My father, also a reserve officer, survived the Atlantic hurricane of '44 aboard a jeep carrier. I remember his description nearly six decades later.
Posted on 09/22/2008 7:40:32 PM PDT by Retain Mike
I was officer of the deck from 1600 until 1800. I was serving on board a CVE, a so-called "baby flattop" or "jeep carrier," whose assigned duty was to escort a fleet of Navy tankers in the waters not so very far this side of the Philippines. Our mission was to protect the oilers while they steamed up and down in a very limited area close enough to the scene of operations so that Admiral Halsey could retire with the greater part of his powerful units and fuel his fleet, aircraft carriers and all, while the carriers' planes were over the Philippines.
Earlier in the afternoon, powerful Task Force 38 had overtaken us at an appointed rendezvous. As they came over the horizon, the battleships, cruisers, and carriers, screened by innumerable destroyers, seemed to fill the whole ocean. Just before they slowed down to fall in with us, the carriers launched their fleets of aircraft, which disappeared back over the same horizon whence the ships had come.
I had not been on the bridge long before I began to realize there was more to this watch than to most that I had stood, for the fueling was not progressing with the business-like efficiency that was normal for these operations. For my part, the only unusual worry was that of keeping the ship on its course. I found that the compass was taking all of my attention. One minute the helmsman would be 5 degrees to the right of his course, the next, 7 to the left.
The wind had come up and stood at 30 knots. That was enough to blow spray in showers from the tops of the waves and to catch the high freeboard that the ship presented, causing her to be very difficult to maneuver.
(Excerpt) Read more at usni.org ...
Thanks. Great story!
“Combustible, Vulnerable, Expendable”
My late father was on CVE-27 at Leyte Gulf.
Great read.
Thanks
My late uncle served on CVE 21/CVE-106 USS Block Island.
The original CVE-21 was sunk in the Atlantic in 1944. The crew was almost all saved, and for the first time in Navy history, was sent almost intact to man a second ship of the same name, CVE-106 , and served in the Pccific until the end of the war.
Thus, this crew, served on two ships in both theaters of the war.
When sunk, six crew on the Block Island were lost. More poignantly, four Wildcat pilots were aloft at the time, and sent to the Canary Islands to land. They knew they didn’t have the fuel. They were never heard from again.
Here’s a link : www.ussblockisland.org
A great look at the “jeep carrier” and its important role in WW2.
Great story, thanks for posting. Been there. Ran two typhoons in my time in Westpac and it’s simply impossible to describe although this guy did a pretty good job. Footprints on the bulkheads. Strapping in your rack. It’s surreal. Incredibly loud, incredibly violent, and it just goes on and on. Nobody goes topside. Anything loose is broken or lost. And there’s this weird grating rattle when the screws come out of the water that is something I’d just as soon never hear again. Humbling experience.
Never been to sea but that story made me sweat!
Great story. Thanks for posting.
On my only sea voyage, the Pacific lived up to it’s name. I can’t imagine what a crowded troopship would have been like in a storm.
My father, also a reserve officer, survived the Atlantic hurricane of '44 aboard a jeep carrier. I remember his description nearly six decades later.
I sweated, too, and I've been to sea. The story gave me some flashbacks I'd thought I'd long forgotten.
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Interesting time. Roller coasters just haven't been as exciting ever since.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
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I love reading the history of our country of times when we were real united Americans, not like it is now.
Thanks for the post.
Good story!
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I’ve been through a typoon...Not as bad as this one but bad enough. 40 foot swells, over the swell down into the trough!
Scary as hell!
Wow!
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