5/15-17/1944: Carrier & Gunnery Quals, Perpetual Motion

15 MAY 44

The Navy Yard at Pearl Harbor being unable to begin maintenance as scheduled, Princeton stood out from Berth V-2 to conduct "air operations and gunnery training at sea in the Hawaiian area."

It was time for Air Group 27 to introduce itself to its new home.

Shore-based air groups rendezvoused with the three carriers that had left Pearl in column — Yorktown, Monterey and Princeton — and by 1438 twelve fighters and four torpedo bombers of Air Group 27 were aboard The P, one Hellcat having "crashed into barriers during these recoveries, with no injuries to pilot and no damage to ship."

Despite being thousands of miles from the active combat areas of the Southwest Pacific, the carriers were escorted by numerous destroyers and other vessels constantly on alert, the memory of December 7th still fresh.

"At 1415 passed PC-1077 and PC-603 abeam to port, distant about 1500 yards. These two vessels had been conducting a search for a submarine reported by sound contact and sighting by aircraft the previous day. When queried by signal they reported they had made no contact."

PC-461 Class Submarine Chaser. Laid down 18 February 1942 by the Albina Engine and Machinery Works, Portland, OR. Launched 29 July 1942. Commissioned USS PC-1077, 14 December 1942. Decommissioned in January 1947 and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Florida Group. Renamed Edenton, 15 February 1956. Struck from the Navy Register 11 January 1961, transferred to Venezuela and renamed ARV Caracol (P 06).

USS PC-603. Laid down 9 May 1942 at Consolidated Shipbuilding Corp., Morris Heights, NY

Launched 30 June 1942. Commissioned USS PC-603, 1 October 1942. Placed in service as a naval reserve training vessel in September 1946 in the 4th Naval District (Philadelphia). Decommissioned 8 January 1947 at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA. Placed out of service 1 February 1956 at Norfolk, VA and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Norfolk Group. Named Solvay 15 February 1956. Struck from the Navy Register 1 July 1960. Approved for disposal 15 March 1961.

I could not love this photo more. Hardly a frown in sight:

Officers and crew of USS PC-603. Date unknown.

By 1841 pilots that had "walked aboard", or sailed out of Pearl with the ship, had swapped into the cockpits that had flown aboard and completed their qualification landings without incident.

16 MAY 44

The morning of May 16th began at 0628 with the launch of ten fighters and four bombers for further carrier qualification landings. "At 0801 USS STERRETT sighted a metallic object in the water and reported sinking same with gunfire."

An identical afternoon carrier qualification launch was completed at 1343 and recovered successfully by 1627, again without incident.

The new pilots, it appears, were acquitting themselves well.

The waters of the Naval Shipyard at Pearl Harbor, it seems, were not the only areas teeming with the men and machines required of a nation wholly mobilized for global conflict:

"At 2037 ComTaskGroup 19.3 reassumed tactical command and USS YORKTOWN resumed formation guide when it developed that another group of ships was conducting surface firing in the area assigned to this Task Group for rendezvous with towing vessels and surface target. ... At 2050 fleet course and axis changed right to 030˚ to clear group of surface vessels on port bow engaged in surface firing. Another group of surface vessels were also firing target practice on the starboard beam at this time. Formation was maneuvered to clear these units."

17 MAY 44

Surface target practice for the ship's gun crews continued through the 16th and into the wee hours of the 17th of May, concluding eventually at 0330.

By 0505 Princeton had rejoined Yorktown and Monterey and by 0612 another cycle of carrier landing qualification launches had commenced.

I haven't specifically commented on it yet but in case you hadn't thought about it, the ship does not sleep. It is quite literally a human beehive of perpetual motion and activity — training, maintenance, training, combat, administration, training, logistics — no rinsing, just repeating.

The OTC ordered all ships to prepare to proceed to port at 1425 and by 1618 Princeton "passed between channel entrance buoys numbers 1 and 2 and at 1629 received [harbor] pilot aboard. With assistance of pilot and tugs, maneuvers to approach Berth B-22, U.S. Navy Yard, Pearl Harbor, T.H."

Pearl Harbor Naval Base and environs, looking south, circa 1940.

For the next 11 days Princeton would undergo major maintenance and repair. The crews would work hard and, I presume, have the opportunity to play hard as well.

And they would be witness to a little known but devastating, tragedy.

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