Full Name:

STEVE DONOFRIO

Rank:

EM2

Story Date (Circa):

1973 -1974 Med. Cruise

Your Sea Story:

The following piece was forwarded to me from former EM2 Landis 'BRIAR' Cornett. It was written by a then short-timer IC3 Stephen Gray (who failed to include himself). It describes a part of my life aboard the Silly Willy and the shipmates that I am proud to have served with under then DCA Ltjg. Charles "I Never Take Off My Sunglasses' Rodriguez.


Repair Division, an integral part of engineering, is composed of four rates; Hull Technicians, Electricians Mates, Machinery Repairman, and Interior Communications Electricians.

The HT's are sometimes led by HT1 Maurice Bower othertimes by mass confusion. Second in command is HT2 Frank (The Nurd) Trimmer who plays at Helicopter Fire Chief during flight quarters and whose ability to clean out stopped-up toilets is beyond reproach. HT2 Mike Shockey rounds out the ruling class of HT's and being "short" there won't be much said concerning his naval views since this is a military and therefore censored publication. Keeping with the navy pecking order, HT3 Keith Chambers enters the scene. Petty Officer Third Class (Push-button type) Chambers' obsession with the high-speed, good manuevering, well constructed Volkswagen has made him a key figure in the toilet cleaning brigade second only to Frank Trimmer. HT3 Dan Hinkle comes to us from the Army where he traded ground pounding for wave riding. For the illustrious strikers (those fools attempting to become HT's) there is FA John Berger who constantly, in port, tries to disprove the theory that the shortest distance between point A and B is a straight line. HTFA Mike Baimbridge, the Naval Reservist in our midst doesn't know whether he's an HT or not. He evidently assumed the title while going through that tough two week bootcamp. FN Leonard Baldini, our bird and rabbit murderer of the division, will gladly tell you the necessity of hunting the vicious man-eating sparrow with a Thompson sub-machine gun. FN Mike Carter, a boatswain mate reject, has really been an asset to the HT' with his superior knot tying ability.

Head maladroit of the Electricians EMC Terry (Chief) McDaniels whose trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, brave, clean, and reverent ideas (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha) have sparked the electricians under him to heights few men have ever achieved. The manipulator and general enforcer is EM1 George (Frenchy) Ouellette whose conduct ashore is in the highest traditions of the United States of America, Department of Defense, United States Navy, the USS W. S. Sims, and the First National Methodist Church of America. Next in line is EM2 Harry (Motor Mouth) Patterson with past adventures of the USS Saratogo which are, in fact, unbelieveable. His first and foremost admirer EM3 and a half Oliver (Briarhopper) Cornett Jr. whose speech and mumbled wit require constant translation from he other barefoot, down-home boys of the division, has brought about the rejuvenation of the now famous song "Jingle Briar" followed closely by "Sixteen Briarhoppers, What do you get?" EMFN (at long last) Don Braun alias BB alias Buddha Belly alias Bubbles Braun alias ButterBall is one of the comical electricians with his joint checking account with his car-wrecking girlfriend. EMFN Vince Sinopoli is from Louisiana and dreams of going to the Mardi Gras. I'm sure that he and his go-tee (all twelve hairs) will make it someday. FN Richard (Ravin' Richie) Hughes dreams a little differently. His dreams are of becoming an OS or a QM or maybe a CS or anything out of engineering. He's our gullible fireman who pleases our sea story tellers by believing every last word as the gospel truth. EMFN Joseph (Squeaky) Nalli and EMFN Steven (FRIO) Donofrio both are recent arrivals and therefore won't be subjected to verbal abuse this time around.

Division Officer, Damage Control Assistant and Division Chief ICC Charles (Chuckie Baby) Miller, is the ranking babysitter of the ship's gyro compass and whose ludicrous inanity on small jobs has given him the title of Ace Sweatpump aboard ship. Leading Petty Officer of the IC work center is IC2 Danny Waldrop. Although new to the ship, his endless stream of "bubblehead" (submarine) jokes has enhanced the divisions ever sinking morale. His right-hand man is IC3 Thomas Davis better known as the old man of the division. ICFN Daniel Rohde, the other designated striker, constantly attempts to build non-working Heath Kit projects. FN Gerald Jenkins, the last of the IC Men, is TAD to IC "A" School proving the fact that you can get off the Sims without getting out of the service.

The Machinery Repairmen section of R Division is by far and away the smallest segment, Smallest, not in work load but in number; only two men. The top-dog of the MR's is MR2 John Phillips. His ability to produce precision cribbage boards and pegs (which don't work) and his superior (what a joke!) card playing ability has earned him an unprintable name with which to live by. The other MR, FN Axel Wittenrood hails from Chicago, Illinois and lets you know it as soon as you meet him, so that he won't be confused with the "hillbillys" in the other gangs.

All kidding and joking aside, being part of Repair Division, is a hard-working, thankless job endured by all the above mentioned men and it was my priveledge to be associated with those people for the last year and a half. Just maybe someday, someone, will realize the importance of this Division and the individuals who are a part of it.

Full Name:

WALTER CARPUS

Rank:

RMC

Story Date (Circa):

1986

Your Sea Story:

The mere mention of a certain "towing" exercise off of GTMO should remain only in our cranial archives. Master Chief Hobby was rather restrained in his reply to my report to him that we would be needing assistance upon entry to port. He simply replied (as I remember it) I already know about it! Bring it on.
WOW! Tough time.

Full Name:

TED PAINTER

Rank:

FTG2

Story Date (Circa):

1970ish

Your Sea Story:

I saw the query about the keel anchor being fouled while we were in Gitmo in 1970. We had anchored out using the keel anchor, and when we weighed anchor we picked up the eye portion of an old mooring line. The anchor wedged into the housing, but wouldn't fully seat. We steamed for several days with it jammed, and the shaft of the anchor swung back and forth like a pendelum. Constant BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. Finally, the Gitmo port services people set a huge concrete weight in the water and streamed the cable from a crane through that to the anchor and pulled it out. What a relief it was to get rid of that booming.

Full Name:

R.P. TURNER

Rank:

MM3

Story Date (Circa):

between 1970 & 1972

Your Sea Story:

Does anyone remember being Anchored to the bottom of Gitmo bay? By use of a steel beam a wire cable with a steam hammsr tring to unstick our keel anchor.

Full Name:

JOE YOUNT

Rank:

PN2(SW)

Story Date (Circa):

1983 - 1985

Your Sea Story:

Any of the guys remember us being at UNREP and the 5" gun mount firing? The best I remember, PC3 Laforge, myself and a couple of BM's (maybe Smiley, Foster or Beckman) were on the P&D line above the bridge on the Signal Deck. I was looking over the forward edge and noticed the gunmount started moving around and training its gun. I thought boy thats odd and right in the middle of UNREP. Then again, Jeff Levi was our weapons officer and he was pretty unorthodox (boy is that an understatement!). Just when I was getting ready to call this to the attention of the Captain on the bridge wing, the mount 51 let loose a round to starboard. The concussion nearly knocked med off my feet and absolutely terrorized the crew of the oiler next to us (Neosho?). Emergency breakaway was called and all lines on the oiler to our ship were tossed into the drink for us to retrieve. At this moment I noticed that YN1 Hoffecker had his headset buttoned up around his neck as he was the CO's phone talker. The phone box on the other end of our P&D line got caught up with all the excess line in the water and the drag was to much for us to hang on the line. Boom, the P&D line is racing over the side and the line faked out on deck is paying out. I was screaming at Hoff "Get that thing off your neck". He didnt seem to understand the seriousness of the situation but finally started to unbutton it while chastising me for screaming at him in front of the CO. At that moment the line ran out and jerked the headset out of his hands at mach 5. If his head had been in there, he would have gone in the drink at that speed or his head would have popped off. I remember a lot of people giving me grief for warning old Hoff. Cant remember if Arje or Schultz was CO but I know Levi must have really got an ass chewing for that one!!!

Full Name:

JOE YOUNT

Rank:

pn

Story Date (Circa):

Your Sea Story:

Full Name:

LARRY THORPE

Rank:

sk3

Story Date (Circa):

Your Sea Story:

I remember one year during national week we where
to take our turn at shooting a drone down . We were at GQ so the captain went to modified GQ because the drone nevered showed up.
While we were at modified GQ to use the head and to have chow . while eating we hear over the 1mc that this is not a drill General Quarters
this is not a drill General Qauters in bound uniditifiable aircraft. We set xyz and secured the ship in record time ,after it was all done we found out that it was the drone that we had been waiting on.

Full Name:

STEVE DONOFRIO

Rank:

EMFN - EM2

Story Date (Circa):

1973-1977

Your Sea Story:

Everyone remembers the evaps crapping out and having to ration H2O with daily 10 minute head washups, right? (Did they ever fix that problem?)Even chasing down a storm to give the crew a well deserved "shower" while in GITMO in '76(btw- THANX CDR Williams!). I know various Snipes have their own stories (especially the MM's in AUX I), but I'll share an R Division secret.
If you didn't already know, the HT's controlled the on/off of the H2O.(They also had the keys to the Food Freezers, but that's a story for another time.) So having the heads up on the times, they took spanking new 30 gallon plastic trash cans (3?) below the workshop and tapped into the fresh water line while they were on and filled them up. Then, at will, tap into the salt water lines for a shower and, utilizing their coffee mugs, rinsed off with the fresh water! The Twidgets, especially during chow time, knew something was up, but nobody was talking. Not all of us worked in air conditioned spaces.
I understand that it was good while in GITMO, but later that year while chasing Russian subs back to Murmansk in the Arctic Circle, the 28 degree salt water didn't freeze and caused record breaking wash downs. But, I wouldn't know. ;)

Full Name:

MICHEAL PC MCCRANIE

Rank:

PC3 at that time

Story Date (Circa):

72-73ish

Your Sea Story:

Here�s one of many stories I hope to write.
The Place: Puerto Rico
The Date: 72-73ish
Liberty in Puerto Rico

I had some good friends on the Sims and we had some good times. One of the most embarrassing incidents for me that I remember involved Bruce Jenkins. After a successful night of bar hopping and hell raising, Bruce and I and several other fellow shipmates returned to the ship. Bruce was so drunk he could barely walk. Well, actually he couldn�t walk....we had to take turns carrying him. Being the last man in this chain, I was stuck with the problem of getting him on board.

As luck would have it, the CO, T.J. Moore and the XO, F.W. Bouford were standing on the quarterdeck waiting to leave just as we were boarding the ship. Bruce was at least able to walk at this point which was a relief...not so fast! I got him on board thinking my job was finished and ready to hit my rack. I got no more than maybe 10 ft. past the OOD when I heard a yell, �Hey McCranie, you better get your buddy!!� Startled, I ran up to the quarterdeck and in my horror, shocking disbelieve, I see Bruce pointing a finger, lecturing the CO and the XO on God knows what. My ears were ringing with shock at this point so I really couldn�t hear the conversation but I could clearly see the CO and XO were annoyed and looking away hoping this would pass in short time.

At first, I didn�t know what to do. Everyone on the quarterdeck seemed to be passively watching this lecture and for a brief split second I was thinking maybe I should let him speak his mind but that�s rum logic for you. I was sober enough to know that I had to do something drastic so while apologizing to the CO and XO, I grabbed him by the shirt collar and dragged him off the quarterdeck.

The next day I told Bruce what had happened and we all had a good laugh. To my knowledge, nothing was ever mentioned to Bruce or myself by either officers and it all passed without incident.


Michael �PC� McCranie

Full Name:

TOM "ROY" CASH

Rank:

EWCS

Story Date (Circa):

1976

Your Sea Story:

The incident with the top portion of the mast snapping off happened
during the cruise in 1976. During that transit the superstructure of
the ship broke from the main deck up and over sonar control. It seems
as if we were traveling with some old Fram2 destroyers that could not
handle the seas at 18 knots, they were taking belly slaps. The Sims
didn't handle 14 knots well as our sonar dome came out of the water and
induced a vibration throughout the ship. That was determined to be the
cause of the mast problem and with the superstructure.

When the JFK bumped the Bordelon the Sims was late getting on station
and the Bordelon took our place. It could have been us!!

At least those are my recollections. The mast incident was very
memorable as I was almost written up for assisting the BMC in lashing
the mast to the tower. The BMC went up with some line and no safety
harness, I donned a harness and tied myself off and attempted to secure
the BMC. He was nominated for a NAM for the same action I was
threatened with being put on report. Both actions were dropped, the
BMC didn't care much for me after that!!

The Sims was later fitted with an expansion joint across Sonar Control
as were all other Knox class FF's

Full Name:

WALTER CARPUS

Rank:

RMC

Story Date (Circa):

Challenger Loss

Your Sea Story:

We had been down at the Andros Range, and things were just quite and peaceful on our journey back to Mayport. I took the opportunity to tune in some music on an old(OLD) receiver. I found a real strong station coming out of Florida. It was within minutes then that I heard the tragic news of the explosion that took so many of the wonderful folks on the Challenger. I got a quick radio check with Cinclantflt on the red phone and called the skipper up on the bridge with the sad news. He immediately called Cinclantflt and was assigned to kick it up to flank (as I remember it) and get to the scene to assist. We were the first ship on station, and, subsequent to some super efforts by our deck/air ops guys managed to only recover a deck full of destruction. There were a great many of the guys teary eyed, but worked their tails off nevertheless. I still cherish the beautiful award certificate we received for a truly wonderful effort. The ship was awarded the Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medal.
Every time another shuttle goes up, I, as well as many of you I am sure, hope it never happens again.

Full Name:

TED PAINTER

Rank:

FTG2

Story Date (Circa):

1970 Guantanamo Bay

Your Sea Story:

Since SIMS was the first KNOX class frigate to go through GITMO, there was apparently a good deal of interest from the Cubans. One afternoon when we were inbound after a day at sea a Cuban gunboat (minesweeper?) came out and rode around us in circles taking pictures. I was in the 68 Gun director with (I think) FTG2 Bill Price looking at them through the director optics. If memory serves, a 50/50 proposition these days, GMG2 Jimmy Holmes was in the gun mount with rounds loaded to the transfer trays. It was an exciting little adventure.

Full Name:

TED PAINTER

Rank:

FTG2

Story Date (Circa):

1970 Guantanamo Bay - Tug Shooting

Your Sea Story:

I saw a reference to the SIMS shooting a tug by someone. SIMS was the first KNOX class frigate to go through GITMO, and none of the prepared scenarios for MK 68 Gun Fire Control Systems and 5"/54 guns applied to us, so they all had to be redone. The tug was the USS PAPAGO ATF 160. We were firing at a towed target sled when the fire control radar tracked up the cable towing the sled, and we hit the PAPAGOS with one round of inert 5"/54. She didn't sink. There was an investigation, but what resulted was additional safety regulations that were still in effect when I retired in 1985. LT Mike Sweeney was the Weapons Officer, FTG2 Jerry Cobaugh was the radar operator, I (FTG2 Ted Painter) was the MK 47 computer operator in Gun Plot. FTMC Tony Clemmons was the G Division leading chief. GMG2 Jimmy Holmes was the leading GMG.

Full Name:

WALTER CARPUS

Rank:

RMC

Story Date (Circa):

Beirut

Your Sea Story:

With the "skipper" telling about the "Peacemaker" being the last ship to fire, It reminded me of the many evenings sitting on the signal bridge with "Smitty" and Jack Haymes, and Val Hart watching all of the activity on shore. We made up little stories about just what we imagined to be in the minds of many of the participants in that war. None of these thoughts are so clear as the night we watched the headlights on the cars coming from the South, going North. They apparently could see the tracers being fired in the hills and would stop and wait until it appeared that the lull would allow them to put the pedal to the metal. We could just imagine the conversation may have gone something like this: "Daoud, are you going to fight tonight?", Omar, No I fought last night and I am going to take my wife to the movie tonight!" It did, at times, seem like this could have been a pretty accurate scene, as we could, from our close-in position see the darkness of the Southern area down towards Heifa become enlightened as we looked North. Through the "Big-Eyes" we could see just that type of activity in downtown Beirut, what with people driving around for the most part as though nothing was to disturb their enjoyment. War offers unusual moments. There are always good and bad memories about our lives. This was both!

Full Name:

ROBERT MACARUSO

Rank:

BM3

Story Date (Circa):

1975-76?

Your Sea Story:

Excuse the dates but it's a guesstimate. The Silly Willy (with affection) had been fitted with the brand new rubber sonar dome in Philly and had been through the famous 51 degree roll off Cape Hatteras as told by Ensign Viscovitch (all true I was on the Bridge and thought we were going to die) and it was off to Gitmo. We were all set for Gitmo as we had come prepared. We had a supply of hooch and other goodies and were ready for anything that they were going to throw at us. (So we thought) Well between getting underway at 0400 and the constant drills and not getting back until sometimes after midnight took its toll rather quickly. Our stash was gone the first week and we were at each other�s throats not long after that. Those guys grading us on everything we did was a pain in the Ass. Anyway you get the picture. We were not happy campers. We were scheduled to do a highline around noon I think and had a minute to contemplate everything. I had no clue what the hell was taking place and everyone is acting and talking like I do. Well, I was a little nervous to say the least and figured I better tell someone I don't know what the heck is going on. So I pull the Chief Boats aside and tell him I have no clue what the hell everybody is talking about. Shooting lines. Heave around kingposts, small lines go here they get bigger and go here. Chief what the hell are you talking about?. Anyway he finally realizes that I am going to be little or no help so he says, just stand here next to the kingpost, the inspector is over there watching and grading us on every little thing we are doing so when you see him looking make sure you look like you know what you are doing. Well as green as I was, that was one thing I thought I got pretty good at, making it look like I knew what I was doing. Ok, I can do that. No problem chief. Well we get along side the ship we are about to do the highline with and they start shooting lines across and we started heaving around on them and they get bigger and harder to pull and then comes the stay wire and as all this is going on I'm watching these guys on the other ship and they look like they are ready to all have heart attacks. They're pulling but the lines don�t seem to moving too much. This is where to this day I still don't know what the hell was going through my mind, but I figure I'll give them a hand from this side and heave on my end. Well, you would think I would have realized that the line they were heaving around on had to go through the metal pulley attached to the kingpost. Next thing I know, my right hand is stuck in with the line and the pulley. In that split second I envisioned my whole arm going through that 2.5" pulley along with the line and figured better to loose a few fingers than my whole arm. So yea, I ripped my hand out of the pulley and my hand was covered in blood. I was so sure I had no fingers left. I couldn�t look at my hand. A couple guys ushered me right off the flight deck and up to Sickbay. After the Doc cleaned me up, he assured me I still had all my fingers intact, so I went to the top or the helo hanger to witness the rest of the highline. After all was said and done I meandered down to the flight deck and as soon as the Chief Boats saw that I had all my fingers, he then proceeded to go up one side of me and down the other. Seems that because of my little bout of stupidity, the inspector took off enough points and failed us on the whole exercise. We were destined to do it all over again. Needless to say I was not that popular with people for a while. After we hit the three week mark at Gitmo we pulled into Jamaica for the weekend. We were good to go after that liberty. We breezed through the last two weeks. We actually did outstanding. I refer to the whole experience as my five weeks in hell.

Full Name:

DON MATY

Rank:

htfn

Story Date (Circa):

round about 78

Your Sea Story:

It was a dark and stormy night...actually it was kinda dark and we were out in the triangle,Bermuda that is,and lost all power and could not get our aux generators fired.as our sister ship pulled alongside to give us a'jump'our hulls slammed together and put a nice gash in our side just above the water line-y'all remember the fun we had then?

Full Name:

JOHN GRIFFEN

Rank:

EW3

Story Date (Circa):

1980

Your Sea Story:

I joined the ship out of A school, having to fly to Gitmo to meet her during Reftra. Soon after i arrived, we left our scheduled training to go ping sonar for two weeks off a suspected Foxtrot class sub near Puerto Rico. The Glomar Explorer was dispatched to the scene to drop cameras down to get a visual after a while as it was of course impossible for a diesel sub to stay down that long. She could not keep station over it, so the cameras were transferred to us. When they went down, they got beutiful pics of a huge mass of seaweed trapped in a thermal current, with lots of junk trapped in it. It was making a steady course and speed in the underwater current. We returned to Gitmo and completed training, arriving at Mayport a couple weeks later than planned. I can still hear that sonar pounding off the target no stop for weeks. I never knew sonar could make so many different noises as all you hear on TV is the sanitized version.

Full Name:

BM1 TOMMY TORRENCE

Rank:

BM3 at the time

Story Date (Circa):

I beleive it was my 1st Med in 1977

Your Sea Story:

I hope you don't mind my memory for dates. But I believe we were somewhere in Spain. Anyway, I'm going to tell on Ltjg Viscovich (Mr V). We were having a great port visit(including Mr. V). Well one night Mr V had been out tasting the local beverages and buying souviners. He had a thing about pipes. Well he bought a ceramic pipe as a what-not and on the way to the brow, he tripped over one of the mooring lines and dropped his pipe. Having tasted a fair amount of local beverages he was quite upset. Then after recovering somewhat, he proceeded up the brow and pulling out his ID to come aboard, he dropped it in the water. Well this took the cake, he decided to retreive it himself and jumped to it's rescue. He spent quite a bit of time as the OIC of class C liberty risk.

Full Name:

BOBBY HALL

Rank:

em4

Story Date (Circa):

jan 28 1986

Your Sea Story:

this was one of the sadest times i had in the navy. we was on our way back home when we
was told that the space shuttle challenger blew up in midair. we was one of many ships who was looking for any parts that was floating. i still have alot of pics of the stuff that our ship picked up. this is a day that is hard to forget just like 9-11. i also only had about 2 months left to go before i was getting out of the service.
bobby hall em3

Full Name:

ARDEY CLARK

Rank:

EN3

Story Date (Circa):

1969-or 70

Your Sea Story:

We were in the yards at Charleston. A yard bird droped a wrench in the reductin gear.We spent
several weeks in the yards while they tried to remove the wrench.

Full Name:

BOB MCKELLER

Rank:

Lt.jg

Story Date (Circa):

1970

Your Sea Story:

Several stories, all Sims!

http://www.coastcomp.com/Stories/index.htm

Full Name:

BOB SERVAES

Rank:

OS2

Story Date (Circa):

Fire mission Target Number Beruit

Your Sea Story:

I was just reading Captain Schultz's and Mr Crowe"s accounts of the fire mission off lebanon in I believe 1983. I was the NGFS net talker in CIC. We had the biggest group of knucklehead afloat in OI division. But when it came down to it, I would put that group of guys up against anyone anytime anywhere. I remember off watch in my rack, we were on port and report(starboard)duty duty, and GQ sounds. All the OSs'show up in CIC and the Marines, I think they were calling from the airport, called us with a Fire Mission Target Number. I remember the spotter on the beach talking fast but calmly. the radio reception was horrible it sounded like a chainsaw running in my ears while I was copying down all the grid coordinates. The radar scope was directly behind me and I took a look at it and was amazed that I think it was Joe Zdunczyk could even find a point to get a fix we were so close to the beach the return on the scope virtually unreadable. Our first fix wasn't very good and the first shot went out and we had no reply from the spotter for what seemed like a few minutes, But it was probably seconds. then I hear lost. The spotter never saw the round hit. The next fix was perfect, we fire a round, "Shot". The long pause, the spotter comes back, and I still remember his words like it happened yesterday, "Your on target keep em coming, fire for effect". We didn't have to adjust fire one inch. We were all excited. as each shot left the barrell of the 5" gun the ship would shudder. then the unthinkable happened. The tray for the shells malfunctioned. Thats what the gunners told me later. this is no reflection on them. they did their best even after the malfuntion i guess things were kind of dicey in the mount. Then Counting the lost round I said to myself, but a little loud due to the headset, great we just fired a 21 gun salute. I was proud of the Sims that night. We were far from the newest ship. We were conventional No NTDS. But none of this mattered we stepped up.

Full Name:

STEVE DONOFRIO

Rank:

EM2

Story Date (Circa):

09/14/76

Your Sea Story:

On the evening of September 14th, 1976 about 75 miles northwest of Scapa Flow, Scotland the aircraft carrier USS Kennedy was doing refueling manuvers (yes, at night, in the pitch dark). The USS W.S.SIMS was the rescue ship (aka next in line) as the destoyer USS Bordelon DD-881 was refueling. As stated in an earlier story, I was assigned to the Captains Gig and Whale Boat for this detail and being as the tempeture was a little, well lets just say, chilly, I huddled up in the whale boat in an attempt to stay warm. From there I had a perfect view of the Kennedy with it's night running lights gently listing back and forth. The Bordelon and it's lights looked like, again for lack of a better description, a cork being thrown about in a bath tub. The difference between the two were like night and day.
All of a sudden the Bordelon disappeared and then FLASH! The whole side of the carrier lit up like a roman candle! They collided! The Bordelon (which had a "steering problem" the official report states) came away with both stacks knocked down on the starboard side. The Kennedy had about a twelve foot hole in her side and her refueling station was damaged. They quickly put out the fire on the carrier.
We quickly pulled up along the port side of the Bordelon to offer assistance. She was still on fire. As we came about, I manned the 2 1/2 inch fire hose on the bulkhead under the whale boat just as the Damage Control Party got there. WHOOSH! The hose filled up and sprayed as I held onto the nozzle with everything I had. BAM! The fire went out, at least the topside one in our view.
The SIMS proceeded to swing about and double back to check if anyone was lost over the side. Thank God there wasn't and not one lost soul from that accident.
That ended up being the longest night of the whole cruise and actually the last for the Bordelon. She ended up being scrapped because the repairs were too extensive (expensive, I thought). We ended up having to wait a few more days for a tanker to juice us back up then off we went to cross the Arctic Circle. (Actually chasing after three surfaced Russian Subs back to Manmursk. But again, yet another story.)

Full Name:

JAMES R MEEHAN

Rank:

ETN2

Story Date (Circa):

1st Gitmo cruise 1970

Your Sea Story:

Target practice with the 5"54. As an ET and a short timer to boot I didn't have much knowlege about or interest in the gun, but I vaguely remember an incedent in Gitmo involving an ocean going tug pulling a target sled. All I rememer is the entire wepons dept being in deep sh*t and not much being said about it. A few weeks later my Dad sent me a clipping from our local paper saying that the Sims had sunk a tug in Gitmo. He being a WWII GM2 he was interested in the details, but I could not provide them. Does anybody else remember anything more. E-mail me if you do.

Full Name:

ROY CROWE

Rank:

CDR

Story Date (Circa):

1984

Your Sea Story:

I recently read Jim Schultz's story of our night in action off of Beirut, and well I am afraid it wasn't the cake walk that he expressed.

I was the ex-DCA at the time, waiting to transfer and head home and see my wife and newborn son. We had in fact just left Ville-Franche a few days earlier to head back to the monotony and stress of the gun line.
Monotony because we never got to do anything but be a decoy for the destroyers, cruisers and battleship that actually fired. And stress because it was hell standing a night watch on the bridge. Lights out, close to shore, lots of traffice plus American, French, British, Italian and Soviet ships running around the same way.

But back to the night of 28 Feb 1984.

I was blissfully sitting in the well lighted, air conditioned Main Control as EOOW when the 21MC (the @#$%^ box, the software won't let me call it what it was) asked me to get to the bridge when I told them I was the EOOW, the solution was to go to GQ. Up into the dark I went to be the GQ OOD. Confusion reigned as the QMs, CIC and Gun Plot all tried to figure out where we were and the Gun Target Line. Captain Schultz was chain smoking away. John Roman, the XO, was uttering those colorful coloquism that only he could in a tense situation. While Jeff Levi, the Weapons Officer, was trying to get his folks on the line and the gun on target.

Me, I thought it was the greatest thing to ever happen. We were finally going to get to shoot, something every other ship had done but us (and all the other frigates and most of the destroyers)

Eventually I took the deck and the conn. (I was the best relay JO on the ship) and we headed towards the beach.
We fired one round for the spotter. On target. The spotter requested 20 rounds, fire for effect. 5 shells rang out, then KLUNK. The gun died. Everyone on the bridge barking orders, demanding explanations. 10 rounds went out then klunk. Minutes that felt like hours. We fired again then klunk, another round then klunk, somehow we got all 20 out.
Ashore they reported the target destroyed, Jim and Jeff were ready to choke each other but we did it. Then the spotter requested 5 more rounds to knock out the ambulances coming in to save the attackers. Luckily the gun was broken big time or we would have had to deny them for ordering us to break the law of armed conflict.

With the gun OOC, we steered out to deep water and were met by the USS Moosbrugger coming in. All running lights ablaze. Ours were still out. I never saw such a well lighted ship in my life. She didn't fire, the Navy wasn't needed again that night.
The SIMS was the last ship to fire at Beirut in 1984. We gave Lebannon a 21 gun salute, not as neat as in the movies but we got it out.
I left the next day to see my family and head to Department Head School and the ship headed to Trieste, but thats another story.

Everything else is as Captain Schultz told it. We need Jeff Levi to put in his part of the story plus the Gunners Mates who worked like hell to keep the gun on line that night.

Full Name:

JIM SCHULTZ

Rank:

Captain 1982-1984

Story Date (Circa):

1983

Your Sea Story:

By the way, did you know SIMS shot
the last rounds on the Lebanon/Mideast Conflict?
It was in 1983. We had been shotgun destroyer for
the Battleship NEW JERSEY for months. We took over
several of her duties before. But, this was to be
the biggest!
NJ pulled out for a port visit and refueling and
put us in her station, Naval Gunfire Support
Station One (NGFS-1).
Imagine a one-gun 5"/54 frigate taking the place
of a Battlewagon! Then, it happened...one night...
a Call-for-Fire. A chance to shoot? We were
ordered to a gunfire support location.
We had been there for months, and not a whisper.
This was the first and last chance we might have
to shoot! This was our Big Chance!!!
The General Alarm was sounded and Battle Stations
manned. All hands on station, manned and ready in record time. I knew we
were ready for this. It's what we drilled for all the time. Except this
was real! We raced around the northwestern corner of Beirut in the dark.
Our normal routine was to be at Darkened Ship. We looked like a Stealth
Frigate. Well, we were almost in the dark. There had been a huge fire in
a fuel tank in the northern part of Beirut that night, so one side of
the ship was lighted by the eery glow from the fire. I didn't like being
able to be seen from ashore. That could make us a target. But, we had a
mission to accomplish. A real mission! We continued in, edging closer to
the beach into a corner of the bay. Almost surrounded by land and
buildings of the city. We were on station and plotting our position
every minute. Then, it finally came. A real call for gun fire from the
troops ashore on a target atop a mountain to the east, beyond the city.
It seems some of our guys were coming under fire and needed our
protection. We were getting our chance to help in the war! We worked the
gunfire plot solution until the gun was pointed at the target. Then, our
Gunfire Liaison Officer reported over the radio, "Fire Mission. Ready,
over." The reply came back, "Commence Fire, over" Our response, "Fire,
out!" I can hear the Gun Boss yell the order. There is a pause. Seems
like an eternity. "One Round. High explosive. Will adjust." "Commence
Fire!" There are voices yelling inside the gunmount, clanks coming from
the loader raising a round to the mount. The barrel was raised to match
the computer. It seemed like it was in slow motion. Then, Slam. The
round went into the chamber. Loaded. BOOM! A shot into the dark! "Shot.
Standby, out" was reported to the spotter ashore. My heart raced. The
flash could bee seen across the bay. Most of the city of Beirut could
see us. We could be shot at from ashore, we were so close and so
visible. We got a Spot off our first round and and adjusted in bearing,
range and height. "Fire!" The yelling, clicks, and second round went
out. I could hear the commands from the Gun Boss, LT Jeff Levy. "Shot,
Standby, out." Then, the report you love to hear, "On Target." "One gun,
four salvos, rapid continuous fire." "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" And, more
good indications,that we were on target came across the radio ....
"Repeat!" Four more rounds went out. "Repeat!" And, four more rounds
followed. "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! And, again. And, again! We were doing
the job that all destroyers want to do. Then, the glorious words all
good gunners thrill to hear: "Cease fire, end of mission, target
destroyed." The crew was overjoyed. A roar went up from inside the ship.
We had done our job. And, SIMS had done it well! The Beirut Battleship
SIMS will never be the same. SIMS did the job of a battleship that
night. After the gunfire mission, we retired to the Battleship Station
and later that day the patrol ended. The Battleship NEW JERSEY returned
and took over, but didn't get a chance to fire again. No other ship got
to fire, either. We had been the last ship to fire in Beirut! We won the
war. We had been on station for 78 straight days. I guess that duration
was to hard to beat, so they called off the war. SIMS got a port visit
to Villefranche,France. And, we named SIMS the Peacemaker!

Full Name:

STEVE DONOFRIO

Rank:

EM3

Story Date (Circa):

North Atlantic/NATO/Arctic Circle Cruise '76

Your Sea Story:

While attempting to run from the R division workshop down the port side pa$$ageway to reach my a$$igned duty station in AUX II for a Refueling detail, the ship rolled and pitched so quick that my foot became wedged under the shoring between the Fire Room and the Main Machinery Room.
Everyone thought that my ankle was broke because my foot had swelled so big that my boone docker had to be cut off. This is where fun began. I was issued a pair of crutches and escorted to the flight deck! The next thing I know there's a chopper hovering above me and I was to "slip" into (and hold on for dear life I might add) a horse collar to be air-lifted to the USS. Kennedy for X-Rays.
Let me tell you, I don't think too many shipmates witnessed that view of the SIMS at sea from the air. dangling in a horse collar! Oh, but it gets better.
After landing on the carrier deck, as I hobbled towards the super structure to get to sick bay, a curious site came into view. A U.S. flag was waving to and fro, very erratically just off the starboard side. It was about knee high from where I stood on the carrier deck. I yelled to someone,"What the hell is that?" and their response was,"That's your ship coming along side to refuel." Totally astonished to his answer I inched my way over and gazed down over the side. There she was, the SIMS, appearing about the size of a long sleek model of about four feet long and a half a foot wide. I yelled,"I'm on THAT!" They laughed and quickly hustled me below. All I could think about was how small she appeared from the carrier.
On the way back, the chopper crewman pointed to a speck on the horizon and said that was my ship. She was being thrown about like a cork in the bath tub. Because it was so rough, I was told that they would only make three attempts the drop me on the flight deck and if unsuccsessful, would try again tomorrow when it might be calmer. Yeah, that really set me at ease.
Well the first attempt looked very promising. We hovered over the flight deck and the guy shoved me out and began to lower me. I got about ten feet from the deck when the ship suddenly rolled to the starboard side about thirty feet! So, back up I went and they repositioned the helo again. Down I went and the ship rolled again. Back up I went. What a ride!
On the third and final attempt, and after feeling like a human Yo-Yo at sea, I said to myself, this is it! If I get close, it's all over. Well, within about ten feet again, I slipped off the horse collar and fell on the flight deck...instantly remembering why I was in that prediciment in the first place! My foot hurt more from that fall than from the shoring.
Everytime I view the photo of the SIMS refueling from the carrier, these are my memories. After that, I switched my duty station to be topside during refueling to the Captains Gig and Whale Boat. But what happened then is a completely different story!

Full Name:

PAUL VISCOVICH

Rank:

ENS

Story Date (Circa):

March 1976

Your Sea Story:

We completed W.S.SIMS's regular overhaul at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in March 1976 and got underway for Charleston to rearm the ship. About the second day out, the 08-1200 Sounding and Security watch reported flooding in Shaft Alley #2. The Officer of the Deck ordered the main engine stopped until the snipes had a chance to check out and correct the casulty.

We were about 40 miles off Cape Hatteras and the weather was bad, with high winds, intermittant rain squalls and seas running ten to fifteen feet. With no way on, the ship soon drifted into the trough and began rolling badly. We had just piped "Early dinner for mess attendants and watch reliefs" and the scene on the Mess Decks was pandemonium. Food, mess gear and mess cooks were sliding violently from one bulkhead to the other with each roll of the ship. In the midst of this chaos, an old first cla$$ had clamped himself and his tray to a table where he was calmly enjoying his meal, heedless of the devastation around him.

Back up on the Bridge, we were hanging on for dear life. The Bridge Wings were dipping so close to the sea that water was splashing over and into the Pilot House, making it impossible to keep your footing. Someone on the watch team was keeping an eye on the clinometer and said the bubble went over to 51 degrees. It may well have, but I didn't see it. I was latched onto the centerline pelorus and rea$$essing my belief in The Almighty. As they say, there are no atheists in foxholes.

Despite these adverse conditions, the snipes soon had the shaft alley pumped out and we continued our transit with no more damage than a good "field day" could fix. The cause of the flooding? Apparantly the shipyard had incorrectly installed the inflatable seal that keeps out the seawater where the main shaft penetrates the hull. In order to get it to pa$$ its hydrostatic test, they had shoved a welder's glove in between the shaft and the seal. Naturally, when the shaft started turning, the glove worked itself loose and the shaft alley flooded. The snipes lined up an eductor and kept it dry until we returned to Mayport where SIMA repaired the shaft seal.

Enough people claimed to have seen 51 degrees on the clinometer that it became accepted as fact and we were still talking about it when I left the ship two and a half years later.

Full Name:

KIETH N BRADSHAW

Rank:

ETRSA to ETR3

Story Date (Circa):

1970 thru 1973

Your Sea Story:

I flew from NASJAX to Gitmo to join the crew of the Sims in 1970 while she was in the process of her first shake-down cruise, and then I left her in Gitmo in 1973 while she was in the process of her second shake-down cruise. I then flew from there to NASJAX to become separated from the Navy. Looking back, that made for an interesting set of "Gitmo" bookends which helped to define my relationship with the best d*mned ASW ship in the Navy.

Of course, as an ET, none of those ASW honors can be traced back to me. I simply tried to keep the surface search RADAR picking up targets out to the horizion line so the Sonar gang could perform their magic. Although not a "plank owner", given the years of 1970 thru 1973 of which I served aboard the Sims, I was obviously surrounded by a bunch......... And they never let me forget about it either!

Guys in the ET shack at the time were Chief Hoolihan, Robbie (or Lurch), Evil-Immel, Guyer (Hooyer), Swagger (what a great red beard, Dean) and ETR2 James Meehan (aka Uncle Meat). I was a "20 week wonder", an ETRSA, because once in the Navy, I did not wish to extend 2 extra years to get that push-button 3rd cl*ss ET rating. So, as an E-2 I "got" a lot of extra special a*signments in addition to learning the craft of ET-ism. These a*signments included cleaning sh*tters, loading stores, cleaning sh*tters, painting, cleaning sh*tters, loading ordinance, and of course, cleaning sh*tters.

I did enjoy the company of one RD1 Stein, who was given the nickname of "MUG" (you know... stein, mug.... er, ah... you get it) He later became one of the first of the new EW rate. He was a h*ll of a sailor, but to a "short-timer" such as myself, he was also just a regular kinda guy. He helped me survive the transition from civilian to sailor and back to civilian. Thanks Mug! I also kinda hung out with the Sonar gang, those hard working sons-a-b*tches that made the Silly Willie the best d*mned ASW ship in the Navy, and in doing so, kept the rest of us at sea for extended periods of time chasing and har*ssing those pesky Russian subs...... I kinda keep in touch with Barney (now Robert) Muirhead who still lives in Florida..... Orlando area.

I remember the first captain........... we called him "Hand grenade Charlie" because he got a kick out of throwing grenades over the side whenever he spotted sharks, just to see if he could make 'em go belly up.

As the years went by, guys would come and go........ A couple of the other ET's I remember were Harry Dean Davis....... He liked to be called Harley Davidson.......so we that's what we called him. Then there was Aggie. That poor guy would get seasick the moment we left port and would stay sick until a day after we tied back up. Butch English was a Naval Reserve guy from Jacksonville. H*ll, serving on the Sims to him was kinda like an 8-5 job. He surfed every chance he got..... Had a pretty fun time in New Orleans, when the Sims tied up at the end of Canal Street, didn't we Butch? There were several others of course, including Richard Swidergal or Spider, Getty, and then Chief Douglas came aboard after Hoolihan left.

Other than the 7 months in the Med, when we got to enjoy the company of a bunch of Russian surface ships that liked to play chicken with us, I believe the most "fun" I had on the Sims was when we left the shipyard in Charleston in the Fall of 1970 for a test run and ran smack into a hurricane off of Cape Hetaeras. H*ll, 2/3 of the crew got seasick including yours truly......... And, guess who got to clean the heads the next day... Thank God for seniority. Some poor radioman was newer to the Sims than I was and so he 'got' to do the sh*tters while I got to clean all the puke out of the sinks. Ah...... the memories.

In 1973, I got called into the XO's stateroom for a shipping over speech. He told me about all of the wonderful things the Navy had to offer and because I was an ET I could qualify for a $10K reenlistment bonus, the maximum VRB!!! So after all of the hype, he said "Petty Officer Bradshaw, just what would you like out of my Navy?" Quickly I replied, "Sir, with all due respect, the only thing I want out of your Navy is ME!" (Meehan, you set a wonderful example for me.... thank you). All the XO said was "Have a nice life on the outside"........ So, after that, all this short-timer had to do was watch the hours tick away for the final three or four months until my transfer off of the Sims.....

After flying to NASJAX, it took a week to get me "mustered out" of the service. So for that final week, not only did I get the pleasure of guarding the Chief Petty Officer's barracks each night from midnight to 4 am, I also got to clean sh*tters one last time!

Turns out, serving on the Sims didn't damage me too much. I took advantage of the GI Bill after leaving the service and got a BSEE from the University of Utah....... (while being interviewed by IBM as graduation approached, the interviewer asked me "son, what was the happiest day of your life?" Any wonder why I answered "the day I got out of the Navy!"??)

I joined Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp in 1978, upon the tenth anniversary of this good company and have been designing "the world's most expensive video games" ever since. I expect to retire for good one of these days..... Really, I do....... Oh, and now I have a housekeeper that comes by the house once a week and cleans MY sh*tters!



"Those who do not remember the Past are condemned to repeat it "
George Santayana 1863 - 1952

Full Name:

STEVE DONOFRIO

Rank:

EMFA to EM2

Story Date (Circa):

Philly Drydocks 1975

Your Sea Story:

Before reporting for SOAP Team, a couple of us fresh air snipes decided to see who was awake on the Qtrdeck one night. What we did was climb out through the sonar dome (that was being replaced so it was entirely open), climb up the far side of the drydock and report back on the fantail Qtrdeck. By the third time, we were on report! Needless to say, the OOD was more impressed than Chief Blackshear was! Come to think of it, that stunt WAS the reason I was re-asigned to the SOAP Team for the rest of our stay there!

Full Name:

DAVE BRIDGES

Rank:

ICFN

Story Date (Circa):

1975 or whenever we were in Guantanamo

Your Sea Story:

We finally got a break from Getmo and we had liberty in Ocho Rios Jamaica. I thought I had died and went to heaven. Anyway we were all getting very drunk and slightly disorderly when Ensign Viscovich ( I hope I spelled that right Visco ) showed up as the shore patrol with 2 other Sims sailors all in dress tropical whites. I happened to think as an officer that Visco was a stand up guy so I thought I would send him a little Jamaican gratitude. I didn't know what I was going to do untill a Huge Jamaican women I would say 300 to 350 plus asked me to bbuy her a Coca Cola. I told her I would if she would do one thing for me. I pointed Visco out standing between the other 2 sailors and asked her to go an give him a big hug and kiss and then come back for her Coca Cola. Well I definately got my moneys worth because she ran to him and jumped on him hugging and kissing him as they fell to the ground. All you could see of Visco was shoes and a hat as this women hugged and kissed on him for at least 30 seconds. The
other 2 sailors were laughing so hard that even though Visco was crying for help they coudn't do anything to help him. Well when she finished she came right to me and asked for her Coca Cola which I gladly bought her. Once Visco got his self off of the ground and looked more like an officer he walked to me and asked me if I had anything to do with what just happened. Naturally I denied it all and offered to buy him a beer. Visco was on duty so he didn't want a beer, but he said he'd take a Coca Cola. At that point I almost fell of of my bar stool laughing but I gladly bought him a Coca Cola. So Visco if you read this I owe you a beer and I hope you found a good women that could hug on you and kiss you the rest of your life. Dave Bridges Served on the Sims 1974 - 1977.

Breaking Protocol

Submitted by QM1 ESWS Gary Stephens (Retired)

The old expression is “Sailors belong on ships and ships belong at sea”, this certainly was the case for the U.S.S. Sims FF-1059 during the years of 1983 & 84. Early on in 1983 we were out a lot conducting sea trials and also went through Refresher Training at Guantanamo Bay Cuba (Gitmo). Little did I know at the time that this training and certification of being able to provide gun fire support would not only prepare us for what was to come but; would eventually prove to be invaluable.  

It was later on in that year (1983) that we were steaming around in a ten (10) mile circle off the coast of Kuwait escorting fuel tankers, man was it hot! We didn’t have the luxury of air conditioning on the bridge and the uniform of the day was khaki shorts and a white tee shirt. I sweat out everything I took in and had to tape down towels along the chart table to keep them from being ruined with sweat. (Imagine what it’s like now for the infantry in full battle dress uniform over in Iraq and Afghanistan).

After four (4) months of escorting tankers the skipper (Captain Shultz) received approval for a port of call in Mombasa Kenya, we were all very appreciative of finally being able to see green again; verses seeing nothing but sand and having the taste of camel breathe in our mouths.  Along the way, we also crossed the equator and made the transition from low life pollywogs to shell backs. That was a pretty big deal for us all; I still have my official certificate to this day.

The Beirut Barracks Bombing (October 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon) occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen. The organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Suicide bombers detonated each of the truck bombs. In the attack on the American Marines barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three Army soldiers, along with sixty Americans injured, representing the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima of World War II, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II.^{[1][dead link]}In addition, the elderly Lebanese custodian of the Marines' building was killed in the first blast.^[2] The explosives used were equivalent to 5,400 kg (12,000 pounds) of TNT.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We were called up to be a part of the Sixth Fleet in support of multinational peace-keeping force in Beirut Lebanon; so we quickly transited through Suez Canal and made our way to Beirut. The show of force was impressive with ships like Aircraft Carrier “USS John F. Kennedy CV-67”, “U.S.S. Battleship New Jersey BB-62” and the amphibious assault ship “USS Guam (LPH-9)” just to name a few.  

I was fortunate enough to be a part of history by securing a slot to attend the Bob Hope USO Christmas Show from QM3 Phillips; whose name was drawn from the lottery for our division. I struck a deal to stand three (3) of his mid-watches in order to attend the show, it was well worth it!

For the first time since the Vietnam War, Bob Hope entertained United States armed service members for his classic USO Christmas show, in this case members of the U.S. Navy and Marines serving in the multi-national peace-keeping force in Beirut, Lebanon, along with British, French, and Italian troops, from 1982-1984. The cast included Ann Jillian, Vic Damone, George Kirby, Julie Hayek Miss America 1983, Cathy Lee Crosby, Brooke Shields, and the master of ceremonies himself Bob Hope. My walls are decorated with autographed pictures from some of the cast, pictures of the New Jersey and Sims and letters & pictures from Ann Jillian and Brooke Shields; they will forever remain as some of my most prized possessions.

It wasn’t long after I attended the show the time arrived for us to step up to the plate and to show what the Sims was made of; we were finally called in for a gun fire mission. All of the preparation in sea trial exercises and refresher training at Gitmo would now come into play; to say I was a little nervous would be a gross understatement. The alarm was sounded and the announcement came over the 1MC …“Now general quarters, general quarters, this is not a drill, all hands man your battle stations, I say again all hands man your battle stations this is not a drill”. The atmosphere on the bridge was intense, the captain quickly stated, “this is the Captain I have the Conn” and we headed in.

As QM1 I was the senior enlisted navigator and had the responsibility of accurately plotting our position in order to be able to dial in a gun fire target line to gun control. The requirement from Refresher Training in Gitmo was that the Bridge and Combat Information Center (CIC) had to concur on the ships position for ten (10) consecutive navigational fixes before a gun fire target line could be ordered. Back in those days we didn’t have Global Position Satellites (GPS) that pinpointed your position instantly; the satellites that orbited the earth were far and few between and you may have to wait for four (4) hours for another one to pass over and to get a fix on your position from Navigation Satellite (NavSat). So we navigated using Loran Charlie, Loran Alpha, Omega, NavSat, Radar, Sextant and by using visual aids to obtain our position off the gyro scope using an alidade to get a line of bearing. Unfortunately, most of the visual landmarks listed on our charts had been blown up and were no longer there. Loran Charlie, Alpha, and Omega all operated off of land based radio towers which also were non-existent off the coast of Beirut. So the only thing left to determine our position was through the use of the ships radar.

As we proceeded to get closer to the coastline of Beirut it became more difficult to obtain the ships position. I was moving rapidly between the chart table and the radar scope in order to obtain a fixed position. The ships navigator (Lt. Corbin) was visibly shaken and out of his element, I eventually had to ask him politely to please step aside and let me do the job I was trained for. I desperately needed space and a clear path to move between the chart table and the radar scope. I’ll never quite understand why the Captain brought us in so close to the shoreline; the fixes were becoming more and more difficult to obtain off of radar and then it happened, “Bridge this is CIC, this is the Bridge go ahead, Bridge/CIC we are landlocked and unable to ascertain our position”. The skipper was furious and wanted a gun fire target line. The Operations officer refused to “break protocol” and would not give a gun fire target line per the Captains’ request (I am sure there was some lively conversation back in the ward room later on). Both I and CIC were using radar to ascertain our position and by some miracle I was still able to get a fix. Captain Shultz was infuriated to the point that he yelled a few explorative remarks, pounded his fist on my chart table and said he wanted a gun fire target line and he wanted it now! As an enlisted man I did not refuse his order and gave him the gunfire target line and bearing which he in turn called down to gun fire control.

I was shaking as I waited for them to dial it in and ushered up a quick prayer praying that I was correct with my range and line of bearing. We didn’t have to wait long for the first round; “BOOM” our five inch fifty four gun let it rip and we all waited with baited breath for the ground spotter to send back his report. Splash down, the first round was approximately seventy five (75) yards away and an adjustment for cause and effect was called in; followed by a request for additional salvos. Yes! We did it! We were almost spot on, to say I was relieved would be again be a gross understatement! “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, six (6) more salvos were shot off for a total of I believe seven (7) or possibly eleven (11) rounds in all and then we received the bad news, “Bridge Gun Fire Control, Gun Fire Control/this is the Bridge go ahead, Bridge/Gunfire Control we have a Hot Gun, I say again we have a Hot Gun”.  Our mission abruptly came to an end and the order was given by the Captain to head the ship back out to sea so another one could be rotated in. What can you do? A jammed hot gun usually is not remedied quickly.

Even though this was a pretty anti-climatic ending to a very successful mission, we can all be proud of the fact that the mighty fine 1059 answered the call that day and had a part in giving the enemy something to remember us by.

I could feel the look of disappointment on the skipper’s face that we were unable to keep em’ coming, he wasn’t alone. I think we all harbored a grudge that day toward our five inch fifty four, and never wanted to hear the words “hot gun” again.