Tarawa (CV 40) - Naval Cruise Book

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FORE ORD HAT DISTINGUISHES the TARAIVA from the other twenty- three carriers of the ESSEX class? Why has she a personality of her own, quite unlike those of the PHILIPPINE SEA, the SHANGRI-LA, or the BOXER? Not because of her physical char- acteristics, which are identical to those of her sisters. Not because of statistical records like miles steamed, number of aircraft land- ings, etc., which are similar. No, she is different because of the individual men who have served aboard, who have commanded her, navigated her, scrubbed her decks, gassed her planes, and sweated out- her interminable chow lines. Itlis their accumulated experience and their collective contribution which has transformed 33,000 ,tons of .lifeless steel into the Terrible T. This book deals with but a chapter in the life of the TARAWAQ her Mediterranean duty of 1951-1952 as part of the Sixth Fleet. It commences on November 28, 1951 when the Terrible T steamed out of Narragansett Bay and set a course eastward which was to carry her to thirteen foreign ports, to exercises with naval units of various NATO nations, and through six months of winter, spring, and summer weather. A wealth of experience and learning for her crew members was gained from visits to French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, and North African ports, and many friends were left behind in each of those countries. i The cruise was originally scheduled for five months, but was prolonged another month when the USS WASP suffered her catastrophic collision with the USS HOBSON on the night of April 28, 1952. The HOBSON sank in four minutes with the loss of the majority of her crew, and the WASP's damage was such that she had to return to the United States for repairs. This was disheartening news to the 2800-odd men aboard the TARAWA who expected to be back with their families within a few days, but all hands felt that their inconvenience was negligible when it was realized that 176 of the HOBSON's men would never return. The TARAWA first became a gleam in the eye of Congress in August, 1942, when Allied fortunes were close. to their lowest ebb. Her keel was laid fourteen months later and she was com- missioned at Portsmouth, Virginia, on December 8, 1945. At the christening ceremony Major julian C. Smith, USMC, said: It is eminently fitting that this great ship should be named for an operation which marked the turning point of the war in the Pacific and began a new era in amphibious warfare. After being duly shaken down , the TARAWA operated as a training ship first along the Atlantic and then along the Pacific coasts. On October 1, 1948, she set out on a good-will cruise which lasted five months and took her from San Francisco to New York by way of Hawaii, Tsingtao, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, Bahrein, Suez, Athens, Istanbul, Suda Bay and Gibraltar. She returned to the United States to be decommissioned and added to the reserve fleet in july, 1949. 20,961 aircraft landings had been made on her flight deck during these three and one-half years of service. By December, 1950, the international situation had deteriorated to the point where it was decided to add CV-40 to the active fieet. Reactivation meant Bayonne, New Jersey, and Bayonne meant hell afloat, what with zero temperatures on and off the ship, riveters threatening both ear drums and sanity, and all of the natural confusion of reactivation and then some. In january, 1951, the ship was towed to the Brooklyn Navy yard where the mad- dening process was continued. The men who served aboard during those trying months have not had occasion to gripe so heartily since. A

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On February 3, 1951, the TARAWA was commissioned for the second time, with Captain john H. Griffin as Commanding Officer and Commander Charles E. Robertson-as Executive Officer. Six weeks later the speakers platform, the microphone, and the red, white, and blue bunting were again in place on the hangar deck. This time the occasion was unique in naval historyg the TARAWA was adopted by the State of Connecticut, with Governor John D. Lodge officially assuming responsibility for the welfare and enter- tainment of the crew. The end of March found the TARAWA anchored in the pale blue waters of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the next seven weeks were spent on a 'tshakedownu training program. Flight operations were resumed with Carrier Air Group Seven embarked, exercises and drills of all kinds-flight, gunnery, communications, CIC, en- gineering, damage control, etc., became the order of the day. A measure of the ship's progress was the improvement in grades assigned by the Fleet Training Group for the mid-term and final battle problems . For the former the grade was 56125 for the latter 81'-Z, Return to the United States late in May was followed by two weeks in dry dock at Portsmouth, Va., and first leaves for many of the crew. The next stop was Quonset Point, Rhode Island, which was to become so familiar in the months to come. It was during these months that the TARAWA earned her nickname the B.B.F. fbe back Fridayj, soiregulari was her operating schedule. g Our foster parent, Connecticut, arranged a gala Independence Day 1951 for the ship's company in New London,-and vice-versa. In August two more weeks were spent in the yard, this time at Boston, and thence to Jacksonville for a fortnight's operations with Carrier Air Group Eight. It was here that a newspaper representative from Macon, Ga., uncovered some startling statistics about the ship. Her daily consumption of fresh water, for exam- ple, is approximately 75,000 gallons, of bread, 900 poundsg of butter 275 poundsg of coffee 550 pounds. Her laundry does a 45,000 lb. wash each week, her post office receives 3,000 outgoing letters a day, and over the counter of her gedunk stand are sold 135 gallons of ice cream every 24 hours. Carrier Air Group Eight rejoined the TARAWA on September 30, in time to operate at sea for two weeks before putting into Boston for repairs to a leaking fuel tank. With Rear Admiral D. V. Gallery, ComCarDiv 6, and staff embarked, she departed on October 24th to take part in the full-scale, mock-war exercise known as I.antFlex-52. This meant 21 days of continuous opera- tions, complete with day and night air strikes against land and sea targets, defense against enemy submarine, surface, and air attacks, and plenty of propaganda. When it was all over, the Terrible T may have been gasping from exhaustion, but there was no doubt of her readiness for the real thing. Return to Quonset Point gave ten days for loading stores, for leaves, and for last-minute transfers before setting out for European waters. It was the men saying good-bye who brought home to us how powerful had become the personality of the TARAWA. We had cursed her countless times, yet now we realized she was far from being the ogre we had made her out to be. She had provided us with a wealth of experience, a host of friends, and the satisfaction of working hard and successfully for a common cause. ' On November 28th the Terrible T steamed out of Narragansett Bay for the last time in 1951 and headed due east. During the next six months she sailed 31,742 nautical miles, and added 4801 aircraft landings to make her total 34,897. These months were filled with brilliant experiences for all aboard, the pages following have been assembled in an effort to help preserve these memories for the years to come.