The first ship I was stationed to. The CJTF/ME was hosted by her in the Persian Gulf. My office was 1 deck below the flight deck at the very rear of this picture. I stood watches up on the 04 level next to the signal house. She did not leave the pier often and usually only to keep everyone getting sea duty pay, but when she did the gulf turned busy. Iranian and Iraqi planes would push her limits and test us often, but when she went through the Straights was the only time the Iranian Silkworm Missile sites would stand down least they be viewed as threatening. We would still go through General Quarters while passing through but it was usually the calmest passing the Straights of all the ships I went through with. I was in the mess hall when the collision alarm went off just feet from the pier in Djibouti due to the ropes snapping as the tugs tried to pull her off the pier. I was enjoying some fresh baked cookies from the officers mess that Col. Benson never received. He had high blood pressure so it was for his own good :D I remember a deployment where her number 1 engine room caught fire and we lost 2 good men to the halon. But the memory i will have the longest outside of her crew and being a part of that family, is her vibration on cresting a wave. Being a flat bottomed ship gave her a mean vibration that would knock sailors out of their racks. I learned later when I was doing my Surface Warfare Qualifications, that it was the helmsmen causing that vibration by turning the helm all the way starboard into the peak of a wave, and then winging it back port just at the crest of the wave, making her keel vibrate deep and run the length of the ship. I also learned that if you do that, a Hull Punch is in your near future. :D
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 01:11:01 +0000
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