March 8, 9, 1945 - Uneventful. Sea pretty rough. Chief aboard with CB’s built us a code oscillator, which we have been trying to build a long time.

March 7, 1945 - Joined another convoy, making around 100 ships of all kinds in our convoy. Reni’s ship is in this convoy after being in England a little while.

March 5, 1945 - Morning - Joined other convoy.

March 4, 1945 - Got underway. We have some British J-boats for escorts. We join another convoy tonight.

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.

January 8, 1945 - 0200 - General Headquarters. We had GQ from 1800 yesterday until I went on watch at 2000. I got off watch at 2400 and GQ was sounded from 0200 until I went on watch at 0900 this morning. About 0300, a Japanese suicide plane crashed into LST 912 at its port boat Davits. It killed 4 men and wounded 4 more, 1 of which was Army. It severly damaged the small boat and Davits and destroyed 40-4 and 40-6 guns beyond repair. It really made a big explosion, but they got the fire under control and they never lost their place in the convoy. They were about 1500 yards behind us in the next column to our starboard.

About 0800 our planes intercepted a group of Japanese planes and some of them broke through. Two of them came out of the sun straight toward our ship but, when they were about 2000 yards off, one of them turned and went into a dive straight down the middle of the convoy for a transport. He dropped his bomb close to the transport, then turned a flip and crashed right into it about midship, just aft of the bridge. It really made a big explosion and a lot of smoke. The other plane went on across the convoy and got away. An LST reported swimmers in the water just after the transport was hit, but I do not know whether they were picked up or not. The transport was ahead of us and one column over to the starboard. A lot of the ships are firing at the planes (Vals) including us, but didn’t see any hits. They were out of range of our 20mm. A little after this, the 4 battleships and 3 escorts on our port side shot down a plane. I never saw it fall but saw the splash where it hit. They really put up the flank. We were passing Manilla Bay about this time. We made smoke this morning from about 0200 to daylight. We heard that 19 men were killed on the transport that was hit. Evening - they had a burial at sea for the guys that were killed last night. Evening - Counted 9 Aircraft carriers on our port. The planes look like swarms of bees landing and taking off from them. We didn’t have any more GQ until regular GQ. Then we saw some ships firing, but didn’t see any planes. After GQ they had another flash red, but nothing came of it. We are now even with Linguyan Bay and we will be in some time tonight. H - hour is early tomorrow morning.

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

January 2, 1945 - firing practice, more ships join the convoy.

December 30 - Left Sansapor at 1600 with 70 ship convoy. We are in task unit 78.5.5.

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 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.