5. Transforming Warships Into Transports
As seen above, some combat ships were hurriedly retrofitted to serve as transports, as was the case with aircraft carriers, in whose hangars were bolted or welded massive bunk beds. Other Navy vessels, particularly smaller ones such as destroyers, were frequently impressed to serve as transports just as they were. Returning servicemen were invited to shift for themselves, deploy hammocks wherever possible, and make do by squeezing into whatever nooks and crannies and free space were available aboard ship. The Pacific portion of Magic Carpet involved extra layers of complexity, and, especially at the beginning, required greater dispatch than had been necessary in Europe. There was the Pacific’s vast distances compared to the European theater. There was also the urgent need to rescue American POWs from the scattered Japanese camps in which they had languished for years, often starved, brutalized, and otherwise barbarically mistreated by their captors.
