The salute is an centuries old custom that is rendered, and returned, as a form of greeting. The regulation salute is rendered by an enlisted sailor to any officer when they meet. The participants are normally in uniform, and in the Navy, a salute is only given while wearing a hat. To keep from wasting … More A Much Appreciated Salute
In an earlier post I told about losing power, briefly, while leaving San Diego. This story occurred several thousand miles further West, and was just as unpleasant, if not worse. The ship, USS Okinawa, was a helicopter carrier. We carried most of a Marine battalion and delivered them ashore to do ‘Marine things’. While they … More Powerless
Danang is located in a bay that is open on one end. The other three sides are land. We had entered the bay and anchored. Now it was time to leave. In most cases that’s a fairly simple evolution; you just pick up the anchor and head out to sea. Well, not this time. The … More Leaving Danang – not so easy.
When I applied for voluntary recall I was assigned as assistant CIC officer in USS Okinawa, a helicopter carrier. The justification was that the CIC officer, a pilot on his first shipboard qualification tour, was expected to be conversant with aircraft procedures, but might need help in matters connected to surface warfare. In this particular … More I learn to be a safecracker
I’ve seen plenty of crises, including aircraft crashes. But one that sticks out happened when we were sortieing from Subic Bay. We had been given a break from sitting off the Vietnamese coast and had returned to Subic Bay. Our embarked marines all went ashore to go out in the field to do what marines … More Routine Heroism
I got to be involved in one more amphibious landing before we returned to the USA. This one was a little bit further south. It looked like someone poked a finger at the map and said “We need another airfield about here”. The place did not have a prior name. It was just an open … More Third Landing – Chu Lai
During our first stay in Danang harbor/bay we were quite concerned about security. The possibility of a hostile swimmer reaching the ship and planting a bomb on the hull was taken very seriously. One of the measures we took wa to keep two boats out at night circling the anchorage. Each boat crew consisted of … More Danang harbor patrol
Wetherhorn 