FLYING SECRET DISPATCHES TO AUSTRALIA
On 1 April 1942, our Task Force was in Noumea for one day. On 4 April, because of the need to maintain radio silence, Portland was ordered by Rear Admiral Fletcher to send two SOC seaplanes to Townsville, Australia and deliver by hand a secret dispatch requesting that Australian cruisers of the ANZAC Squadron rendezvous with US naval forces in preparation for the Battle of the Coral Sea. Having delivered the message, the SOC aircrews were required to remain in Townsville and await further orders.
On 5 April, two seaplanes were launched from Portland as ordered. One was piloted by our "boss" Lieutenant Hayes Irons, USN, the Senior Naval Aviator aboard. The other was piloted by Ensign Jay Yakeley, USNR. On 10 April, since the Commander of Task Force 17 had not received an arrival report of the two seaplanes launched on 5 April, Portland was ordered to send another two SOCs to Townsville with a duplicate of the original message. I was selected as pilot of one of these seaplanes.
A Curtiss SOC-1 seaplane of the type flown by Ensign Ralph "Kaiser" Wilhelm at the Battle of the Coral Sea
At 0745 hours on Saturday, 11 April, when Portland was 220 miles off the Australian coast, I was catapulted along with one other aircraft to make the flight. My Aviation Radioman/Gunner was Vern Cruse. The other SOC was piloted by Lieutenant (jg) Robert "Bob" Seibles, USN.
It had rained all of the previous night, and during the flight to Australia, we had to fly around quite a number of rain squalls. The Great Barrier Reef is quite visible from the air, and we flew over what seemed to be hundreds of coral reefs and shoals covered by about a foot of water. We landed in the harbor at Townsville at 1015, and saw that Portland's first two SOCs were anchored there. Our boss was still waiting for orders, and because of strict radio silence, he had been unable to report his safe arrival at Townsville to the Commander of Task Force 17. We delivered our secret dispatches to RAAF Headquarters.
A night in Townsville
We found the boss and Jay and decided it would take too long to fuel and take off before 1300 hours, so we decided to fly back to the ship in the morning. There wasn't much debate on what to do because we all wanted to stay overnight.
We got rooms at the Queen's Hotel. I bought three bottles of French perfume for Kay. We sampled the local beer and Scotch, and I approved both! Lieutenant Commander Hall of the Royal Australian Navy showed us around the town and took us to a dance at the local Country Club. Townsville appeared to be a very nice town of about 30,000 people. Americans were no longer a novelty in Townsville because so many of our Army pilots and troops were down there.
Return to Portland
I was awoken at 0600 hours on Sunday, 12 April when the chambermaid brought in my cup of tea. It is a local custom to have tea the first thing in the morning. We had breakfast at the hotel and took off at 0915. Portland was 200 miles off the coast and passing through a rendezvous point every hour. We missed the ship by about eight miles and were just barely able to see it up wind as visibility was very poor. We landed at 1240, and I was fourth to land. As each plane was hoisted aboard, the band played "Hail! Hail! The Gang's all here". It was quite a reception, and Captain DuBose was glad to see us back as he wasn't sure if we got to Townsville or not.
I slept for a couple of hours that afternoon because the bed at the hotel didn't give me any rest at all. I believe it was the most uncomfortable bed I have ever slept in.
Dinner that evening was quite an affair. The captain was invited down for the "welcome home" party, and the celebration was quite something. It was the first time that the captain had been down to have dinner with us since he came aboard. He presented the boss and Jay each with a medal which had been made by the engineers. The cake had "Welcome Home" written on it, and we had the honor of cutting the first pieces.
At this time, we were heading east-north-east at 17 knots in order to rendezvous with the Task Force on the following evening. The scuttlebutt was that we might be relieved out there sooner than we thought, maybe by the Minneapolis.