INTRODUCTION
Between 1942 and 1945 thousands of small ungainly ships moved across the Pacific Ocean. Their job was to project the armed might of the United States across that vast ocean and ashore onto dozens of islands occupied by the forces of the Empire of Japan. Because of their slow speed the formations they traveled in from one island to another were called Tractor Divisions. Though their mission was vital to winning the war duty aboard these ships wasn’t considered a fitting assignment for Regular Navy personnel. As a result those who served in these ships were reservists or draftees.
My father, Lieutenant (junior grade) R. William Clark, USNR, was one of these amateur mariners. He graduated from college in 1943 and entered the Naval Reserve through one of the several reserve officer training programs set up to meet the manpower needs of the war. In this way he became a “Ninety–Day Wonder” (even though his training actually took 120 days). After receiving his commission my father was ordered to the USS LCI(L) 77, landing craft infantry (large) hull number 77. Even though designated as “large” this ship was one of the smaller and more ungainly types mentioned above. A ship so insignificant in the eyes of those who ruled the Navy that it didn't get a name, only a number. He spent the rest of the war with this ship.
During the last decade of his life he researched and wrote a first draft of the story of his war service. After his death I looked over his draft and began to go through the files he collected during his research. There was more there than just a story of one man’s service. There was the beginings of a story about the ship herself and the other young men in her crew.
This web site is the first product of my effort to organize my father’s memoir, combine it with material he collected from various sources. As it develops it will include the rememberances of other crewmembers. The full work is too large to appear here so I'm presenting only excerpts. When completed the full document will be available in an appropriate format. Until then here are some “snapshots” of World War Two in the Pacific from a unique point of view.
A final editoral word before getting on with the story. To set those sections of text that are unedited from my father's draft apart from the rest of this document, which is either my own work or an edited version of his, I will use a pale blue background and a slightly different type face.
Here is how a section of my father's own words will look. I'm using this approach rather than a standard block quote because some of the sections are rather long.