, After doing everything within human power in the care of the wounded by proper treatment aboard the ship, many of the men were transferred to hospital ships, where more complete facilities were available for their treatment. ' The SHEA, now a crippled ship with a heartbroken crew, slowly plied its way to the so-called grave yard at Kerama Rhetto. None will forget the days and nights of defenseless horror as we lay in the grave yard undergoing repairs. 'All will remember the constant rat-tat-tat of rifle fire as the crew, on edge, sought to stave off the attacks of many suicide swimmers. Also, we will always be thankful for the smoke boats and for the heavy artificial clouds of pro- tection which they created around the battered ships in the grave yard. Here at Kerama Rhetto there was no time to do much thinking for any of us because there was so. much work to be done. Oil and water flooded compartments had to be cleaned up and as much of the damage removed as possible and the ship made ready to get underway back to a regul-ar repair -base. Our hats are off at this time to the repair ship and its crew who did so much to hasten our de- parture, We certainly were glad when the day came when we could 'leave this infested spot and the threat of the Iapanese planes and suicide swimmers. Soon we were on our way, limping back to Ulithi, then to Eniwetok. It w-as a great treat for all of us' when the message came through over the wireless instructing the SHEA to report to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. This was 'indeed a fortun-ate assignment and the h-owls of joy that went up from the men on the receipt of the news must have been heard in South America. Our journey continued to Pearl Harbor, thence to San Diego, which was our first view of the States for quite some nd what a wonderful feeling it was. I don't think it time a is necessary to describe our activities in San Diego, other than to say we all had a very wonderful time, Panama was our next stop and we enjoyed our liberties there also. We would not divulge the story of Panama here and its recrea- tional facilities 'but shall save said tales 'for our favorite sea st-ory sessions, The feeling of excitement and pleasure which came upon us as we entered the Delaware River, the entrance to Phila- delphia, can hardly be described. It seems as if they had been awaiting our arrival to release a tremendous flow of events. Philadelphia welcomed us in a manner typical of the Quaker City, with cordial hospitality. Things started to move sofast that it was hard 'for us to keep up with them. First, we were assigned to sub barracks as our residence, then in groups the men began to go on their leaves to visit their homes. Then came the startling announcement of the atomic -bomb, the rumors of peace, and finally the big news we had all been waiting for, the final surrender of Iapan- the job was done, thank God it was over. Soon our days in the Navy Yard were over, followed by the usual test runs and shakedown tests and we were on our way to Portland for further training exercises. Our assignment for Navy Day, October 27th, l945, was to Bath, Maine, Here for almost a week, the ship Was on dis- play to the public and thousands of visitors came to see the shootenis't ship in the Navy, We wish to express here our heartfelt thanks to the people of Bath for their wonderful re- ception and pay special tribute to the manner in which the U.S.O. of Bath arranged for our reception and made certain that our visit was a very, very pleasant one. We really en- joyed their fine New England hospitality. Many changes are taking place aboard the SHEA at the present time as the personnel of the ship is slowly flow- ing 'back to civilian life-the point system is gradually break- ing up our old fighting team. We know that the SHEA, a ship with a Spirit, will go on its way to protect our country against all dangers and will be in th-e forefront in the gallant quest for peace through preparedness, May the GQ gong be silent forever! I . i 1 Lt. Cjgl W. Lawrence Moore -I 16 4 1 1. LI- flgl GSOrge D. Godfrey 1-1