1971 Vietnam As Seen From Yankee Station
Trip to USS Enterprise 6 Oct – 26 Jan 72
I attended a command generated Direct Support (DIRSUP) orientation course given in the Receivers building that also housed the collection operations where I was previously assigned . The course was target orientation, mainly Morse code practice and lectures, long, droning and boring. The DIRSUP spaces were also used to create the technical support kits that deployed to every ship we manned. The tech support crew published a bunch of documents on water soluble paper so they could be easily thrown overboard in the case of an emergency destruction and left them in stacks on the table for binding the next day. Geckos, which were in every building in the Philippines, security clearance or not, would crap from the ceilings they crawled over which, like bird crap but more liquid, occasionally fell on you. Well, gecko poop fell on the water soluble documents and little holes formed wherever it landed. The documents were rendered useless; so much for that innovation.
The USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) came into Subic Bay Naval Base for a liberty call and whatever upkeep was needed. I was ordered to replace a DIRSUP crew member who was transferring. Me and Bill Meahl , better known as “Far Out” whom I knew from ‘A’ school checked aboard the ship on 6 October. All but one or two people were out on the beach for liberty so there was nobody to put us to work. The Admin person had duty and showed us to our rack assignments and told us to be in the working spaces called Supplementary Radio (SUPRAD) the next morning. We stowed our sea bags and immediately left the ship to catch a bus back up to San Miguel. There was a typhoon in the area and it rained in buckets clear into the next morning. When we caught a Victory Liner bus back to Subic Bay the roads were washed out and the mountain just outside the back gate of Subic Naval Base had washed across the road. The steep mountain side was used as a grave yard and our bus was sloshing through a foot or more of mud and rocks and coffins that had washed across the road. We were running very late for out morning check-in. When we rounded the corner I could see the Enterprise had already departed. I figured we’d be court martialed for missing ship’s movement but it turned out the ship had pulled out of port on short notice for typhoon evacuation. There must have been a thousand people on the pier waiting for the “Big E” to return. What great luck!
Within a day or two, we set sail for operations in the Gulf of Tonkin. The ship pulled out of port early in the morning while I was in still my rack recovering from the last night of liberty when we began to recover and launch aircraft in the South China Sea just offshore Subic Bay. Being my first ship I had no idea what to expect. Before launching aircraft they always fire the catapults (cats) with what is called “no loads”, no aircraft or other weights attached. My rack was right under the port cat and when they fired that first no load I was rudely awakened with a loud shoooowsh BANG and a big jolt that shook the ship as the cat hit the end of the track. I thought there must have been an explosion so I look around our berthing spaces and nobody seemed concerned. Some sailors were playing cards at a table and some were watching the closed circuit TV. I figured I must have been dreaming and turned over for a few more minutes of rest. Shoooosh BANG went the second no load. This was no dream. I jumped out of my rack, dressed and headed into SUPRAD where I began my education on carrier operations.
USS Hancock 4 Feb 1972 – 21 May 72
cross deck to USS Midway 21 May 72 – 8 Feb 73
Cross deck to USS Enterprise 8 Feb 73 – 13 Apr 73