April 22, 1945 - Morning - GQ. Air raid, but we never saw any Jap planes. We are now entering Polloc Harbor. Morning - Beached at Parang and unloaded men and equipment. We beached on some metal pontoons. We can see some houses all blown to pieces on the land. We were talking to some of the soldiers here and they said that the Moros, a tribe of people living here were as bad as the Japs to fight. We also saw some natives and they are about the sorriest looking Filipinos we’ve seen to date. Some of the boys slipped ashore and got some nice souvenirs, but I stayed around the dock. We won’t get unloaded until tomorrow. Twilight - We saw what looked like around a million bats flying around the harbor. Although they are shaped like the bats back home, they are about the size of a buzzard.

January 7, 1945 - Passsing through Mindoro Straits - had 5 air raid alerts whole day. Morning - passed a ship burning in water near shore. Our planes shot down a Jap plane ahead of us about noon. Evening - Some ships of our convoy fired at a Jap plane but we never saw it. Night - Our Naval ships sank a Japanese Destroyer near shore to our starboard. We could see them firing. Our engines went out twice today and we thought we were going to have to be towed. 1600 - Hospital ship ahead of us had a burial at sea, all ships in convoy flew flags at half mast. Noon today our Destroyers dropped depth charges and we did an emergency turn to port because of a sub. We will pass Manilla Bay tonight or early tomorrow.

January 3, 1945 - More ships join convoy, firing practice. Air raid alert, no enemy planes.

December 29, 1944 - Retracted from beach, anchored in the bay. Night - another air alert and another Jap plane got caught in the search lights. This time he wasn’t so lucky, he got shot down. A lot of the ships and the shore batteries were firing at him. Someone hit him while he was behind a cloud and he crashed burning into the sea. A crash boat went after him, but I think the plane had already sank.

December 28, 1944 - Air raid alert - night - the spot light picked up the Jap bomber (which looked like a Betty). Nearly every ship in the bay and the shore batteries were firing at him. He sure twisted and turned to get out of that light. He got away after dropping some bombs near the airstrip. This was the first Jap plane I had seen.

November 16, 1944 - Arrived at Leyte about 2 am and GQ sounded. We shall continue GQ (general headquarters) the rest of the day. We beached about 8 o’clock and began unloading immediately. Finished unloading shortly after noon. Retracted from beach and anchored in bay while waiting for other ships to unload. We had two or three air raids while at Leyte, but no planes came over. They were further up the beach. We beached at Trainian Head at San Jose this time, just across the island from Ormoc Bay. Night - started back for Hollandia.

October 23, 1944 - Before daylight, still shelling the beach. Morning dive bombers are bombing and straffing at different spots on the beach. They were there all day yesterday too. The town of Taclobin, which we can see across the bay is a pretty nice looking place. At least it has a few permanent buildings in it. A bunch of Philippino boys and men came aboard this morning. They rowed out in their dugout canoes. They are small dark skinned people. They talk pretty good English. They went to regular American schools until the Japs came. Most of them had finished the seventh or eighth grade. We gave them some clothes and something to eat. They way they talked the Japs were really cruel to them. They were really proud to see the Americans. They wanted guns to fight the Japs with. Night, left Leyte. Had air raid, but never saw but one Jap plane - too far off to shoot at it.

October 5, 1944 - Went ashore to get some radio spare parts. First went to an island then went to the mainland. Had to wade ashore in water up to our hips. The island had a lot of coconut trees on it but I never saw one on New Guinea. We walked about three miles to the landing strip and saw some planes. Had another air raid that night, but saw no enemy planes.

October 4, 1944 - Went in swimming. Went for a ride on a private boat. Saw two movies. Had air raid but planes never came over us. They dropped a few bombs.