THE SCUTTLEBUTT
The Newsletter of the
USS Buchanan (DDG-14) Association
Spring, 2007
Vol. IX. No. 1 http://www.uss-buchanan-ddg14.org Editor: David B. Malone
______________________________________________________________________________
Our next Ship wide reunion is scheduled for March 12 - 16, 2008 at the Holiday Inn San Diego Bayside, San Diego, California.
All crew members, families
and persons who have the common interest of the USS Buchanan-DDG 14 are
welcome.
Come join the fun reuniting
and network with old friends, renewing new and old acquaintances. .Sharing
those old sea stories in the hospitality room, touring the city and naval base
to bring back old memories, and again just having fun and enjoying the company
of old friends.
Visit
the web site at http://www.uss-buchanan-ddg14.org
and click on Reunions then 2008 reunion for more detail of the up and coming
reunion. See you all there.
Tim
Nightingale
TREASURER’S REPORT
PAID MEMBERS
(72)
Acosta, Javier; Alexander, Ted; Andrew,
Randy; Backer, Bill; Baile, Bruce; Bartleson, Don; Batterman, Bill; Beinke,
Phil; Bomar, Rick; Borg, Gene; Boyle, Tim; Brinley, Bill; Browning, Rob &
Marian; Boyle, Tim; Bussey, Robert Cabahug, Jaime; Cadia, John; Casmier, Dave;
Clark, Jere; Connell, Dan; Craig, Tom; Crosser, Tom; Daisley, Dick; Doran,
Paul; Egge, Dennis; England, Carl; Falkenhan, Marc; Fitzroy, John; Gant,
Charlie; George, David; Gilbert, Joe; Glidewell, Mel; Gloyd, Elmer; Gray, Bill;
Heffernan, Michael; Henley, Ron; Hubner, Leon; Jones, Bobby; Kane, Ken; Kern,
Tom; King, Michael; Kupec, Cole; Larsen, Jerry; Looney, Glenn; Malone, Dave;
Marak, Ron; Martelly, Pete; McDonald, John; Mezori, George; Myers, Dean;
Nightingale, Tim; Norrod, Michael; Parks, Bill; Probus, Ed; Proctor, Lou; Re,
Joe; Ridley, Ray; Rivenes, John; Rudisill, Terry; Sena, Pat; Sheridan, Tom;
Smeltzer, Steve; Snyder, Tom; Stroud, Mike; Taylor, Jim; Thacher, Phil; Ursich,
Al; Walla, Bob; Walsh, William; Wihera, Victor; Wood, Ken; Yarbrough, Dave;
Zimmermann, Dick
NEW MEMBERS
SINCE FEBRUARY 2007
John McDonald GMG3 1966 - 67
TREASURER’S
REPORT
|
Balance 28 Feb 2007 |
$4,038.24 |
|
Dues |
154.00 |
|
Ship store sales |
58.80 |
|
Ship store expenses |
-14.15 |
|
Balance 30 June 2007 |
$4,236.89 |
UPCOMING ARTICLE TO BE
PUBLISHED
Hello
to all:
I
am happy to report that after all this time, my article concerning the events
of May 8-10 1972 during the cruiser-destroyer attacks on the Do Son peninsula
and Haiphong will be published by Naval Institute Press in the August 2007
issue of Naval History Magazine. Naval History Magazine is the most prestigious
naval history magazine in the world and of course I am very excited that the
magazine staff decided to publish this story.
Over
the last two and one-half years, I have been asked many times by participants
in these battles and friends when the article would be published and finally, I
have the answer!!!
This
magazine will go on sale at the end of June and is available several ways:
1.
You can become a member of Naval Institute by going to their website to obtain
the relevant membership information:
http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/archive/index.asp
Depending
on the membership selected, you will receive Naval Institute Proceedings
and/or Naval History Magazine.
2.
Naval History Magazine is also sold by many major bookstore chains, however, I
would recommend that you call the bookstores near you and find out if they
carry this magazine. Some do, some do not.
3.
You can call Naval Institute directly at 1-800-233-8764 and order single
issues. If you do this, you should call during the first week of June 2007, not
before, and put in your order. You can order multiple copies if you desire.
I have also created a website to honor Rear Admiral R.C. Robinson, Captain Ted
Taylor and Commander John Leaver who lost their lives on May 8, 1972 as of
course many of you remember. You can visit this website at:
http://www.rear-admiral-rc-robinson.com/index.html
I
also want to thank so many of you for helping me research this story for
without your assistance and insight, it would have been impossible to
reconstruct what happened over those three days in a factual manner. It is for
you and your families that I have written this article and it is my utmost hope
that it honors you and your shipmates.
Finally,
for those of you that are members of your ship's website, please let the
webmaster and other shipmates know of this upcoming Naval History Magazine
issue so that they get the word. I am sure that there are many who are
interested if they just could be informed and if you could assist me in this I
would very much appreciate the effort.
Best
wishes,
John
Robinson
NEW SHIPPING RATES FOR THE
SHIP’S STORE
New
shipping rates for mail orders from the Ship’s Store are in effect. Postages rates for the Post Office have gone
up, but we’ve actually made our rates more reasonable. The below chart now applies to all orders
placed with the Ship’s Store.
$0.00 - 30.00 - $4.05
$30.01- 40.00 - $5.70
$40.01 & over - $6.40
Orders from the Ship’s Store may be placed by visiting the Ship’s
Store web page at http://www.members.aol.com/shipstore1/store.htm
, or by going to http://www.uss-buchanan-ddg14.org/
and clicking on the link for the Ship’s Store.
A QUESTION FROM A FORMER
SHIPMATE
Hi Dean is there anyway you can make some sort of posting to guys
who served on the Buchanan? What I'm trying to find out is if it was on the
Buchanan that we guys were ordered topside and a plane came over and sprayed us
with something. I'm not sure if was the Buchanan or the Berkeley and this is
maybe the only way I can get this info. I served on the Buchanan part of 1965
until Aug 1966. I appreciate anything you can do to help.
Vic Wihera
INTERESTING WEBSITE
Received from Rob Browning. An interesting website for reconnecting Navy
Veterans.
NOW ON THE BUCHANAN...
Moments
in the life of USS Buchanan (DDG-14), taken from the ship’s annual reports.
Thirty Six years ago... 1971
On 11 May, Commander Greff
was ordered to Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet Staff on
Temporary Additional Duty Orders for a period of about three weeks. Shortly
after he returned on 2 June the ship received notification of its shift from DESRON
15 to DESRON 31 which became effective on 15 June.
Thirty
years ago…1977
20
April, BUCHANAN departed Pearl Harbor and rejoined the transit task
group enroute Subic Bay, RP. The transit training exercises continued until the
evening of 23 April, when BUCHANAN went alongside USS SHASTA (AE 33)
for a night replenishment. Steam
pressure in the after engineering plant was lost while alongside, necessitating
an emergency breakaway. Difficulty was experienced in releasing the span wire
between the two ships, and it was cut by SHASTA deck personnel. Trailing
aft, the cable became wound around the port shaft, damaging the rope guard and
necessitation the locking of the shaft. Repeated attempts by Explosive
Ordinance Disposal (EOD) personnel for SHASTA were unsuccessful
in removing the cable at sea, resulting in BUCHANAN's being detached
from the task group for independent transit to Guam for repairs.
Twenty Five years ago…1982
Friends and family lined the
pier on March 23 as BUCHANAN moored to pier one, at the Naval Station,
32nd Street, San Diego, California for the first time in over six months.
Together again, fathers and husbands went ashore knowing that the next
thirty-nine days would be spent in BUCHANAN's homeport for upkeep.
Eighteen
years ago…1989
On 20 May, BUCHANAN was back on station in the North Arabian Sea and on 27 May the ship was enroute to the Persian Gulf for a port visit in the state of Bahrain. After her stay in Bahrain, BUCHANAN alternated assignments between northern AAW Picket Station and Earnest Will Missions (Merchant Escort Operations) in the Straits of Hormuz.
SEA STORY OF THE QUARTER
The Passing of a Great
Gray Lady
You could hardly tell ‘it’ had once been a ship. They were now
calling ‘it’ a target hulk, and it floated lifelessly in the water, with
rust chewing the hull, the decks, and whatever was left of the superstructure.
There was no sign of a living thing anywhere aboard.
But years ago, she was painted and polished. Back in those days,
she was a proud warship of the US Navy, a modern guided missile destroyer, USS
BUCHANAN (DDG-14). She was alive back then, with over 300 men constantly moving
and tending machinery that breathed life into the ship.
The men worked and sweated and laughed together. They ate meals
and watched movies and played card games and trained together.
And sometimes, they went to war.
Back when the ship was living and breathing, you could watch from
the bridge and see her forward gun mount train to starboard, elevate its barrel
a little, and fire off a round with a big KA-BOOM. Then you could hear that
distinctive PING of the brass shell casing ejected onto her deck. Back then,
the signal bridge was teeming with activity as Signalmen ran flags up and down
the halyards, and operated the searchlights that blinked out messages to other
ships in company. Now there was no movement on the signal bridge.
The pilothouse was also alive back then, crawling with OODs and
JOODs, lookouts, Quartermasters, Bos’ns Mates, helmsmen and others. I remember
taking the ship to station many times, with our forced draft blowers howling
that beautiful song that only they can scream while the ship is racing through
the water at 25 knots with spray coming up over the foc’sle on each downward
plunge of her bow. On the hulk now, nothing moved in the pilothouse.
Back in the old days in CIC, radarscopes and plotting boards were
lit up and alive with contacts, while Radarmen reported them and tracked the
contacts carefully. Back then the wardroom, down a couple of levels below CIC,
was alive with laughter at movies and comrades sharing their talk over meals
that were probably better than what many of us had ever had before, or since,
but about which we complained endlessly. Now the wardroom was silent and empty,
just as lifeless as the rest of the hulk. I could go through each of the other
spaces on the ship with similar stories, how the mess decks were humming and
alive before, but now were nothing. And how the firerooms and enginerooms were
vibrant back then, but now sat quiet and dead. But you get the idea.
While the hulk floated lifelessly, SH-60 LAMPS helos began firing
Hellfire missiles, and several struck the ship with great explosions. But the
ship kept floating! Then Harpoon missiles were fired from F-111 and P-3
aircraft, as well as from a surface ship, and again there were many hits and
explosions. But the ship kept floating! A laser-guided bomb scored a direct hit
with another massive explosion. But the ship kept floating! A
submarine-launched torpedo missed. The ship continued to float all night long
while those charged with sending her to the bottom pondered what to do next.
The next morning at first light, a team of Explosive Ordnance
Disposal personnel boarded the still-floating ship, and spent a couple of hours
placing charges in several spaces. It was now the 14th of June, 2000. It was no
longer the 13th, the day all the missiles and bombs started flying - the day
she was supposed to go down. Shortly after the EOD crew left the ship, there
were several more explosions, this time deep within her hull. Her bow settled
down into the water, lifting her stern up and well clear of the surface.
This hulk which had once been a sleek modern guided missile
destroyer held that position for a few seconds, so that you could clearly see
the 14 painted on her stern, now proudly matching the new day on
the calendar whose page had just turned. Knowing the time was now right, she
then slid gracefully beneath the waves.
[Editor’s
Note: The story’s title and many of the details describing the sinking came
from Robert J. Burnz, a retired Chief Missile Fire Control Technician who
witnessed the evolution and sent a most touching letter reporting it to the USS
BUCHANAN Association.]