The captain ordered me to send a message: “India, Delta Kelo Alfa,” international Morse code for “Surface on an easterly course.” After what seemed like an eternity, the captain ordered the gunnery officer, who was right next to me, to send the same message. ![]() Then he attempted to fool us by lying still. The sub made some initial evasive maneuvers, but we were on him. Since my GQ station was the sonar shack, I didn’t move but stayed glued to my post. General quarters was sounded, and the ship began closing on the target. The procedure when contact is established is to immediately report loud and clear into the sound-powered phones, regardless of traffic, “Sonar contact,” giving the bearing and range. We were carefully trained in how to decipher different contacts-whales, shipwrecks, schools of fish. Scanning my sector, I picked up a sonar contact. One night on the mid-watch things got hot. ![]() I had replaced an officer in this position, and when I asked the officer how I could stand in for him, he answered, “Who could this ship better afford to lose, a petty officer or a division officer?” While we cleaned and checked our weapons, updated lists were posted, and I found myself assigned to the landing party as the machine-gun squad leader. Sal reminded us strongly what he had told us.Īll combat ships have lists of landing and boarding parties, which are usually just formalities until something serious occurs. During his speech our ship was taking up station on the line. Stand by to hear from the Commander in Chief.” Then we heard President Kennedy make the announcement the whole country was hearing: The Soviets were building missile bases in Cuba capable of launching nuclear strikes against the United States, and we were going to respond by turning back all ships carrying military equipment to the island. Stand by to hear from the captain.” We were stunned, but more amazing is what he said. Then one day the word was passed: “Now hear this. Because of the number of ships involved, it took all night.Ĭontrary to what you see in movies, the skipper never spoke to us over the public-address system on our ship. An unusual thing about this “exercise” was we refueled after dark and under “darken ship” conditions-which was dangerous. The division officer explained it as the ships that would be trying to break our screen. ![]() We were steaming “condition III”-men at battle stations-and were told that submarines and surface ships would try to penetrate our screen during this “exercise.” Sal continued to insist that something was up: too many brass were at sea at one time.Īt quarters on the main deck next to the forward five-inch mount one morning the weather broke slightly, and Sal spied something on the horizon. The weather was bad as we met several troop transports off Moorehead City, North Carolina. Within a couple of days we were under way with Task Group Alfa, led by the carrier USS Randolph. Instead we believed this was a large exercise, as we’d been told. One of the guys in our division was sure something big was happening, but Sal tended to be an alarmist, so we paid him little attention. ![]() There was activity all over the base, and ships began loading stores, ammunition, and fuel around the clock. Suddenly all leaves and liberties were canceled. Our duty was antisubmarine warfare training in the Cape Hatteras area, which meant we were out two weeks and in two weeks. In October 1962 I was a sonarman on board the destroyer USS Waller, home-ported in Norfolk, Virginia.
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