When I was transferred to a new ship, The USS Elokomin, she was just finishing a tour of duty with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. I flew from Norfolk, VA to Athens/Piraeus. After passing through Greek immigration control I checked when the ship was due to leave. I had an extra 3 days. I … More Do the Authorities Think I’m still in Greece?
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 the Okinawa returned to North Island I wanted to see Madeline, my fiancee. In those days there was no bridge yet. Travel from North Island was by ferry boat. One of the other officers was in the duty section and had to stay on the ship. He also had a car at North Island. … More Stick Shift for the first time.
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 … More Apollo space capsule recovery
Not long after I reported aboard the Okinawa there was a major change. The executive officer was detached and the operations officer was moved up to take over the vacant position. He soon discovered that the petty officer in charge of the ship’s office might be a problem, and he decided to prepare for it … More A new job – acting chief yeoman
The Okinawa was lucky ship. We had a number of almost disasters, but somehow, managed to recover from them without serious damage or injuries. One such incident oc combined with fuel that was sprayed into the d when we were just leaving San Diego. There is a narrow channel between North island and point Loma … More Leaving San Diego – Oops.
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
Wetherhorn 