Sicily (CVE 118) - Naval Cruise Book

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For Memorial Day V949 the SICILY was sent to Portland, Maine, where the otticers and men participated in the Memorial exercises and annual encampment at the Maine Veterans ot Foreign Wars. 1- f -. L' . U I I 1 v I l I g ig? if . , 3 I , I I T, l 3 ' ' ' ' I I I I 'lilly Q W - i : A A x . VA l. if ! f I I' 's'f::g:. C , 4 3:1 , ,jr Q ' 11501, , C ,ff 1331-, j.: ' , U H . vl- d it lifiiftta-if l , . 124 , . A. -i .Lil fi The latter part ot June the SlCll.Y was underway to con- duct a reserve and midshipman cruise that took her to the ports ristobal, Canal Zoneg then she returned to her home port. On July 25th Captain Pirie was tain C. l-l. Duerteldt. Four days later Rear Adm. ot Ciuatanamo Bay, Cuba, and C relieved by Cap Robbins hauled down his personal flag and transferred his statt to the USS Mindoro CCVE-l2Ol.

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On the last day of January l949 Rear Adm T l-l. Robbins relieved Admiral Hos- kins The same day the SICILY departed from Norfolk enroute to Matanzas, Cuba, to participate in anti submarine exercises During these exercises the SICILY used an airborne early warning team for the first time in her career and achieved excellent results. After enjoying a two-day period of liberty and recreation in Matanzas, the SICILY re- turned to Norfolk where she re- mained until the latter part of February, when she departed for the Spring Second Fleet exercises in the vicinity of Vieaues. This was the first full scale job for the SICILY-her task was to provide anti-submarine support for the entire assault force. Ap- plying an entirely new technique of submarine detection, main- taining a constant sonobuoy bar- rier, the main assault group was successfully covered from sub- marine attacks. Without a doubt this was the most successful anti-submarine de- fense that the SICILY had ever conducted. During this operation the SICILY scored an- other first by being the initial carrier to use a tactical em- ployment of air- ships Cpoopy-bagsl in a fleet exercise wherein the com- plete logistic sup- port to the airships was furnished by a carrier. After com- pletion of her task the SlCll.Y pro- ceeded to Bridge- town, Barbados, where her crew had four davs of well- earned rest and recreation before returning to Nor- folk.

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On the 3Oth of July l949 the SICILY departed from Nor- folk and proceeded to the port of Piraeus, Greece, This was to be the SlCll.Y'S first active participation in maintaining world peace. l-ler task on this voyage was to deliver 49 SBQC type air- craft and spare parts to the U. S. military mission in Greece. These aircraft were then delivered to the Greek government and were very instrumental in auelling the Communist uprising. ,Th-.