Valley Forge (CV 45) - Naval Cruise Book

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Of course none of us could quite forget the long hours we had worked loading ship, but we didn't choose to dream of those things. We always considered gunnery practices interesting, and inspections a necessary nuisance. ' . N- --' V ' f a . 1 lll . 'flR5f5m52- , , r , , ..,,, ,.,. Q .Yi is L ' ., f'. V 433' illl fllrif ., X. w, , 1 4, , .L 5zli4l25i5'5b v. - ' P J 1 X51 4 ,will if-1:1 Qigighiu AIX .. . 1 -A 3- , ,,-vw, omg, jc.. i -2iVfY'3311t , - ' X + 7 -'r'fS3 I ' Ji' . ,,:qe?5L:lgl5Vi '55,--: xx. '. 2 Q71 1' 9 ' ' c -'Jia ii1':Fix 4'7 J ' A3 V ' uf 1 'Fw 'Vs

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We could bask in the sun with a few friends, play cards, day-dream about the softball games we last played, the dances we had attended aboard, or some liberty we had made. , ,, ag , 2 K 2 4 X rw aa s '-l: Q llil

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ingayaore VALLEY FORGE accompanied by USS LAWE and USS THOMAS steamed steadily southward and arrived off the Malay Peninsula the morning of March. Approaching the Island of Singapore the ship passed between the,Peninsula and the Islands of Bintan and Batam. The low lying land with its narrow white beach was planted in row upon row of trees. The air was filled with the humid, musty odor of a tropical jungle. Floating coconuts dotted the harbor. In the shallow water just off shore on the Singapore side were the wrecks of ships damaged and beached during the war. Between brief showers the sun shone and everything literally steamed. Storied Singapore came into view as we entered KEPPEL Harbor. There was a multitude of cargo ships in the harbor, and here and there small boats darted in and out between them. The city sprawled along the water front, its low skyline here and there accentuated by the steeple of a church, a mosque or the top of a tall building. Behind the breakwater small ships were being unloaded at tropical pace into small barges, and behind them, in the shallow protected waters, were boats of all descriptions and in all stages of repair. This was Singapore, the cross roads of the World, and the stage for many fabulous stories . . . the place where the Orient and Occident with all their peoples and cultures have intermingled for centuries and formed a conglomerant found nowhere else in the World. We saw Europeans rubbing shoulders with Indians in their flowing robes and turbans, Malaysians in their sarongs, Chinese in their khaki shorts and shirts or in breech-cloths, Moslem women in their volum- inous costumes and veils, and others in apparel representing peoples too numerous to mention. We were soon to find, after visiting the shops, the RAF- FLES HOTEL, the several WORLDS, and riding trishaws and taxis, that prices were high but that everything was plentiful. Evidently there was greater prosperity in this port than the others we had visited in the Orient.