THE  SCUTTLEBUTT

 

The Newsletter of the

USS Buchanan (DDG-14) Association

 

Fall, 2008

 

Vol. X.  No. 2    http://www.uss-buchanan-ddg14.org    Editor: David B. Malone

______________________________________________________________________________

 

REPORT ON NAVY WEEKEND AT JACKSONVILLE, FL; Oct 12-13, 2008

Submitted by Tim Nightingale

 

Navy weekend started with an updated on the site location for the ex-USS Charles F Adams DDG-2.  There were a number of Adams class ship representatives and members of the ACVA group at the Friday evening gathering.

 

As many of you are aware the city council of Jacksonville, Florida on 26 February 2008 unanimously approved a resolution supporting the establishment of the ex-USS Charles F Adams DDG-2 as a naval ship museum in the city of Jacksonville, which was the ships former homeport.

 

Since that resolution approval, the organization known as the ACVA (Adams Class Veterans Association) has worked hard in the development of the Donation Application of some 826 pages, and was submitted on March 31, 2008 to Secretary of the Navy, via  NAVSEA.  Special Thanks to Pete Mansel, Bob Branco, Jim Aldrich, Bob Rumney, Bert Watson, Wayne Misenar, Craig Bernat, and Tom Crosser for all their efforts in the preparation of the application.

 

Again both the ACVA and JHNSA (Jacksonville Historical Naval Ship Association) manned the booth in front of the visiting ship an Oliver Hazard Perry class of Guided Missile Frigates, USS Stephen W. Groves FFG 29.  The booth was manned from 9 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. each day.  It is estimated that aproxmently . 5,000+ people passed by the booth daily and also visited the Groves.  The USS Groves not having enough time for everyone to tour, the ship had to suspend tours early so that ship board personal could perform their duties. People of the greater Jacksonville area who had stopping by the booth were excited to have such a museum coming to their town.  We all enjoyed the time speaking with the people relating our time onboard the DDG’s and answering question on the location of the new ship museum.

 

 

MORE ON THE NAVY WEEKEND AT JACKSONVILLE

From Bert Watson of the ACVA

 

Hey guys and the occasional gal:

Jim had asked me to provide a recap of the weekend.  Due to complicating circumstances I have been not available to focus on a few things.  That being said, this re-cap provided by Craig is awesome.  There is little I can do to add to it, although I will try. 

I had the opportunity to corner a city councilman who had the misfortune of crossing my path in front of our tent.  If you want some of the "Inside Baseball" briefing on the conversation, feel free to contact Wayne of Craig. Suffice to say that I "shared" my dismay with him that. although the city had formally endorsed the project, when a state agency called the city, there was no knowledge and no support articulated.  Ya'll know how well that sat with me!  More info on that as it becomes available.

Another two folks came up to help us from farther South in FL - Chuck "Irish", who found out about the weekend on Friday - packed a little bag and drove his Harley up first thing Sat to get here by noon.  He brought with him action photos (ship under fire - the Waddel I think) from Viet Nam, cruise books, etc.  And Bob Hoffman came up from Central FL with his wife and helped as well.  Given that amount of support, we were very pleased and grateful that these folks were there to help because numerous times we were ALL engrossed in conversations with different visitors.  One of the coordinators of the event came by and expressed that we were the most popular booth out there (Naval Order, Navy League, USO and us).  He spoke the truth.

He Sunday paper had a B section front page photo that showed the crowd, lines and interest in the ship.  We are going to demonstrate to city and business leaders that the Adams CLASS museum will be no different- okay maybe better!!!!

All-in-all an awesome weekend for the Navy, the Adams CLASS museum and Jacksonville.

A great thank you to Wayne and Craig!  Now on to the Blue Angels show in two weeks!

 

Some of the pictures are from my room at Crowne Plaza looking across the river to Jax Landing and the ship. The others were taken from the Main St Bridge looking toward the ship and the booths. I attempted to zip the files and send all of them. That e-mail failed becasue of the size. I selected a few pictures out of the many that show how large the lines were and the ship.The pictures of the line of folks waiting to see the ship were taken from the Main Street Bridge. What the photos don't show is the line of people extending under the bridge and in front of Jax Landing. This is another several hundred feet of people.   

 

The Weekend recap.......

 

Thursday morning I picked up that lobbiest fellow in Fairfax, VA. with a truck full of goodies. Bert's job was to keep me awake for the drive, but just like a kid he spent the entire drive until dark e-mailing, texting, and talking with his headset on via cell phone taking care of ACVA and his own business issues. We arrived in Jax and I checked in at the hotel around 10:30pm.

 

Friday Bert and I were to get together before lunch at the Jax Landing to set up the equipment in a vacant store front. Due to his office and cell phone ringing off the hook with ACVA and business calls, we were unable to get the truck unloaded until 5:30pm. Once we were down to unloading the 3 repeaters the sky opened up and we got drenched. Bert, being the trooper he is, took the plastic covered repeater on a cart in the pouring rain and pushed it to our tent location by the ship. After some butt kissing with a LT on the Groves they agreed to keep an eye on it until morning. We then rushed to get to River City Brewing to meet with all those that came to the are to help ACVA for the weekend.

 

Saturday morning we got off to a slow start and eventually got everything set up. No rain, but hot. Rather than hiding the repeater under the tent, we placed it in the walk traffic flow in front of the tent. There was always a crowd of parents and kids around it and those that past by did so because of the crowds we had around the repeater. We had the kids in awe when we opened the top up showing the inside of the repeater to the them. Many people had mentioned seeing the small equipment display inside Jax Landing.  We tag teamed them. As I was showing off the big video game to the kids, Wayne and Tim Nightengale were handing out the information and donation forms. We stayed in to the evening and then wrapped up for the day. Wayne and I then held a mini board meeting at Hooters over $10 margaritas! The line for the ship was several blocks long and thousands were turned away.

 

Sunday we had our stuff together and were ready to go earlier than Saturday. This day was the same as Saturday. Bert was in and around both days talking to important contacts about our efforts. The river taxi want us there and wants a stop at the end of the pier once it is built for Adams. Again several thousand turned away from the Groves tour. After we tore down everything, we had another board meeting at Hooters and spent the evening eating wings and discussing film.

 

 

A bit of information on the DDG-2 project.

 

ACVA UPDATE ON THE CHARLES F. ADAMS (DDG-2) PROJECT

 

 

And while on the subject of the ACVA…

 

 

ADAMS CLASS DDG VIDEO FOOTAGE

 

Received from Bill Brewer of the USS Waddell association.  Enjoy!

 

 

TREASURER’S REPORT

Submitted by Dick Zimmermann

 

PAID MEMBERS (71)

Acosta, Javier; Andrew, Randy; Backer, Bill; Baile, Bruce; Batterman, Bill; Beinke, Phil; Borg, Gene; Boyle, Tim; Brinley, Bill; Broekhuizen, Greg; Brown, Michael & Jacqueline; Browning, Rob & Marian; Bussey, Robert; Cameron, Ted; Casmier, Dave; Clark, Jere; Connell, Dan; Copeland, Nelson; Craig, Tom; Crosser, Tom; Daisley, Dick; Dirickson, Larry & Helena; England, Carl; Fanene, Lynn; George, David; Gerrard, Gerry; Gilbert, Joe; Girdham, Roger; Gray, Bill; Hararas, John; Heffernan, Michael; Henley, Ron; Herrman, Larry; Holden, Wayne; Howard, John; Hummel, Gary; Jones, Bobby; Kane, Ken; Kupec, Cole; Lightwine, Robert; Looney, Glenn; Malone, Dave; Marak, Ron; McDonald, John; Mezori, George; Myers, Dean; Nightingale, Tim; Nolan, Randy; Norrod, Michael; Otis, Bob; Pope, Dave; Proctor, Lou; Re, Joe; Rivenes, John; Rudisill, Terry; Saylor, John; Sena, Pat; Shortreed, Fred; Stoysich, Claude; Taylor, Jim; Thacher, Phil; Ursich, Al; Van Riesen, Merril; Wihera, Victor; Wood, Ken; Ziesmer, James; Zeranski, Ed; Zimmermann, Dick

 

NEW MEMBERS SINCE MARCH 2008                                

Merril Van Riesen	CSSN	1961 - 66
Larry & Helena Dirickson	FTM2	1967 - 71
Roger Girdham	MM2	1966 - 69
Lynn Fanene	YN1	1984 - 87
Robert Lightwine	BM2	1970 - 71
James Ziesmer	EW1	1977 - 81
Randy Nolan	MM3	1977 - 79

 

 

LIFETIME MEMBERS

Bruce Baile                               SH3                 1970 - 73

Rob & Marian Browning          STG1               1975 - 79

Bill Brinley                                 RD2                 1967 - 70

Ted Cameron                           STG3               1966 - 68

Wayne Holden                          ET1/EW1        1968 - 73

Lou Procto                                FTM3               1963 - 66

Al Ursich                                   FCC(SW)         987 - 91

 

 

 

TREASURER’S REPORT

Balance 1 Apr 2008	$5,795.19
Dues	231.00
Ship store sales	198.80
DDG-2 meeting	-340.74
Ship store expenses	-34.40
Balance 30 November 2008	$5,849.85

 

NOW ON THE BUCHANAN...

Moments in the life of USS Buchanan (DDG-14), taken from the ship’s annual reports.

 

Forty Five years ago... 1963

In December of 1963, BUCHANAN returned to San Diego for her first full regular overhaul and refresher training.

 

Forty years ago… 1968

From 4 November until 22 December, BUCHANAN was underway weekly while participating in the SAMID project evaluation in the Southern California Operation Area. This project was on test/evaluation of experimental electronic equipment designed to give a ship faster reaction time to combat TARTAR missiles at controlled drone aircraft.

 

Thirty Five years ago… 1973

On 26 November BUCHANAN once again sailed out of Subic Bay, only this time in company with USS ORISKANY (CVA-43), enroute to the Indian Ocean to conduct special operations. Upon completion of the special operations on 17 December, BUCHANAN found herself enroute to Mombasa, Kenya located on the continent of Africa. On 20 December, in the middle of her tansit down in company with USS ORISKANY, she participated in the age old "Crossing-the-Line" ceremony at which time the majority of the crew made the transformation from Polywog to Shellback. Arriving inport Mombasa on 22 December, the crew hit the game preserves of Kenya during the four-day holiday visit.

 

Thirty years ago… 1978

Following an inport weekend in San Diego, BUCHANAN departed for Mazatlan, Mexico and commenced in intensive training program during the four day transit, including Engineering Casualty Control Drills and preparations for the approaching Interim Refresher Training (IRFT) period.

On Sunday night, 5 November, BUCHANAN helped Mexican authorities extinguish a large waterfront fire involving several hundred bales of cotton. The quick reaction of the crew in controlling this very dangerous blaze earned messages of gratitude and commendation from US DAO, Mexico City, and the local U.S. Consul.

Twenty Five years ago… 1983

BUCHANAN was inport San Diego for leave and maintenance from 17 September to 13 October. On October, she commenced Phase I of Engineering MTT (Mobile Team Training) . During late October, she conducted local operations.

 

SEA STORY OF THE QUARTER

Received from Mike Norrod

 

This excerpt is from a book titled "If Not Now, When?" by Colonel Jack Jacobs (Ret.), Medal of Honor recipient.  He is in Vietnam on his second tour in 1973 as an advisor to a Vietnamese Airborne Battalion.

 

"But in what may have been one of the last fire missions in support of Americans in contact, late in the year I was very lucky to receive assistance from an unexpected source. One night, I saw what looked like a convoy of enemy trucks wending its way on a road in the enemy zone. There was no moon, and it was drizzling and overcast anyway, but I could see the trucks clearly because some of them were running illuminated headlights, a boneheaded thing to do for which I was much obliged. Exercising light discipline is always important but nowhere more than in this kind of environment, in which large formations of soldiers are opposing one another, sensitive to the smallest tactical advantage, and will deliver massive punishment to those who relax their vigilance.

 

The convoy was moving quite slowly, and I waited almost breathlessly for a few minutes. When it had reached a portion of the road that ran parallel to the front lines, I saw with amazement that the convoy contained hundreds of vehicles, a target of opportunity so rich that few are ever fortunate enough to see one. Excitedly, I radioed for artillery, but none was to be had, and my excited and repeated requests must have sounded like the frantic but comical bleat of a lost sheep.

 

Then I heard an unfamiliar call sign on my frequency. "Understand you need fire support," he said. The voice was American but it was nobody I recognized.

 

"What's the target?"

 

"Large convoy," I said excitedly. "Vehicles in the open, hundreds of them." I could hardly contain myself. I had no clue who this was, since we had almost no American units left in Vietnam and certainly none but advisors in Quanq Tri. Maybe this was a gag. War pushes people to extremes, and I and the other American advisors were a pretty raucous bunch, given to dangerous stunts, practical jokes, and similar childish behavior. Since I had never really escaped adolescence, I fit right in. Yes, maybe this was some stunt by Furrow or Howard or Lawrie, all of whom were creative, energetic, and as easily amused by simple foolishness as I.

 

Then again, maybe not.

 

"Coordinates?" he asked, and I encoded the center of mass of the convoy and told him it was moving from southwest to northeast at about five miles an hour. He asked for a bit more information, like the observer-target azimuth, which we typically did not have to provide, but I gave him whatever he wanted. This was all terribly confusing, but if there was an outside chance of engaging a target as large as this, I intended to play along.

 

He said that he would fire one white phosphorus round, to mark the target, and that I was to give him corrections from that round. A few seconds later, he said, "Shot, over," indicating that the round was on the way. I waited for the marking round to impact.

 

And waited.

 

Nothing.

 

I radioed, "Round lost, repeat."

"What do you mean, 'Round lost, repeat'?" He was very put out, this joker.

 

"I didn't see the impact," I replied, as if he were an imbecile who had never fired artillery before. "It must have been a dud or else lost. Fire another one."

The joker: "What the hell are talking about? The time of flight is sixty-five seconds. The round isn't there yet."

 

Ridiculous. There wasn't anything in the artillery arsenal that fired a round so far that its time of flight was as long as sixty-five seconds. I was cold and in the open and tired. This had been a diverting entertainment, but the fun was over, and it was time to ask the Joker to identify himself. "Okay, who is this?"

 

An in the clear, eschewing his protective call sign, he yelled, "This is Newport News, you moron."

 

USS Newport News was a heavy cruiser, with a displacement of more than twenty thousand tons, a crew of some sixteen hundred officers and sailors, and a battery of devastating 8-inch guns. With no access to information other than that which arrived by mail from home weeks after the fact, I had no idea that the ships was anywhere near Vietnam, let alone in range to fire for me. Indeed, I had had no news about anything. Being in combat was a very crude form of selective deprivation. There was plenty of rain, cold, misery, pain, and sadness --- but very little news. I had thought that we were alone , and yet here was thin thread of hope, and offshore breeze straight from America thousands of miles away.

 

Just then, the marking round screamed into the area and detonated right in the middle of the convoy, lofting burning particles of white phosphorus into beautifully, deadly arcs around the impact point, a giant, opening white rose of death.

 

"Fire for effect!" I yelled into the radio. "Fire for effect!"

 

"Firing battery one for effect," he said.

 

Only one round from each gun?

 

"Battery one?" I was used to artillery gunners firing thousands of rounds of 105-millimeter shells. "That's nowhere near enough. This is a huge target."

"Trust me," he said, "that's enough."

 

And he was right. A few minutes later, three rounds of 8-inch naval gunfire landed amid the convoy and exploded with such breathtaking force that much of the convoy was utterly destroyed immediately, and the secondary explosions lasted for hours. I forgot the penetrating drizzle and the biting cold, and instead I stood there and watched the spectacle. It was an awesome and fearsome sight, and I thought that there are few things as comforting as being far from home and meeting a new friend when you need one.