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Lieutenant Commander F. S. Bayley Jr., U.S.N.R. (Inactive).—I read with great interest the article entitled “79 Minutes on the Picket Line,” in the August issue of the Proceedings. I note that there appeared to be no pictures of record of the Laffey. I enclose four snapshots which were taken from the U.S.S. PCE(R) 851 shortly after the Laffey was hit, on RP one. The negatives of these pictures were forwarded to the Navy Department in the usual course by our ship’s photographer. These copies were retained by me as commanding officer.
The PCE(R) 851 was a rescue ship and during our stay at Okinawa we took care of the northerly picket stations. We had an
eighty-bed hospital with surgery and X-ray and our facilities were frequently overtaxed with casualties and survivors of the picket ships.
It has been a matter of some interest to me that the story of the PCE(R) class has never been told, particularly in view of the constant duty we had on or in the immediate vicinity of the picket stations. My ship went through the Philippine campaign, Iwo Jima, and at the time of my relief as commanding officer, had for 65 days performed, in the words of Commodore Moosbrugger, “Many heroic rescues of wounded personnel from alongside burning and sinking vessels,” at Okinawa. There were three of these ships at Okinawa and their services were almost continuously in demand. With a top speed of 16 knots, with very limited gun power and no ^ir search radar, the maintenance of an isolated station required the crew to be at battle stations for almost 24 hours a day and \ days a week. The trips back from the Picket stations, with the hospital filled with the wounded, without any air cover or escort, were made frequently and without damage to any of the PCE(R) ’s.
(Editor’s Note: Two of the photographs mentioned above are reproduced on the opposite page.)
More on the Laffey
(See page 997, September 1949 Proceedings)
Lieutenant Commander Benjamin D. Hyde, U.S.N.R. (Inactive).—In my twelve odd years as a reader of the Proceedings I don’t believe I have seen you publish anything much better than “Seventy-Nine Minutes On the Picket Line” as appearing in your September, 1949 issue.
As the former C.O. of a ship that spent some forty odd days and nights in the same picket line with the Laffey this writer can testify that your story has succeeded in vividly reconstructing those nerve racking days.
\\ hat a pity that some of the younger generation in our schools cannot read this story and others like it. This is the kind of history that they would read as long as they could continue to find more material, and perhaps in these days of cynical politicians and power-hungry unions such history would have an invaluable place in the curriculum!
As many of us know, the story of the Laffey was repeated fifty or maybe a hundred times in the Okinawa Operation alone, and many other times at Leyte Gulf and other places, but aside from their immediate effect on some current operation, they have a long range importance and value to the future of this country which must not be lost. Even though the names of the famous ships in youi story might be meaningless to some youngster ten years hence, I am sure the story itself would never be forgotten!