Toledo (CA 133) - Naval Cruise Book

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The wardroom - and Chopsticks ,WW Back on the fantail, the C. P. O. mess 1lg.bbM4,'- - I 2 1-Qffl as And the crew's mess 4 The only noticeable change upon arrival was that the cold which had plagued us all winter was beginning to ease with spring which added to the already pleasant picture. Another change found ashore was that we had arrived right in the middle of the cherry blossom season and it was a lovely sight. lt was a very short week, much too short for most, but operating schedules will be operating schedules and for some reason this one wasn't changed, so we headed back to the blistering heat of Sangley Point. Once underway, we were greeted with our old friend-Air Defense, and lest we forget, the almost as familiar word uNow man all gun- nery and CIC tracking stations for simulated shore bombardmentf' Once again safely moored to the buoy ubearing 015 distant 1800 yards from Sang- ley Point Lightv it was hardly necessary to check the World Almanac to know that this was the Hhot seasonf' The diHerence be- tween the cool and hot seasons is that the latter is unbearably hot, whereas the former is only miserably so. Some weeks before this, divisional softball teams had been organized, and play began in the three leagues. Thus far success hadn't been too great in the fight against the oper- ating schedule, but now play got underway with much vigor. Even the officers collected a team and even more surprising, managed to win a couple of games. When the smoke of the fifty-one game schedule had cleared away, the 6th Division was at the top of the Gunnery Department League with a perfect record, the same being true of the NEW Di- vision in the Engineering. The Marines de- feated the uE,' Division in a play-off to take the title in the third league. ln the final

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Jim mmm, malt.. From Hong Kong the ship headed north for a brief operation with the ships then stationed in Japanese waters. This again brought the customary condition watches, Air Defense, tactical training, Air Defense, flag hoist drills, Air Defense and then when all of these had been completed a little more Air Defense-'tjust for drill. The exercise finished, the ship dropped the hook for a night off Okinawa. Relax- ing now that the work was temporarily over, there seemed to be an air of excitement around the ship, featuring such remarks as Hlt sure feels good to be going home, Yeah, it won't be long now, and HI can hardly waitf, To an inexperienced observer the obvious thought would have been that the nose of the ship was about to be headed east for a long cruise. However, were the truth known, all such references were to Yokosuka where the ship would be for the next week while Admiral Boone relieved Admiral Berkey as Com7thFlt. The Bos'n supervises the hose connection. Make I39 revolutions

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play-otl' series. E drew a bye as the deck hands took the measure of the Marines to enter the finals. ln this one. the oth Division maintained its winning way and two gitlllCS later was crowned champion. Earlier. while in Subic, a SlllIJ,S softball team was organized on the spot in answer to ll challenge from thc BOXER, a winning The SEVENTH Fleet Band played concerts at ncon. Preparation for personnel Inspection. W me Signal inthe air onthe BOXER. answer incidentally. and the team kept roll- ing. They played any and all comers, and while suffering from lack of practice always gave a good account of themselves. For the most of our stay in the Philip- pines competition had been waged hot and heavy aboard ship to see which of the boats was kept in the best condition by its crew. The pot of gold for the winner was widely hailed as the uLost Wleekendf' Finally, after regular weekly inspections, surprise inspec- tions and lllOl'C of both, No. 4 Motor Launch was declared the winner and the crew hap- pily went olf to Baguio. Manila Bay while well protected by the chain of mountainous hills surrounding it was big enough to cook up good sized Waves all of its own. As fate would have it, this al- ways occurred late in the evenings-in fact, just about the time liberty parties came roll-