Ensign Robert A Close aboard Heavy cruiser USS LOUISVILLE (CA-28)

LINGAYEN GULF INVASION
On 2 January 1945, we, again as part of the Fire and Support Group, departed Leyte Gulf. VADM Oldendorf was still in command. I was the Turret Officer of 8” gun turret #3. The invasion force steamed up the Sulu Sea on the west side of Luzon and past Manila, the Philippines’ capital. All ships were in, and remained in for days, Air Defense Condition One. On the evening of 4 January the first of many air raids started. One of our ground support Jeep carriers, the USS OMMANEY BAY, was hit by a suicide plane, blew up and sank. Next afternoon, 5 January, even heavier air attacks came in on the force. I had the First Dog Watch (1600 – 1800) on the bridge as JOOD. When I was relieved at 1800 by LTJG Horace Hill, USNA class of 1944, I went down to the wardroom for dinner. Almost immediately, the General Quarters alarm started clanging. I headed out the door for my Turret back aft. Just as I passed the ladder that headed up the bridge structure, there was a bone-jarring boom. A wall of flame came pouring down the ladder and burned the shirt off the man moving next to me. I just felt a blast of heat for a moment. A suicide plane had hit the face plate of the #2 turret just forward and below the bridge, peeled the roof back and threw part of it a couple hundred in the air, setting fires inside. Classmate Ben Leavitt crawled in amid the flames and, behind the range-finder, turned on the fresh water fire system, then worked his way down to the shell deck and put out the burning paint on the projectiles. His actions prevented a turret explosion and earned him a Bronze Star.
The wall of flame from the plane’s exploding gasoline badly burned the ship’s Commanding Officer, CAPT R.L. Hicks. Horace Hill who had relieved me 15 minutes earlier was also badly burned. There were many injuries by the plane’s burning gasoline blast but only one death. Next morning, 6 January, classmate Bob Kasten’s Turret #1 and my #3 were able to carry out our shore bombardment mission. Admiral Oldendorf made the decision to enter Lingayen Gulf for some preliminary shore fire even though the main pre-invasion shooting was due to start next day. The force entered at 1500. At 1710 Kass’s and my turret open fire. About this time an air attack with an estimated 100 planes came screaming across the water towards the force. Three planes attacked us. We knocked them all down. However, a fourth, a Jap ‘Val’, coming in from the starboard quarter, swung and crashed into the starboard side of the signal bridge alongside the flag bridge. One bomb exploded on the open bridge, knocking that bridge out of action. Control of the ship had to be transferred to BATTLE TWO conning station back in the after mast structure. Many of the Flag’s Staff were killed and Admiral Chandler was badly burned. He died three days later. In addition to the dead, there were 125 injured by the blast or burned by gasoline.
During this attack, 17 ships were hit by suicide planes. Among those were 3 battleships, 1 American and 1 Australian cruiser, and the LOU. Because of the damage, we were sent out with the other cripples to join the screens of the Jeep carrier groups. I was scheduled for the Junior Officer of the Deck (JOOD) mid-watch (midnight to 0400) on the bridge. At 2200 (10 pm), I was called to bridge to relieve the then JOOD – can’t remember why. So, I stood the rest of his watch and then started my own at midnight. The scheduled OOD was the ship’s first lieutenant. Because his duties as damage control officer kept him elsewhere, I was left as OOD and conning officer. This got to be a hairy time. The LOU was placed in the circular screen around the Jeeps with the damaged COLUMBIA just ahead. Keeping station from BATT TWO was not pleasant since the massive main mast/bridge structure prevented seeing ahead for some 40 degrees either side of the bow. To further complicate things, the COLUMBIA, which had been hit on the fantail, kept losing steering control and would veer all over the place. I could maintain position by sighting on the formation guide but could not see ahead. A sound-powered phone was rigged to the bow for an observer. After six hours on the bridge, over four of which I was conning the ship, I was looking forward to relief at 0400 by another classmate, Ted Colvin. Unfortunately, as assistant navigator, he had been in the chart house when the Jap plane hit. The concussion had knocked him into a daze and he could not take the watch. It was about 0600 before a relief for me was found.
Having been up and on my feet either in my turret or on the bridge for almost 20 hours, I was really shot. All I wanted was a bite to eat and my bunk. I went down to the wardroom for a sandwich. When I walked in, it was chaos. Since the wardroom was a secondary battle dressing station, every table was covered with wounded and dead. The doc, a LCDR, saw me, came over with a gallon can of Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly, handed it to me and said to go around the room and spread this on any burn victims that are still alive. A messy, ugly task since as I spread with bare hand, flesh tended to come off. I lost whatever appetite I had had. It is interesting to note that now days, Vaseline treatment is a ‘No-No’ for burns.
While I loved being a ‘ship driver’, those two days of suicide plane hits plus one more at OKINAWA further convinced me to become an aviator.