Tarawa (CVA 40) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 13 text:

, if i' i W' C 7 ,',- X f' l lf ic' l .fl loin-. if i For our departure, the pier behind us at Norfolk became what it had been, as the stadium after the game, emptied of its activity. No longer were there working parties among piles of supplies, no longer the winding, anxious lines to the phone booths: the pier became its own complete but empty readiness. Thus at 0800 on the morning of November twelfth, l953, we cast off our last holds on the U.S.A. The gift was motion. Within the hull men concentrated on obtaining precision performance from all machinery, on coordinating the activity of detail and division. The big grey walls of steel which lately seemed immovable edged away. The great grey mountain of our ship went Out to Cut the world of water like a knife. f

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ltinera ry 12 November 1953: Departed Norfolk, Virginia 23 November-25 November 1953: Gibraltar, B.CC 26 November-30 November 1953: Algiers, Algeria 3 December-4 December 1953: Naples, Italy 5 December-10 December 1953: LaSpezia, Italy 18 December-28 December 1953: Cannes, France 28 December 1953-4 January 1954: Genoa, Italy 9 January-13 January 1954: Valencia, Spain 14 January 1954: Gibraltar, B.C.C. 20 January 1954: In transit Suez Canal Q9 January-31 January.1954: Colombo, Ceylon 4 February:-6 February 1954: Singapore, B.C.C. 15 February-18 February 1954: Yokosuka, Japan 26 Februarye27 February 1954: Yokosuka, Japan 8 March---15 March 1954: Yokosulca, Japan 31 Marclj-4 April 1954 : Sasebo, Japan 6 April-+15 April 1954: Yokosuka, Japan 30 April-4 May 1954: Sydney, Australia 5 May-9 :Muay 1954: Melbourne, Australia 13 May-17 May 1954: ,Wellington, New Zealand .......- -Q,:,:,,,fu - - --A .:.. A -1-,. ,.., ...,..,. , ...L

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V -,,MA,,.,,Q,,,-Jn,!n,K,,,A,,,A,.an'.,,.L , - A 5mwswn14my,wm- , ,J top left The lost minute supplies thot we had to get. top right ' The dll purpose fork lift soved bockciche on the hcrngor deck, but below decks, mony men working long hours of grueling lobor were required in storing the supplies in the seemingly leost ciccessible recesses of the ship. ' right I The U.S.S. Williom M. Wood, DDR 7l5, shored our lonely twelve doytrek ctcross the Atlontic, ond during our two doys of flying neor fthe Azores stood by to render crssistonce. Here she is shown coming ctlongside to receive fuel. left Our flight opercttions neor the Azores gove us ct preview of whgt life would be like once we ioined the Sixth Fleet. A Ag::':+-Y-ff exif .T ef 7-Y ,,,,,..,g,,,, .u , U W ,w,,,o,,, , , Age... 2'-,I-l-vu-u...4,1.1-A. f.. , 'U' . X 5 09, SVEQ:-2.5 il?251 ,9:3?Eif!tI'f-i-1?':f'Jf?1'fA1v-k gg' gilajdgzqugg' -, ,-E'f5.- nj ' 'rr'