7-31-16
July 31, 1944: We are continuing course back to Eniwetok, all our fresh meat and vegetables are almost gone. We are eating Spam almost two or three times a week, powdered eggs and dehydrated vegetables. It will be good to eat fresh fruit again.
August 1, 1944: Today we anchored in Eniwetok Lagoon. I am looking forward to getting my feet in some sand. (Frank Studenski)
The ship anchored in Eniwetok for the entire month, weighing anchor on August 30 [at which time TF58 became TF38 – under command of Wm Halsey] [note: last blog I said they arrived in Eniwetok on Aug 6 . . . my bad]. The ship and crew were not idle for the entire month, spending most days practicing firing and fleet maneuvers. There was some down time, however:
They let us go swimming in the lagoons. I dove off the ship once – I got stuck in a really strong current; it dragged me down and away from the ship. There I was struggling like hell to get back and the guys in the whaleboat saw me struggling so they held out an oar and helped me back towards the ship. You get caught in one of those undertows – bad news. I never swam off the ship again after that. (John Farkas)
One day while we were at anchorage in Eniwetok I had liberty and went walking along the beach on the lagoon side and I came across a waterlogged paper box. I turned it over and to my surprise it was a kotex box. I could not believe it – what was this box doing in the lagoon so far away from civilization? I dried it in the sun and took it back to the ship and showed it to some people who offered to buy it. (Frank Studenski)