Sea
Stories
Sea
Stories
James K. Roberts RM1 56-57
I stepped out of the radio shack on my way below deck to turn in for some much needed sleep. The night was dreamlike. We were on our way to Dingalyn Bay in the Philippines for a mock invasion with ninety other ships. Our mission was to sweep the area: anchor in the day and imitate PT boats at night trying to sneak up on the big boys and blow them out of the water with our searchlight. A full moon hung in a clear sky with patchy clouds that resembled cotton balls. The sea was glassy with a gentle swell. As I landed at the bottom of the ladder, I heard laughter coming from the fantail and decided to check it out. Lights out was about two hours before and I was somewhat relieved to find some of the guys still awake. Doc, Pinky, Denny and Mac were on the wooden deck playing mumbly peg. Doc had provided some refreshment from denatured alcohol he had saved when sterilizing his medical instruments. That mixed with some powdered lemon aide made a sort of a screwed up screwdriver. Well it wasn't long until Robbie had joined in the festivities. The only thing I really remember before hitting the sack was that we were playing mumbly peg by throwing the bosun's knife between our fingers on the wooden deck. Strangely, none of us got cut. But we were sure a more sober bunch the next morning. The skipper never knew anything about the whole affair. In retrospect I am a very thankful ex-swabby for the grace of God that watched over me during my young and foolish years.
Bill Senteney (officially Charles W.) ST3 USS Warbler 56-58
--- I just recalled in incident. We were doing sweeping exercises in moderate seas. The 1st cl. BM must have had a bad hair day--it seemed that he couldn't do anything right. His name was Roach. The Capt., who was about as caustic a person as you'll ever meet, with a twisted sense of humor that must have been genetic because nobody could develop one that way, called down for the cook to bring up two uncooked eggs in the shell. The cook did so, then Capt. Morgan called down for Roach to come to the bridge (I was on the bridge.) Roach appeared, the Capt. told him to hold out his hands, then put one egg in each hand, and told him to hold those eggs, one in each hand, for the rest of the day until the sweeping exercise was over--if he couldn't use his hands he was less likely to mess up! -- Just one insight into some of the methods of the less modern Navy.
Two memories that I would like to share at this time more stories later such as...when Captain Paul tried to clear the Bridge with the Carbine...another time. We were on Market Time Operations near Da Nang, and was ordered to find down planes and a helo. One day we located with sonar a downed medi-vac helo, it had been missing for 13 days, the EOD diver's went down, and recovered the body of the pilot. Not a pleasant smell or sight. We took the body to Da Nang, no one wanted it we finally delivered it to one of the hospital ships. The other story... we were dead in the water (DIW) off the coast of Taiwan. We lost all power, and was transferring raw fuel to the day tanks to have electrical power. To make things worse we were in the middle of a Typhoon, bouncing all over, drifting toward China. After the distress signals being sent out... the USS Schofield (FFG 3) came the next morning to take us in tow. I found on a web site a remembrance from a BM on the Schofield.
"However, I think the most unique experience was the rescue of the USS Warbler (MSO something or other) in typhoon conditions off the coast of Taiwan.. She was DIW and xferring fuel to her generators in buckets just to keep the radios and lights up. We shot the mouth of the harbor at 27 knots to compensate for the storm setting us down on shoals. Then it was max speed into the storm and rigging for towing at the same time. I rigged that tow and can tell you it was one of the hardest and best performances of my career. We took Warbler astern, made the turn South and handed her off to a Fleet Tug the next day.. Naturally, the storm had passed by then and the Fleet Tug couldn't see what the big deal was all about..
We also lost some good liberty !! "Neil D. Hamilton (BMC Ret) USS Schofield (FFG 3)
Paul Wamsley, Denver, CO BM2 USS Warbler 67-72 , send us some stories...
Paul Wamsley, Denver, CO
We were out on patrol one afternoon, had the watch up on the bridge, when Capt V. B Paul sent down for the gunners mate to bring up the M1 Carbine, he wanted to do some target shooting. Well the Gunner brought it up; the Capt had his fun shooting at boxes and an oil drum, doing all of his shooting out of the storm windows that was open. Most everybody stayed out of the way. Not much happening, until the Capt was getting ready to put the gun away, but somehow the gun went off with the Capt holding it, the bullet went right through the awning top ricochet off the aluminum frame. Needless to say everybody except me jumped off the bridge on to the signal bridge. The XO LT C. J. Day, was the first one off the bridge, you should have seen his face. No one got hurt, but I think the skipper scared the hell out of everyone.