In 1968 USS Okinawa was designated as the prime recovery ship for Apollo 6. She was, at the time, the smallest ship to have that role. Apollo 6, in case you didn’t know, was the last unmanned test of the Saturn rocket and Apollo capsule combination. It was plagued by minor problems, but still regarded as a success.
For my ship, the job meant a trip to Hawaii. The recovery area was located just north of Oahu. We sailed to pearl Harbor and picked up a capsule replica to use for practicing recovery of the real thing. It was not a trivial job. The only crane we had that could handle the weight of the capsule was on the port side. We were also a single screw ship, so our maneuverability was limited. The bridge was on the starboard side. The flight deck blocked the view from the bridge when we tried to go close alongside the dummy capsule. That problem was solved by borrowing a couple of hand held small radios (this was before the appearance of cell phones and GPS). The executive officer (XO) stood on the flight deck near the port side elevator with one radio and talked to the captain on the bridge who had the other We dumped the dummy into the water, sailed a few miles away, and turned back to pick up the capsule. We repeated the exercise several times each day for several days.
Finally it was launch day, 4 April, 1968. We sailed to the planned landing location, and waited. The spacecraft began descending, and soon lost communications as it entered the atmosphere. There were a couple of Air force planes also assigned to the mission. They were the first to regain contact with the capsule. We had a helicopter on deck with a team of swimmers and an inflatable collar to attach to the spacecraft so it wouldn’t sink before we picked it up. The air force planes told us the capsule was coming down behind our ship, so we turned 180 degrees . As we steadied on our new course the after lookout reported he could see the red and white striped parachutes coming down. We reversed course again and maneuvered to pick it up. The photos were taken from the ship.
All the participants in the mission were awarded a navy meritorious unit citation. *t was like a super bowl game. Everyone on the team gets a ring. In our case, the captain and XO were like the quarterback, but all the rest of us were part of the team. The entire episode got little media coverage because that was when Martin Luther King was assassinated.
Wetherhorn 