May 20, 1945 - Morning - Going through the channel which is very narrow and shallow into the river where we will anchor until we pick up our load. There is about 9 or 10 planes in the river. The are all American PBM’s and PBY’s except for one British Short-Sunderland. There is about 40 LSTs anchored in the river and it is really a crowded place to try to anchor. Noon - Section 2 got liberty - dress blues with a white hat.

March 11, 1945 - One part of convoy went toward Manilla, 17 of our LST’s headed for Palawan.

March 1, 1945 - We have 5 LST’s, 1 Tanker, 1 LSM, and 1 Escort in our convoy. Sea is fairly rough. A lot of the CB’s are seasick.

February 22, 1945 - 1030 - Changed orders again and headed for Morotai. We have come something over 1000 miles out of our way by coming down here and then heading back. By now we have 6 LST’s, 1 LSM, 1 Tanker and a Picket boat in our convoy. The rest dropped off at Biak and Hollandia. Today we crossed the Equator for the 14^th time.

February 2, 1945 - 0400 - Special sea detail - We are underway with 9 LST’s, 2 DD’s, 1Pc, and about 4 transports for Subic Bay. The water is really smooth along here. We arrive in the morning D Plus 4. Our monkey committed Hari Kiri over the side.

January 25, 1945 - 0800 - Got underway for destination. After noon passed through Surgao Straits. Evening - passing Mindanao and another small island. Night - had another flash red, but saw no planes. We got a message today to put more screening ships out due to increased sightings of Jap subs in the area. We are in a convoy with 44 other ships, mostly LST’s with a bunch of LCI’s, LCS’s, LSM’s, transports and escorts. One of the ships in the front of the column broke down and we had to stop to avoid hitting the ships in front of us. We are in task unit 78.3.4.

January 13, 1945 - We are in a convoy with 30 LST’s, some LSM’s, LCI’s, with sub chasers and PC’s for escort.

November 18, 1944 - Uneventful. Cruising along with 35 LST’s, 1 LCI, 1 DD, 1 DE, 2 Frigates, and 7 Liberties.

November 10, 1944 - Met another part of our convoy at the rendevouz area at noon. There was 25 LST’s in this part of the convoy with 13 troop transports and 4 destroyers. Evening - got into formation. We are leading on column.

October 26, 1944 - DC’s sunk a floating mine that kie to have hit one of the LST’s. The Japs just turn the floating mines loose in the water in hopes that a ship will hit them.

October 24, 1944 - Our forces are having a big naval battle with the Jap fleet about sixty or a hundred miles from here. Night - one of the LST’s in our convoy (the 695) hit a floating mine or got hit by a torpedo or something about eleven o’clock. The men on watch said they saw about three big explosions in the stern and then went dead in the water. It was in the next column across from us about 500 yards. Another LST took it in tow. We all stood at general quarters the rest of the night.

October 17, 1944 - This is the biggest convoy we were ever in. It sure is a sight to see all of these ships strung out for a distance of five to ten miles with the transports and the LST’s in the front and the two aircraft carriers bringing up the rear. The destroyers and other escort vessels are always flitting up and down the outside of the convoy.

Sept 27, 1944 - Passed equator again. Aussies on board that hadn't gone across the equator before were initiated by their buddies that had. They were all good sports about the initiation. They seem to all be swell guys. They are not much different from the Americans. Another ship in our convoy has our mail. They got it at Hollandia. I guess we will get it when we reach Morotai but I don't know when we will get to mail any letters. Some more LSTs joined us today making 12 in all.

Sept 25, 1944 - Left Aitape for Morotai. Passing New Guinea all morning. Evening. Passed Hollandia. Picked up two more LSTs making eight LSTs, three destroyers and a DE in our convoy. Will probably pick up more ships at Maffin Bay. Two ships cut through our convoy and we liked to have had a collision. We also liked to have run into one of the LSTs in our convoy.

Sept 14, 1944 - Picked up some more LST's. We have now got 10 LST(s) and three destroyers in our part of the task force. Last night we just barely missed hitting a freighter cutting through our convoy. I guess if we had hit him we might be swimming right now. The army on board seems to be pretty nice boys. They keep pretty much to themselves. Most of them eat and sleep on the top deck on the jeeps and cars. We haven't room for all of them to sleep in bunks. We have about 250 aboard. They are going to land on the third day and they are supposed to have an airstrip that the Japs started to build ready to land fighter planes 48 hours after they get there. Bombers are supposed to be able to land in 15 days. We are in task force 77.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Morotai

June 28, 1944 - In Pacific. Sea seems full of porpoises. It seems like about a million are swimming about the ship. They must like the ship because they all seem to converge around it. They have to up out of the water every once in a while to get air through a hole on the top of their head. This time we are going oit with just three ships and one Watertender. Coming across the Caribbean we had 10 LST’s and 5 P.C.’s. We also had a blimp part of the way across.