\"LST-783 Cruise Book: A WW2 Journal\" - LST ship history Emmett Kelly Jr Circus

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\"LST-783 Cruise Book: A WW2 Journal\" - LST ship history Emmett Kelly Jr Circus:
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\"LST-783 Cruise Book: A WW2 Journal\"- LST ship history Emmett Kelly Jr Circus Clown

This 5.5\" by 8.5\" 316 page paperback is about circusclown Emmett Kelly Jr\'s time aboard an LST in the Pacific Theater of Operationsduring WWII. It is written from a historical perspective based upondailyUS Navy Deck Log entries, notations from my father\'s Journal and mostspecifically from 1500 pages of letters the Captain sent home to his wife andson while in harms way. I was fortunate the Captain\'s son shared those lettersgiving valuable insight to daily life aboard the ship during war. LST-783 earnedthree battle stars in Leyte and Iwo Jima.

This book commences from day one until the day it was scrapped. Itis considered a \"Cruise Book\" in that it details the travels of theship, but it\'s so much more in that it journalizes \"everything\" frommy father\'s enlisted perspective, the Captain\'s perspective and the officialnaval records entwined into the \"only\" account of the ship, it\'s crewand fate of the ship. This book also carries my personal signature and otherinformation regarding links to the ship\'s character and layout. It is a greathistorical accounting of the war in the Pacific and what daily life aboard aship was like during WWII, including ship\'s discipline. It is detailed downeach port, berth andlongitude and latitude references so you can followthe ship\'s travels.

My father\'s journal entries (when he penned them) precede thedaily deck log entry,followed by excerpts of the Captain\'s lettershome,each day until he left the ship. That is a story in of itself worthreading. Experience the discipline, the horseplay, the stress of war, multipletyphoons wherein the ship was tossed like a cork in the ocean, andtheexultation of war\'s end.

After the war, the shipparticipated intherepatriationof the Japanese held Islands, sailed to China, and wasinvolved in a multiple ship devastationsimilar to Pearl Harbor\'s WestLoch Disasterwhere in multipleships and lives werelost whilebeached at Gushikawa, Chimu Wan, Okinawa.Nothing is left to theimagination. It\'s there for you to explore. Meanwhile, here\'s an example foryou to enjoy:

Flagwith a plane under it on our Conn. How bout that? It didn’t take longand we officially have a Japanese Bomber to our credit. Not bad, I say. The airraids are still averaging seven a day, but it seems useless. They don’t hitanything, but we knock down a couple each day without fail. Honestly, the crewlooks forward to it. It’s like a big game to see who can knock down the most.The only bad thing is that it’s awfully annoying. I’m usually in the shower, inthe head, shaving or in the sack or something. Tomorrow is another Captain’sInspection. They seem to roll around quicker now and the weeks seem to slip byquickly while time in general seems to lag. It’s hard to explain. Another goodgame of bridge tonight, we’ve been playing it quite consistently as of late.After the “victory” of the plane shot down the whole crew seems to be in goodspirits even with the moroffer, depressing, torrential, drizzle that seems topersist day and night. The weather is cool in the evening and one puts in arestful night. Even I seem to be slightly lifted tonight.

Flag), 38, 45, 71, 130, 275, 450,479, 484 and escorted by USS Duffy (DE-27), USS Martin (DE-30), YMS-163and YMS-288; 1600 Homonhon Island off port bow about 10 miles distant- McAllister - At last, we are underway and for the very first timesince we’ve been out here, we’re heading east. I’ll admit that I’m glad to begoing away from this last stop. The air raids, etc., pretty much kept us on theedge all the time, but already we’ve left it well behind us. Not a thinghappened through the day and with my getting up at daybreak, I’m just aboutdead on my feet. We loaded 57 passengers, the only survivors of the DestroyerUSS Mahan (DD-364) which was sunk 7 DEC at Ormac Bay. Reportedly, nine ‘Jap’ suicideplanes dove at her from 1500 feet. The Mahan shot down six of them intheir dive down. The planes didn’t have any bombs, but they were full of gas.Planes hit the bow, the conning tower and the stern. Ammo was going offeverywhere. Abandon ship, at least those left alive. Destroyer USS Walke(DD-723) picked them up and let the Mahan have a torpedo, which broke the shipin two. The stern sank right away, but it took nineteen rounds of 5.5 shells tosink the bow and that was with all the ammo exploding in it also