Tarawa (CV 40) - Naval Cruise Book

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Aviaiion and general sfores maferial fresh from fhe s+a'res. They work 'loclay 'ro ea+ sfeak lomorrow. I hu...-f ..-- f S cial aviaiion cloth neu-g pe J.-i A planes requlres 5 9 To launch and lo lan hres 4 J x r J m I A l 1 , ...e always in dema d 4 n , , 4 ll lr 4, Still I000 pounds +o cut Ill-'-W - uv- -' E A

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Con+rol of 7500 general s+ores ifems requires accura+e ,-eco,-dst So 'few serve 7500 meals daily. 2000 P0 undS of p olaloes a day ' 606+ Sa S2 F7 'ti f l l, f 423' W will have lols 0 P .l ll Electricians iust don't make good mess cooks. 5200.000 paid in cash every pay day. Check and double check inven+ories are manda+ory Painsf aklng ins - Pecf maferials C 'on of all aviafio Ornpulsoryi fl

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O P E R A T I O N S F YOU WANT TO know where we are going, when do we get there, what we will do en route fand maybe whyj, where are the best shops Qgrog and otherwisej, and a host of other miscellaneous and sometimes useful information just call on the Opera- tions Department experts. Under Commander Morgan, the Operations Officer, the department is charged with the responsibility for Communications, Air Op- erations, CIC, Visual Signals, Photography, Aerology, Air Intelligence, and Electronics Repair. Sounds like quite a task bllt with the help of the smooth-function- ing teams provided by the O-I, O-R, O-S, and E-R Divisions the 1I10St complicated Sixth Fleet evolutions soon became routine and the Terrible T's reputa- tion rose mightily in the eyes of the other ships. LCDR Scott and his many able assistants kept a fatherly eye on the comm section and saw to it that the messages, both official and personal, kept flowing out of Main Comm at the prescribed rate. While the Crypto Board sweated out those dispatch operations orders, the RM's were busy setting up new fre- quencies and copying all the traffic humming our way, including a couple of fathoms of press copy per day that somehow was condensed into a daily newspaper. Not the least of the functions of this section was the management of the ship's post office, the sanctuary of the hard-working Telemen who made possible that most welcome of all calls in the Med.- Mail Call . CDR Roberf J. Morgan, Operafions Officer. Combaf lnformafion Cenfer in acfion. While the antennae arrays were picking up the high frequency transmissions, the Signal gang on the bridge was keeping a sharp lookout for Haghoists, blinker, search- light, semaphore and other short range visual tactical signals, so important in the maneuvering of a Task Force. LT DeBri presided over the O-S division and manned the tactical voice circuits on the bridge. Occasionally a hoist full of bunting would become lovingly entwined in a radar antenna, but it was all in the day's work. For a sharp-eyed, alert performance, the signal gang was always there and on the ball. It's a far cry from the sunlit reaches of the signal bridge to the dark, softly lit interior of the CIC and Air Plot spaces, sometimes called by the irreverent the Night- club because of its apparent similarity to an intimate Paris bistro. All resemblance ends right there however, for all hands in here are paying strict attention to business. In the CIC, where information of all types is gathered from a number of sources, displayed, evaluated and put out to the ships and planes, LCDR Wyckoff is the boss who brings organized confusion out of seeming chaos. Here, while the air con- trollers run the fighters out for intercepts, other officers keep the surface plot and the AA gunnery picture, and the RD's plot all this and other information on their lighted boards. Itys a show of real teamwork when this outfit is running full blast as it did most of the time during our stay in the Med. The long hours of sweating out missions paid off though in the reputation the T had of running the best CIC in the Sixth Fleet . Next door to CIC and working in close harmony with it is Air Plot, the nerve center of air operations for the ship. LCDR Heishman, the Air Operations Ofhcer, and LCDR Ali Conn, the Ass't Air Ops Officer, can usually be found here most any time of the day or night while underway and flight operations are in progress. They will either be giving the pilots the latest information via teletype or radio, or making out the schedule for the next day or answering innumerable questions blaring out of the ready room squawk boxes. Here too the status of all airborne planes is kept, and air plot serves as the link between CIC and the Air Boss on the roof when it comes time to launch or recover. Further information of a special nature is furnished by the Aerological section where daily weather maps and bulletins based on radio and shipboard observations are pub- lished under the supervision of LCDR Tate. More power to the Aerographers who had to scurry between tightly parked planes on the flight deck struggling under the dual load of an inflated pilot balloon and a theodolite in an effort to find what the upper winds were for the jet jockeys on the next hop. Air Intelligence gives out with the latest on where, what, who, why, when and how plus the dope on recognition so the Corsair pilots don't join up on the Vampires over Bizerte instead of the AD's. CDR jackson handled this phase of operations without cloak and dagger fanfare. Keeping all the radar sets, radios, teletypes and a host of other electronic equipment in operating condition was the unenviable lot of LT Fields, the E-R division officer. However, with an able assist from a hard working and capable crew of ET's the job was done. Beset by a delicate and temperamental lot of radar systems and repeaters and plagued by a lack of spares and parts, the crew worked both day and night with a can do attitude to nurse our sick gadgets back to health . . . and always just in time. With very few exceptions all of the photography you enjoy in this Cruise Book was done by the AF's and PH's in the Photo Lab under the direction of CHPHOT Allen. In addition many hundreds of feet of aerial film was processed and delivered, and thousands of technical prints and other official photo work was printed. A 'fWell Done to the shutterbugs who traveled all over eastern and western Europe and North Africa to shoot the pictures you see here.