Evening star., 1942-08-31

landing at Guadalcanal was very
much like the opening football game
of the season. The few hours of
actual conflict represented many.
many hours of skull practice, scrim-
mage and careful scouting Of the op-
POSITIONS plays.
was embarked on one of the
Navy transports which carried a
part of the force When we left
our base in the South Pacific the
Marines / talked to were all in favor
Of going into action. They were in
the war TO lick hell out of the
parasites of the Pacific and the
sooner the quicker.
The long line of grim. gray war
vessels steaming out of the harbor
as we left our base must have been
a thrilling sight from the beach
it looked very comforting from
where l sat to see destroyers and
cruisers fore and aft and to port
and starboard. Scuttlebutt Navy
and Marine lingo for unauthenti-
Gated gossip concerning our desti-
nation included every place from
Little America to Toxic. Only a
handful knew the real objective and
they weren't talking.
Scout in All Quarters.
The convoy moved north and
south and east and west, much in
the manner of the famous scout
who leaped on his horse and rode
off in all directions. Every time I
walked on deck the sun was shin
ing from a different quarter. It
must have all been very confusing
to any Japanese spy who may have
been lurking in the offing.
We moved without incident for
several days, until one morning
the loulspeakers broke into the
crisp "ack-ack-ack" signal of gen.
eral understanding that danger,
real or potential, was imminent.
There was no particular excite
ment on my ship. The crew moved
to their battle stations with in
credible speed and the marines re-
tired in orderly fashion to the troop
compartments. A few minutes later
the "all clear" sounded. The three
planes which had swooped over the
horizon to the port side had been
identified as friendly.
Later in the day, Marines summing
themselves on deck saw two tiny
specks on the horizon to starboard
Soon they could be recognized as
ships. In five minutes, every off :
duty man on board was crowding
the rail. The same thing was hap
pening on every other transport ]
could see.
Powerful Convoy Appears.
The two specks became three
then five, then more. Men with
binoculars spotted aircraft carriers
heavy cruisers and giant transports
1t was the best morale booster I've
ever seen.
There was terrific let-doWn for
few minutes when it appeared
that the powerful convoy was going
to steam right by, but it finally
swung ponderously around and fell
| into line behind us.
Less than an hour after the first
two specks had appeared to star
board, the ships grapevine went
into action with reports of another
convoy rising from the sea to port
Sure enough, when 1 walked ovel
to the rail l saw what appeared te
be a mirrored duplicate of the earlier
scene. I felt better-in fact, I fell
very good.
For a couple of days we moved
along together. Occasionally a shiT
or group of ships slipped over tn.
horizon, only to reappear later on
During all this time the only dry
land sighted was in the sand locker
Finally. however, we began t.
move through a group of ghostl,
blue islands that seemed scarcel,
different from the cloudbanks tn
Marines had been so positivel,
identifying as terra firma. BY tha
time it was generally conceded tina
very tangible objective lay aheas
of us.
Men Told of Plans.
Unit commanders gathered thei
men together and told them in de
tail Of the plan OF attack. The OBJ
jectives of our force were Guadal
canal and the neighboring Florid
Island in the Solomons group.
I The date, August Z, was we