Beach Landings(Billy Sample) BEACH LANDINGS

Have you ever watched movies such as “The Longest Day” or “Saving Private Ryan” and wondered what it would be like to be part of a beach landing? Salt water coming over the bow of the boat. Watching the mother ship grow smaller behind you. Hearing the engine slow down and knowing you are only a few minutes from hitting the beach. I’ve never made one under fire or in an actual combat situation but I have certainly made quite a few in training.

My first ship was often referred to as a “Gator Freighter” an Amphibious Assault Ship, the USS Tarawa, Identification, LHA1. She proudly displayed the numeral “1” on both sides of her Island deck and was named “The Eagle of the Sea”. She was a beautiful graceful lady on the seas but she could also be brutal if you pissed her off. Her armament included BPDMS (basic point of defense missile system), 5-inch gun mounts, 9 helicopter launch stations for simultaneous launching! You know all that alone would sufficiently scare the heck out of almost anyone! Her most unique feature, however, was the ability to lower her stern into deep enough under the surface of the water to flood the well deck.

The USS Tarawa had a ship’s crew of about 800 sailors. When she was deployed overseas, she would carry a Marine complement of somewhere around 1,200. The ‘Eagle of the Sea’ is out cruising and suddenly gets a call of a conflict somewhere in the area. There are very few problems that 1,200 United States Marines can’t solve if you can just get them ashore. You want some of them to be dropped on the beach from helicopters and some of them to be landed by boats. You’re going to have Marines dropping out of the sky and crawling out of the ocean. This has to be a bad guy’s worst nightmare! But you have to get them there with some coordination. The point is to have all of this happening in overwhelming numbers as close to the same time as possible. Alright, I realize this all sounds a little alien so let me just describe what a day of practicing beach landings was like, especially for a boot sailor like myself.

The first thing I had to do was find my assigned “Mike” boat. The Mike boat was the landing craft that I would be performing the duties as the on-board Signalman. I show up armed with a pair of semaphore flags and a multipurpose signal light. In other words, 2 sticks with a flag stapled to each one and a really fancy powerful flashlight.

My boat is in the well deck along with a dozen or so others. Imagine your high school gymnasium with all the lights turned out, musty and just a little spooky. It’s predawn so it’s dark inside the ship. Only the red lights show illumination without ruining your night vision. I find my boat, M-585. I climb over the side and realize I’m the first one on board, but not for long.

In just a short time the Coxswain shows up followed by a Boatswain Mate, an Engineman and finally the Boat Officer, a few small greetings and then its waiting time. I really don’t have much to talk to any of these guys about so I peer over the side looking for my Signalman buddies on the other boats. There’s George, there’s Rob, Kenny, over on the far side of the well deck is Michael. We’re here and ready, let’s get this show on the road!

Basically, this was the sequence of events as I remember them, keep in mind it’s been over 40 years ago.

A siren would sound inside the ship warning everyone that the flooding of the well deck was about to begin. Soon the stern of the great ship would in a since, start to sink. As the fantail gate would open allowing the water to rush in. Eventually the Mike boat would start to float. Sailors would be stationed about the well deck holding mooring lines in hand to keep us in place. When the water would reach the required depth, another siren would sound and green lights about the stern gates would be turned on. It was go, go, go time!

The engines of the boats would roar to life and the lines would be thrown off. The Coxswain would throttle up and off we would go right out through the stern of the ship and into open seas!

Now that we are outside and in to the open water, we proceed to our staging area. This was a point where we steam around in a small circle. What we were waiting on is a signal from the ship by flashing light and signal flag displays. We are waiting on all the Mike boats to be in their own holding pattern. The positions were surrounding the ship.

We’re not there to attack the shore, we’re there to escort smaller boats that may have as their cargo, men, tanks or various vehicles. Once these are in position to be launched from the well deck and out the stern gate, we will be dispatched to that area and coordinate the voyage. How do we know when they are ready? The Signal Bridge will tell us by positioning the numeral flag of our systematic position. Such as numeral flag 1, 2, 3, and so on.

If I remember correctly is was when the flag was half way up the yardarm it indicated 10 minutes to departure. When the flag was raised all the way to the top, it was 5-minute standby. When it was pulled down, that was “GO”!

We then proceed to the stern gate as our companion boats now begin to exit the stern gate. As soon as they are out, could be anywhere from 2 boats and up. We steam to the front and allow them to line up on us. Usually they would be on our starboard side. Once they were lined up we then take off for the shore.

This is where the onboard Signalman begins to earn his pay. My attention is fixed on the signal bridge of the Tarawa. I’m looking for ‘flashing light’ directed at me. The signals are going to be something like this, remember this was 40 years ago so may not have this exactly but here you go.

Signal is tango tango five romeo one zero (TT 5 R 10). This was sent in Morse code so what I’m seeing is a succession of dots and dashes. I’m reporting this to the Boat Officer who is translating it to mean that at 5 minutes since departure range 1000 yards from the beach. He’s looking at a chart that shows where we are supposed to be. If the chart says 1000 yards then we are on schedule. The Signal Bridge is getting their numbers from CIC (Combat Information Center) who is tracking us on radar.

The updates are coming at 1-minute intervals. If the next signal comes in at (tango tango six range nine four) this one is telling us that at 6 minutes since departure we are 940 yards from the beach. I report this to the officer who looks at his chart and sees that we should be at 950 yards. He now determines that we are going too fast so orders the coxswain to slow down.

Think of us as a mother duck and we are responsible for all the little ducks to be in a straight line. They are ‘shooting’ fixes on us to stay at exactly 90 degrees of our starboard side. The small boat on their starboard side is doing the same thing to them.
The importance of this is for coordination. As I said at the beginning. We want everything to happen in exact coordination. The boats, the men, the helicopters, the shelling if there is any all has to be PERFECT.

As we get closer the signals continue at the timed intervals. I believe the last signal came at like 50 yards from the beach. At just a short distance the Mike Boat, if equipped would drop and anchor and then let it run out. We then hit the beach, the bow gate is dropped and any equipment or men on board would depart expediently!

As soon as the all clear sound was given the gate was closed. The engine was reversed and if there was an dropped anchor it was reeled in to help pull us off the beach.

‘Mission Accomplished’!

Now we pull back into the open sea and do one of several assignments. We may go back to the ship. We may wait for a period of time and then pull back to the beach and pick up the guys or equipment we unloaded. More than likely, we would collect everything and head back to the ship. Maybe get lunch rest a little and then do the whole thing over again!

It was interesting times and a heck of an experience! I will say that thankfully I never had to experience this is an actual battle situation but it was stressful enough just training, I can only imagine what it would be like and totally Salute anyone who has and or will!

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