Sea Stories
Warning, some stories contain mature language!
A collection of sea stories written by Fletcher sailors
From Lurch
Earl mentioned to me in an e-mail that he is using the heat as an excuse not to do any painting and I had to agree with him that since I've been out of the Navy, I've used every excuse in the book to get out of any painting.. A couple of old Navy mottos, "Join the Navy and see the world (with a chipping hammer in one hand and a paint brush in the other)" or "Chip it down, paint it, chip it down again!!" You remember, we couldn't use the heat or anything else as an excuse back then... I remember painting the "Hedge-hog mounts" when the temp. was 110 in the shade in Hawaii !!
From Pat
I have a lot to add to some of your stories and I thought i might add a little to the "cabin boy" incident. I remember that well and found out alot about it since FTCS Long was the OOD on the Mid that night and he told me all about it the next day. As I said, he had the Mid and about 1 or so in the morning Capt. Taylor returned to the ship. Remember the Fletcher had an Inport Cabin and Sea Cabin for the C.O. and usually the Capt. went to his inport cabin , but this time he had to go up to his At Sea cabin behind CIC to get something. Senior Chief Long got a call from the CO to call Base Security and get the Duty MAA and report to his Sea Cabin. When they got up there, Taylor had both RD's locked in his cabin (which is probably what they wanted in the first place). Taylor had walked in on them and they were in a head to toe position, or at least in that general position. They were taken off the ship never to return. BUT, here's the rest of the story...
Both of them were down to their last 2 months in the Navy, they were both married, and they were brothers-in-law, one was married to the others sister. As I said, they were hauled off. We got underway the next day for the gun-line and plane-guard. We returned about 45 days later to Subic. The tug came alongside and guess who were handling the lines on the tug ? Yeah, that's right, both of them ! Seems they were both so short that the Navy wasn't going to take any action, let them run out their enlistments, give them an Honorable and ship them home. So, while we were out in Nam, these guys were enjoying liberty in Subic !! Boy, was Taylor pissed! Thought you might like a little background to that incident.
Reading thru your letters, I have alot to add but, will save some for later.
From Earl
Yeah, join the Navy and see the world. On my last ship, that was mentioned a lot. They'd say, yeah, the world was blue because the the sky was blue, the sea was blue, our dungarees were blue our moods were blue.... even the (bleep)ing name of our ship was Blue! Yeah, join the Navy and see the world. Yep, and most of it is wet.
Maybe that's why we made up for lost time on those occasions when we could plant our feet on solid ground. Remember how it'd take us a while to get our land legs back? And remember how we could always smell land quite a while before we could see it? Every country and port seemed to have its own smell. California was smog, Vietnam was kind of a rotten smell, Japan was fishy and the Philippines were kind of a mixture of rot and jungle smells. And Taiwan? Since this is a G-rated area I won't tell you what it smelled like.... and no, it wasn't crap.
From Lurch
The Philippines and Taiwan kinda smelled the same to me.. Sorta like this color that I'm typing with if you can relate a smell to it... The bad part about the Philippines was that damn bridge you had to cross to get into town.. Did I say town?? BAR, HOTEL, Restaurant, Bar, Bar, Hotel, Bar... Then there were the kids in the water under that bridge, did I say water?? More like raw sewage. Anyway, these kids would dive for money if you threw them some.. Usually nickels and dimes, an occasional quarter but, the best results came when you threw in some pennies... the names those little kids would call us!!! And something about our mothers too!!
From Pat
Speaking of the Olongapo Bridge, one of my first Shore Patrol duty was standing on that stinking bridge on a Sunday afternoon from 1000 to 1700. Never relieved once, and the smell was really bad. After the first 3 hours you got kind of used to it. At 1700 I was supposed to be relieved, but my relief never showed up and I got stuck in front of some supposedly skivvie house off the main drag. Stood in front of that "house" till midnight. At least I had a sari-sari store to go into. Oh yeah, Chief McLaughlin let me have "late-sleepers" , which I thought was really nice of him. On one of my last cruises there I got a "Fifty Missions over Shit River" patch. It's in my shadow box.
From meangene
Ya Lurch... I think I had the same patrol one night... you were really out in the boonies.. sure was good to see that SP truck come to pick you up... like you were out there all night and they never came to check up on you to see if you were alive...
Did you ever stand that watch in Key West where you were watching the harbor entrance... watching for Cubans... that's all you had was a night stick that wouldn't come out of the belt because they always washed the belt with the stick still in it... so if you had to use it you had to take the belt off and use that also... at least you had use of a phone... sure was lonely up there at night..
From Lurch
I remember one of my 1st SP duties in Olongapo was in the "off limits" area to make sure that no US Servicemen were violating this area. I was left alone with a night stick as my only means of defense. Those of you who remember this place will also remember the types of people that occupied the "off limits" area. It was mainly locals who did not welcome our presence on their turf. Some were the ones that would occasionally come down out of the hills for a little action, the "Huks", I believe they were called. Rebels that would wreak havoc and then return to their hills. With this in mind, I found a really dark corner to hide in and every so often, I would peek out to see if anyone was sneaking up on me. When it got close to the time I was to be picked up, I slowly walked back out into the open. I was picked up shortly before midnight and returned safely to the ship.
From Lurch
YES!! I stood that watch in "Key Waste" and it seems there were 4 watches all together and only one got the use of the phone and sit in some shack or something. The phone, as I recall, was so you could call in and let them know you were alright. BUT, what about the other 3 guys? How were they supposed to check in? I remember sitting up in the life guards chair pretending that I was a sea-gull and hoping that no Cubans would choose that night to make their freedom landing. I also remember the locals throwing rocks over the fence at us and then running off. One night I woke to quite a tussle. It seems that one of the locals crawled under the fence and got into our barracks... Bad move!! How many of us were in those barracks?? About 50 or so per wing and 4, or 6 wings?? I also remember the Base CO declaring "dungaree liberty"... Basically, we were allowed to go into town in groups of no less than 10 and show the locals who was boss!!
I remember a really tall fire-breathing guy, too... Scares the pajeebers outa me one night just after lites out... This big ball of fire comes rollin' across the room right at me! I thought that the locals were using flame-throwers!!
From: Earl
In an email David mentioned the coffee pot in the sonar shack and that brought back an amusing memory that I thought I'd share even though this happened on Fletcher's final cruise in 1969 after David was gone. One night someone (I'll never tell) dumped some choice whiskey into the pot, just enough to give it a nice flavor and not enough to get us tipsy. This almost never happened but this one night it did and we were sitting there watching the scope and joyfully sipping away. This was like 0230 hours or so when all self respecting chiefs and officers were either on watch on the bridge or asleep. You can imagine our dismay when our assistant division officer, an ensign from Minnesota, walks in unannounced and pours himself a cup of java. Talk about sweating bullets, we were. My partner and I had visions of being busted back to E-1 and doing brig time.
So this snot nosed ensign stands there chatting idly with us and he drinks the whole damn cup of coffee and we're sitting there about to die and wondering just how long it's going to take him to realize what he's drinking. I mean to tell you we thought we were in some seriously deep do-do.
So he finishes his cup and puts it down and turns to leave and we're thinking maybe we got away with it when he nonchalantly stops and says, "Hey guys, that's the best cup of coffee I've had in a long time... but it had better NEVER taste this good again." He then stepped out and closed the door and the incident was never mentioned again. Needless to say all subsequent pots of coffee in sonar were regulation as hell with no additives of any kind. That officer earned our undying respect that night.
A few weeks later the sonar broke down and we were in port, I forget which one, and we were burning the midnight oil trying to get the sonar working again before we put back out to sea. We were really tired and still hard at it when without warning this same officer shows up in sonar carrying two large slices of apple pie a la mode that he's snuck out of Officer's Country. Now this is me and the same shipmate with the coffee incident and we're slaving away and this guy gets up in the middle of the night and goes to the trouble to get us the pie and carries it down two or three decks just so we can have a reward of some kind for our hard work.
The man's name was Smith and I remember he said he'd gotten a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Minnesota and he was the best officer I ever worked for. I can still see his face today and how he admonished us over the coffee thing and then brought us the pie a few weeks later. Why couldn't we have more officers like him?
From Earl
David, did you know they cleaned up that river in Subic? When I went back there in late 1969 they'd cleaned it up so much it was unrecognizable to us. We no longer had to hold our noses when crossing the river into Olongapo City.
And Australia, yes it was nice. I remember one day Durkee and I went out on liberty together and we wandered around downtown and found a little seafood restaurant which was empty. We went in and ordered a meal and by the time it was ready the place was full, mostly of young women oogling us. I think Durkee's size mpressed them more than my good looks. Hahaha!!!
One day when I had the duty and had to remain on board we had tons of civilian visitors. One middle aged married couple came invited me to come to their villa on the coast north of town. They said they'd pick me up and bring me back and that I could go out with them on their boat to the Great Barrier Reef and do some snorkeling and even meet their daughter who then appeared out of the crowd and you could have knocked me over with a feather. She looked like Natalie Wood and I thought I was in love. But, alas, our liberty was restricted to the city limits of Brisbane and with tears in my eyes I had to tell them no. Wahhhhhhhh!!!!
From Pat
Hey guys, talking about the Pearl EM Club. Were you guys there the first night we came back from the cruise of '67 I believe? The club was brand new - the club used to be out by the golf course before they built the new one at the head of Bravo piers. The Coral Sea was in, their first night of liberty of a scheduled week stay. They came to this new club and tore the living heck out of it. Broke the glass windows by the main ball room, and made a shambles of the bars. They were ordered out of port the next morning and had to pay something like $4,000 in damages, which I understand came out of their RecFund. When I left Pearl for the final time in '82 the club was going strong, but a lot of changes were being made as to hours and who and what could be served. Times they were a'changing and being a sailor having a good time were frowned upon. Its even worse now.
From Earl
Lurch, right after you left they modified the old torp shop amidships where we bunked for both those cruises. I've forgotten what they turned it into but they removed the torpedo tubes and I think they even got rid of the outside doors on both sides. Fox Division also got renamed and became Third Division as was the custom on the USS Philip and we berthed in after berthing. My rack was against the port bulkhead all the way in the back and the WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP of the port screw put me to sleep many a night at sea. Sometimes we could also hear the groan of the servos that moved the rudder.
Yes, the sonar console was called the "stack". That's one memory I have that is pretty clear. On that last cruise I become the main stack operator during GQ and I was pretty proud of that fact. It seems to me we also won the ASW "A" award that cruise but I might be confusing that with my last cruise on Blue when we also won it. Blue had VDS sonar and even though I was the best stack operator they had (other than the chief) I was at first relegated to being the stack operator on the VDS stack. VDS was a piece of junk in my opinion, the few times we lit it off it was a joke. It did work but was a hassle to use. Later during the cruise the chief booted the regular GQ stack operator and put me on. I was kind of cocky back then and clearly remember thinking I was the best stack operator in the Navy. The sonar on Blue was up behind CIC and the bridge. The one nice thing about Blue was you could go all the way forward to aft without going topside like we had to do on Fletcher which was nice in rough weather.
From Lurch
The only damage I remember being done to that club was by me after receiving a "Dear John" letter.. Ed took me over to drown my sorrows and after a few too many , he had to drag me out before my rearranging of the furniture became too bad...
From Lurch
I never heard about the "cabin boys" in Capt. Taylors room....What a shock that must have been. The torpedo we fired was a "dummy" but was quite large and much faster than the Mighty Fletcher. It seems to me there was a sunken wreck out to sea somewhere that , when ever in the area, ships would use it for anti-sub drills. With this in mind we went thru all the procedures of attacking including the firing of this torpedo (which there is a pic of in one of the cruise books being recovered). This particular torp. was very sophisticated in that, it had its own built in sonar. (MK 46). Supposedly, all we had to do is fire it in the general direction of a target and it would do the rest. If, at first, it did not find the intended target, it would go into a search procedure that included circling (while transmitting) and a back and forth/up and down procedure. Well, evidently, it couldn't find the target and in one of its passes X-mitted off the bottom of our hull which put it full speed ahead towards us. I was on the set (didn't we call it a stack ?) and noticed a very large noise spoke to our aft. I don't remember thinking about it, only reacting. My training told me that this was a torpedo so I reached up and hit the torp. warning button which set off an alarm thru-out the whole ship (kinda like the GQ alarm). Well of course the bridge called down and wanted to know what the hell that alarm was going off for. Almost at the same time, the aft look-out spotted it churning up the water coming right at us. We zig-zagged to try to avoid a hit (no explosives but, a difference in speed that would have put it well into the ships hull.) but, it was locked onto us. It seems we were getting snipers ready to try to shoot at it in an attempt to disable it when , as it has happened many times, Lady Luck was on our side...It had a timer inside that would let it run for only an hour and its time ran out...4+4+5=13 ...Lucky 13 !!
From Lurch
Another short story about our favorite chef at the time, Casher. I don't remember all the circumstances but, Casher and I were returning to the ship late one night and walking along the pier we noticed the geedunk stand was open. Casher said that he was a little hungry so we stopped and he bought two sandwiches and two bottles of pop. As we proceded down the pier, two sailors from another ship started making some wise cracks about Casher's size and how much he was eating.
I found out right then that Casher was not one to be messed with. He asked me to hold his two bottles of pop for him while he proceded to beat the shit out of these two swabbies with one fist . All the while taking an occasional bite from his sandwiches not dropping a crumb. He knocked both of them to the ground and was trying to kick them when they managed to get up and run. Casher yelled something at them like, "What do you think of my size now? Get back here and let's finish this !" Needless to say, they kept running. Casher then politely asked me for his two pops back. Alvin M. Casher CS1
From Lurch
A little about that storm that I remember...Seems that there were very few guys sea-worthy enough to feel well enough to eat. Durk and I were among those few. During chow once we really started getting into some rough stuff. I remember the ship raised up and sorta shuddered then SLAMMED back down. I was forced to the floor, breaking the bench I was seated on, Durk hit his head on the bulkhead and was a little out of it(some would say he was anyway but, that's another story) (just kidding Durk) and the big cook, Casher, walked into the mess hall and saw everyone rolling around trying to get back up and said, "What are you all doing on the floor? There are plenty seats in here.." I heard later that during that particular episode, we came close to going under...We hit so hard that it tossed the crew around on the bridge and they almost lost control.. How big were the swells during that storm? Do you have any info. ?? Isn't it strange how unpredictable the ocean was ? To be that fierce and then, a few days later be so calm that it looks like a sheet of glass.
From Earl
Captain Taylor was a pretty good guy as I recall. I remember him going ballistic in Subic when he came back off liberty and caught a radarman and someone else playing "cabin boys" in his sea cabin. I heard some of the commotion but didn't pay it much mind and was told about it the next day. Do you remember that? It was our last stop in Subic before returning to Pearl and would have been shortly before you were transferred off after that cruise. I came home on leave shortly after that cruise was over and when I came back you were gone and most of our regular guys were gone too. Durkee was still there I think but he left soon thereafter.
One cruise and I'm not sure which one it was, maybe it was the 1968 cruise, we went into drydock in Subic and when we got out and went on a quick trial through the bay many of the Filipino yardbirds would not get on the ship because they said the hull was too thin. Supposedly they had sandblasted the hull to get rid of barnacles and realized how little of it was left.
Fletcher made that one final cruise with the former Philip sailors. For a while it was Philip this and Philip that and we got tired of it but eventually they came around and turned out to be a good bunch of guys. One fellow I really liked in our gang was named Bailey from Storm Lake, Iowa. I've had no luck finding him either. On that cruise I don't think we did much gunfire support at all, it was mostly plane guard duty. Our extra R&R port was Kobe, Japan, not a very special port after having been to Brisbane and Singapore on the two previous cruises that you were on. When I was on the USS Blue we visited all the same old ports and near the end of the cruise we went to Bangkok. Since I was due to get out of the Navy shortly after plus I was married at the time I took no chances and stayed a good boy on that cruise. On our way out from Long Beach we stayed in Pearl several days and it was funny to watch most of the crew treat it like a foreign port. The sonar gang had to beg me to go over with them just to show them the town and especially the EM Club. We had lots of fun though. The Chief on that cruise was a grizzled old E-8 vet from Idaho and we got along especially well. I lost all contact with him too. I don't think I ever met anyone who could outdrink him.
In order to get STG2 I had to extend 3 months so I went ahead and did it. I was originally due to get out on 1-30-70 and extended to 4-30-70. Then Nixon started his early outs from Vietnam so they said all who'd extended could get out on their original date and still keep their rank, but only if you were in the USA. If you were overseas like I was you could get out only upon your arrival back in home port or on your due out date, whichever came first. As a result I got out on 3-23-70 so in the end I did a little less than 2 months of the 3 that I extended.
On Fletcher's last cruise the sonar broke down big time about a month before we were to arrive back in Pearl and since decommissioning was coming up they said not to fix it. As a result we stood some VERY boring watches in passive mode all the way back, totally useless watches in my opinion. There was some scuttlebutt about some kind of media reception as we pulled back into Pearl but that turned out to be nothing. We came in quietly and about two weeks later in May 1969 I was transferred off. Later they sailed to San Diego with a skeleton crew and decommissioned. Did you see the documents I had online about her ultimate demise? Sold for scrap. Oh well, the Blue was sunk as a target in 1974 so that's the way it goes. I didn't care about Blue like I did the Fletcher because I wasn’t on board her all that long just 9 months compared to 31 on Fletcher. When I made that cruise on Blue and then got out of the Navy I assumed Blue made more cruises and it was only a few months ago that I heard from a former member of that crew that Blue made no more WestPacs either. She did make a local midshipman cruise but nothing more. Probably a good thing, that ship was bad luck from the word go. We had a fire in the radio shack one night at sea, turned out to be some RM putting out a lit butt in a plastic shitcan and it did a lot of damage including burning through the main sonar cable. Then one other night in the Gulf of Siam our radar missed spotting a wood fishing trawler even though we picked it up on sonar and they didn't pay us much attention. We sliced it in half and sunk it putting a lot of Thai fishermen in the water. Some were
hurt but fortunately none were killed. Then between Pearl and Long Beach on the way back we went DIW for several hours with our two sister destroyers circling us. Pretty good looking ship but bad luck. Fletcher on the other hand always seemed to be lucky. Don't ask me why. There must be something to that Lucky Thirteen nickname she picked up in WWII.
From Earl
David, speaking of getting back to the ship from the EM Club or whatever, I remember one cold night in Sasebo, Japan when I pulled SP duty on the base. Drunk sailors staggering back to their ships soon became the main problem and I vividly remember one fellow coming up to me and asking if I knew where the aircraft carrier USS Ranger was. I though it was a joke until he asked again so I pointed UP to where the flight deck was hanging over the pier and told him I thought maybe this was it.
One of the worst was when we were tied up outboard of a destroyer tender like the 3rd or 4th ship out. We had to cross the tender and 2 or 3 other destroyers to get to our ship, none of them with the same configuration as our own. It was like drunk rats running a maze with the prize being you made it back to your own ship before you passed out.
It was a damned good thing Sailing Under the Influence wasn't a crime or half the fleet would still be in the brig. It was also a good thing for us that Vietnam was a two day trip from Subic Bay, P.I. giving us time to dry out.
From Earl
The EM Club in Pearl was home away from home. One evening several of us were seated at table downing our customary beers and listening to the band. I remember domestic beer was 25 cents a can and the local brew, Primo, was 20 cents. You didn't drink Primo unless you were broke or a west coast sailor who didn't know better.
A carrier was in port which with its huge crew normally messed up liberty for those of us regulars stationed there with the "Pineapple Fleet". Often time these sailors treated Pearl like a foreign port. On this particular night a very young sailor came into the club alone and from the ship's patch we could see he was from the aircraft carrier. He looked around, then came over to our table and asked what was a good drink to buy in this club and he added that he was waiting for some of his shipmates to show up. I don't remember if you were there David. Anyway without hesitation we told him the local favorite was a Mai Tai with a shot of 151 rum added. He asked what 151 was and we lied and told him it was a superbly flavored rum that would make the drink just that much better. So this kids splurges and pays a buck for the thing, then he sits down at a table near ours and starts in on it.
He grimaced a little at first and we told him that was normal, just drink it on down and enjoy the show.
The more he sipped the lower he got in his chair. His buddies arrived at about the time he slipped beneath the table semi comatose. One of them sniffed his glass and looked at us and asked what he'd had to drink and somebody, I won't say who, shrugged his shoulders and answered, "it beats the hell out of us".
I'd have liked to been around the next morning when the poor kid told his buddies what happened, not that it mattered because I think the carrier was at sea by then. I still can't believe we did that. Nowadays they arrest people for doing stuff like that!!! Hahaha.......
From Lurch
There must have been something about having SP duty that brings out so many stories....Maybe cuz we were sober at the time and can remember better......But, I was standing SP in Hong Kong on the pier where , basically , all we had to do was make sure that the drunks didn't fall into the water while boarding the shuttle boat back to their ship. Well, all was going well for the night when this Sailor approached me and asked me what time it was ?? He looked familiar , I knew him from somewhere and instead of looking at my watch, I was trying to remember where I knew him from... This made him a little irate and he grabbed my arm and looked down at my watch..It was then I noticed his name inside the back of his hat...He was from my home-town...He had been trying to date my sister for some time...I said, "Phil ?" He looked up at my face and slurred the words, " Hey, you're Dave somebody or another from PA.." He told me which ship he was on but, they were leaving the next morning..... A few months later , I noticed that his ship, U.S.S. Piedmont was in the Philippines when we pulled in and I went over and looked him up. He said that he thought he remembered meeting someone from back home but, wasn't sure.
From Lurch
Now , come on , Earl. We would never have done anything like that to anyone...would we ??? HEHEHE I do remember when a mate of ours was feeling blue because he had just returned to Pearl from leave where he had just got married and , for some reason his new bride couldn't join him... Well , I thought , I would go with him to the E.M. Club and help him drown his sorrows...We started off with rum and cokes and at the end of the evening had progressed to 151 shots with regular rum & coke as a chaser !!! After leaving it was a short walk back to the ship , but , we decided to take ashort-cut across a field...I remember a small embankment we had to climb and I also remember that my feet went up but my head didn't....I fell over backwards and lay there laughing my a$$ off while my buddie tried to help me up and we both ended up on the ground. We had to crawl up this little hill but, by damn, we crawled like sailors...Laughing all the way. My buddie was later released from active duty due to unstable mental conditions... (section 8 , under honorable conditions) . He told me that he just had to get out and go back to his wife or, he didn't know what he would do. I haven't heard from him since.
From Lurch
Some 35 years ago I was stranded at the Chicago airport enroute to my duty station in Pearl Harbor. My flight tickets were prepaid and I was pennyless. When I tried to pick up my boarding pass I was informed that the price had gone up and I would need another $10 . All my arguing was in vain. There was no way I was going to get on my flight without paying the increase. A business type dressed man behind me said to let him take care of his business and then he would help me out. Now, I didn't know this man from Adam but, something told me that I could trust him. I followed him and two other men to their car and they took me downtown Chicago somewhere to a Red Cross office and said to go in and tell them my problem. After telling them and filling out some breif forms ( which stated in so many words that if I didn't sign these papers, I didn't have to ever pay them back). They gave me the money I needed to complete my flight and paid my cab fare back to the airport. I would like to thank this man again, where ever he might be and I would like to pay back the Red Cross in Chicago in the form of a donation. If not that office, one close by. A once lost sailor, D.R.Lesher Sr. I sent them a check for $100 and plan to donate the same amount each year.
From Lurch
You all are gonna hear stories about us being in the Philippines and Japan and Taiwan and other places where the Oriental girls were good looking but they weren't like your girl back home looking. We were in Brisbane, Australia when Ed, Jake and I decided to go in town to a restaurant and get some "real" food. We found this place that looked as though it would satisfy our longing for a decent home cooked type meal and were seated. Well now, seated at the table next to us just happened to be two lovely "round-eyed" babes. I thought we were all trying to be on our best behavior hoping, maybe we would get lucky. Well, the beautiful young ladies got up and headed for the powder room. The 3 of us quickly swapped ideas on what to say to them when they returned and Jake said to leave it to him, so we did. When they returned he said, "What did you do, go candy?" One of them said, Excuse me?" Jake then said," Well, you are too pretty to shit so you musta went candy." I've been embarrassed before but, that ranks within the top 2 or 3!!!
From meangene
There was one incident when we were very close to the shore line firing 5in over some ridge when all of a sudden there were big splashes all around us...incoming morters..well Fletcher took off so fast the fantail just about went under...but we sure showed them..we left so much black smoke its still hazy there yet
From Bob
An example of the "Lucky 13": I don't remember for sure, but I am pretty sure we were at sea. The GMs had to run their routine check of the Weapon Able. As I recall, a live round was about 6 foot long, looked like a bomb with a long tail and was about 8 to 9 inches in diameter. They would simulate firing and loading of a new round from the magazine. The magazine was located below the mess deck under the mount. The round would come up to the mount by a lift. The round came to the top, stopped and then the round would be unloaded to the side, similar to putting a bullet in a revolver and spinning the barrel. When they simulated firing, the lift started up the chute to the mount. Due to a problem, the round only got into the mount about half way. Luckily, the round they used was the same as a live one but where the explosive charge was normally located, it was fiberglass. The barrel rotated and sheared the round in half. It cut 6 inches of solid fiberglass like it was butter. Had it been a normal round, they probably would have blown the mount and more off the ship. "Lucky 13" held again.
From Lurch
I never told you this, Geno but, once you and "Sedroc" were on watch in the sonar shack and I was in UB Plot watching the simulator monitor and noticed that the stack operator was not conducting a standard beam to beam search as was required. So I put a false target up on the simulator to see how long it would take before it was noticed. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't long when I saw the cursor zoom across the screen and attempt to lock on the contact but, I was too quick for you . I entered in a speed and course that was just enough to keep you from getting a good reading.
Then you called to see if they had anything on radar in that area and , of course, they didn't. I had a head set on too and just as you were about to call the bridge and report a sonar contact, I shut the simulator off....!!!!
I was afraid to tell you this back then cuz you probably woulda got pissed. I can tell you now cuz you live about a bizillion miles away...hehehehe...
From meangene
Yea...think you pulled one over on me huh...well i knew it was you all along..i just didn’t want to say anything..thought the chief might get pissed..ha ha
From Earl
On the 1968 WestPac the sonar gang had a little jar tucked away in a corner of the sonar shack’s port bulkhead. At the beginning of each sonar watch the two watch standers would dig the fuzz out of their belly buttons and place it in the jar. By the end of the cruise there was enough to make a pair of socks. I flew home on leave at the end of that cruise and when I returned the jar was gone and no one knows where it went. Maybe it’s still floating around Pearl Harbor somewhere.
From Franklin Wilson:
I served in USS FLETCHER from September 1949 to July 1952. FLETCHER was converted to a DDE in Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, CA and was commissioned on 3 October 1949. After shakedown and underway training, we departed San Diego for Pearl Harbor and WESTPAC on 1 May 1950. Our homeport was Pearl Harbor. We (FLETCHER and our sister ship USS RADFORD DDE-446) were escorting the USS VALLEY FORGE (CV-45) back to Subic Bay back from Hong Kong in June when word was passed to be alert because North Korea had just invaded South Korea. We continued on to Subic Bay. picked up Fleet stores and rendezvoused with other ships of the 7th Fleet in Buckner Bay, Okinawa on 4 July.
We steamed day and night around the Korean coastline, from the Yellow Sea to the Sea of Japan, back and forth. The USS PHILIPPINE SEA (CVA7) joined the 7th Fleet and sometime in August we were permitted to escort her to Sasebo for some much needed replenishment. Being a Storekeeper I was required to take requisitions to the Base for provisions. In those days the Base provided Japanese workers to load the provisions onto a barge, a tug boat then took the barge to each ship to off load the stores. You can imagine the length of time it took to off load because each ship had to call away a working party, etc.
I was only one among many to get ship's provisions that day and naturally the Aircraft Carriers came first because of seniority. It was while we were tied alongside one of the destroyers that word came to get underway immediately. The tug tied the barge to the buoy that the destroyer was tied to and left to get the PHILIPPINE SEA out of the harbor leaving me stranded high and dry with FLETCHER's provisions still on the barge with absolutely no way to get to FLETCHER.
I asked the Officer of the Deck of the destroyer that we were alongside to send a signal light message to FLETCHER to tell them of my predicament. It wasn't long before CDR William Lowry, C.O. of the FLETCHER appeared in his gig and, with our whaleboat astern, came along the starboard side of the barge. He "borrowed" the gig and whaleboat of the destroyer we were tied to and put them on the port side of the barge. Standing by a pile of potatoes he gave the command "All Ahead Full". When we got along side FLETCHER we literally threw the provisions on the fan tail, tied the barge (with the Japanese workers still on board) to the buoy and steamed out of the harbor, knowing full well that we would eat in style for a few days.
Franklin E. Wilson, SKCS, Retired
Camarillo, CA
From Ted Smith,
Well we were in Yokosuka and it was cold. We got hungry and the galley was closed. So we decided to raid the wardroom pantry only the CDO was in the wardroom. The q'deck was on the fantail. As you know usually the q’desk was admidships and there is a 1MC there. So one of us, I don't remember who (might have been Mecka) went there (amidships) and passed the word, only on officer circuits, for the CDO to lay to the q'deck. When he left we raided the pantry and scrammed for sonar control. We were busy scarfing our loot when a knock came at the door. We knew who it was, the CDO, but we waited him out and he went away. Those stewards made some pretty good sandwiches.
Ted Smith, sonarman (61-63)
From Glen Carter, (1967)
One of the dudes I remember was a signalman, I believe from Chicago. When this guy was sober he didn't say two words, but when he started drinking, I swear he was super-human. He and I were at the other club on base, drinking Primo beer and eating chili beans, Spurlock got into it with about 15 guys, (I handled one). When the shore patrol came in I tried to get him to leave and he wouldn't so I did and somehow in my escape, I ended up trying to get into my rack, only on the USS Nicholas DD-449. That let's you know how good Primo beer was. They finally escorted me to the Fletcher, I don't know if I was more embarassed or drunk, maybe a little of both. To let you know how strong this guy was when he was drunk, I saw him beat a Yale lock open with his bare fist. The last captain's mast he went to, instead of making him serve more time they gave him a discharge, to get rid of him I guess.
From Frank Foster,
When I was on board Fletcher in 1956,57,58 I spent a lot of time in the Radio Shack. There was an armored cable chase that ran through the radio shack. This chase had an overhead hatch for access. This hatch was very thick and a real heavy mother! There was a tradition that if you could close and hold it with one hand and dog it down you could write a pornographic story in an old green ledger that was kept inside. Some of the stories went all the way back to 1943! It was not hard to figure out what a lot of the guys had on their minds! Wonder whatever happened to that old book?
From Pete Gannon,
I was on the Fletch from 65 to 67 as an MM2. On one mid watch, darken ship off Vietnam, the bitch box to the bridge started screaming, “turn it off!, turn it off!”. I ambled over and asked, “turn off what?” they came back with “the fire, the fire!” I said what fire? they said there was fifty feet of flame coming out of #1 stack. The forward fire room had changed burner barrels and forgot to put a sprayer plate into the barrel. Instead of a small mist of fuel, they got a straight shot of fuel, hence the flame. In the cruise book it shows the icy yellow sea. What it doesn’t show is the motor whale boat washed away. The starboard bluward underneat it bent out about 10 ft. at a 90 degree angle. The after engine room exhaust fan cover washed away and a wave coming down on top of #2 generator knocking if off of the line. It was not fun especially standing in the topside chow line
From Frank Vasquez, (1953)
There was a man on board who did not want to go to Korea, I don't remember if he already was a Korean War Veteran or not, but he sure did not want to go (or go back). Anyway word was that he was going to do something so crazy so they would have to kick him out of the Navy. That's how bad he wanted out! Well on one of our returns from training exercises as we were tying up to the dock this dummy jumped overboard between the ship and the dock!! Needless to say everyone went crazy, from the skipper on down, thinking we had just crushed one of our own men between the pier and the SHIP!!! His nickname was "Bunny". Well ole bunny was no dummy, he had jumped right by those hanging material fenders that kept the ship from banging up against the phone poles that supported the pier. He jumped in feet first, shoes and all BESIDE the pole to sink quickly, then he came up just as there was enough room to fit between the ship and the pier, all Crazy shouting all kinds of crazy things at the Skipper, the Exec and most of the Officers. Needless to say he did get kicked out. We found out how he did it because he wrote someone aboard, a friend of his, and told him. Boy what some guy's do.
From Frank Vasquez, (circa 1954)
This would always happen whenever we were in port. Late at night someone would get to the PA system aboard ship, usually amidships, and in a very deep voice say DURANGO, but it was more like "DURRRAAANNNGGGOOOO!!!", if you know what I mean. You had to have heard it to truly understand what I am trying to describe.
It was just loud enough to wake you up if you were asleep. No one to my knowledge ever found out who it was. We always thought it was someone coming back from one too many at the block arena, that's what our EM club was named it was more of a giant patio. It didn't compare to sub base's EM club. I wonder if this shipmate from that era is still living, will he identify himself or if some one knows him maybe now 50+ years later he can finally be accorded the recognition he so readily earned and deserves. Maybe some one from that era also remembers DURRRAAANNNGGGOOOO.
From Levi Miller, (grandson of former crew) 2007
My Grandfather, Robert Miller named his three boys as follows:
James Frank Miller
Joseph Friday Miller
Jay Fletcher Miller
My father is Joseph Friday Miller. I always knew that he had named his boys after the ship he had sailed on, and that is what prompted me to look for information about the USS Fletcher. I was so pleased to see such a wonderful web site dedicated to it with information and photos of my grandpa. He passed away in 1995. I loved him very much.
Thank you for their serial numbers. I will file them away. Also, the picture of the engineer crew in 1950 I have an original that my grandpa had. The picture I would like to see is of the entire crew in 1950 where they are all dressed in their white uniforms. I know that my grandfather and his brother must be in there, but I can't make them out. I would love to talk to someone who has a better copy of that picture so I could find them in it.
Again, thank you. I hope to keep in touch. If you have any other records concerning Robert or Russell Miller, I would love to know it. Thank you so much, Levi Miller, Yucca Valley, California.
From Max F. Foster,
When I first went aboard Fletcher in 1956 we had just been upgraded from the troughs with seats to individual pots! Great! These were pressurized by salt water and flushed directly over the side about 2 feet below the water line. We were off one of the islands for gunnery practice and had a Marine CP and Sgt to put ashore as spotters. They were embarking in a rubber dinghy off the propeller guards. The ship was stopped, and rolling in the swells. A moment in time. Just as the dinghy surged forward the ship rolled to starboard. A sailor, with a big appetite, flushed. The two Marines suddenly had a lap full of shit. If they could have found that sailor they would have...been angry. Ahhh...memories!!!
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