Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-03-17
OUR MODERN NAVY
BY JOHN H. CLINE

Associate Editor Of The Star
-Four of the Nays newest
fighting ships lay peacefully at
anchor as our plane came in
over the blue waters of Guam
tanamo Bay last Sunday. But
everyone in our party of visit
ing newsmen knew that we
were looking down on the nu-
cleus Of a powerful striking
force-four ships which her.
aided what one officer rightly
called the opening of a truly
new era in sea combat poten-
tial."
The ships in the order in
which we were to visit them
were the Forrestal, our newest
aircraft carrier and the worlds
largest warship; the Boston, a
converted heavy cruiser and
the first combatant ship in the
world to mount an effective
surface-to-air missile system;
the Northampton, another
heavy cruiser which has been
converted to a task force COM
mand ship, and the Forrest
Sherman, the first completely
new destroyer built since
World War II.
These ships were at Guam
tanamo for a definite purpose
fleet training. The exhibition
which we were to witness
would not be put on by a
veteran outfit. On the con-
trary. many of the men were
new to the Navy and many Of
the jobs they had to learn to
do were both novel and highly
technical. Our party must have
had a high nuisance rating as
we barged in on this still
uncompleted training program
being directed by Capt. Fred
eriek Habecker of the feet
training command.
y 4
Immediately after landing
at the airfield we were loaded
on barges and taken out to the
Forrestal to be assigned to our
aforementioned quarters. It is
something of an experience
just to go out to the Forrestal.
When fully loaded, this giant
of a ship displaces 10000 tons.
1t is 1895 feet long and 252
feet wide. The distance from
keel to mast-top is the equiv
alent of a 25-story building.
Inside its gray hull live $500
men, and there is plenty Of
room for all. The barge IN
which we were riding seemed
as insignificant as a,cork bob
bling on the water.
This initial awesome i'm
preston was soon to fade,
however. After being well
coined aboard by the skipper.
Capt. Roy L. johnson, we re-
turned to the base for a re-
ception. The next day, after
sleeping on the Forrestal, the
big show got under way.
The flight deck Of the car
rier is nearly four acres in
area. When we had climbed
to our station on the ships
island we looked down on
close to 100 combat planes. The
jets, the Furies and the Ban
shoes, were up forward, ready
to be launched from the For
restal's four catapults. The
rear of the angled deck was
spotted with propeller driven
Skyraiders and prophet Saw
ages. Hater on the ship will
carry nothing but jetS.) On
the hangar deck, down below,
were more planes. waiting to
be brought up on the eleva-
tors.
To the uninitiated, the scene
was one Of massive confusion.
Scores Of men were running
around. dressed according to
their particular jobs in red,
green. yellow, brown or blue
jerseys. Each man seemed to
know what he was supposed to
do, and somehow he seemed
to get it done. Before long all
Of the planes scheduled for the
first launch were in the air.
A smoke target was dropped
a mile of our port side. and
the bombing and strafing be-
gan. The feature of this part
of the show was what the Navy
calls a loft bombing attack.
This is a technique that was
dreamed up to enable a plane
carrying an A-bomb, which the
Forrestal is fully equipped to
handle, to drop its weapon and
then get out Of there. 1t works
something like this: The plane
comes in as though for a low
level attack. Then, at the prop
er moment, 1t ICONS upward