Home away.....

[Ray]

from home for two years, two months, and eleven days.

Inport-Chile.jpg

U.N.I.T.A.S. '88

Talcahuano, Chile October 1988.

This coming 10 December, will be 30 years since I said goodbye to her forever.

[Ray]

How she looked at homeport......

homeport-mayport.jpg

[Pitchy]

Nice pictures Ray, thanks for your service.

[crs]

Reminds me of "join the navy and see the world".

One of my best hunting friends grew up in a Dallas suburb and had never been anywhere or on water larger than local lakes to fish and water ski. So right out of high school he joined the navy hoping to see the South Pacific.

He spent his entire tour teaching water skiing and small boat operation at a navy recreational facility on nearby Lake Texoma!!

[daisygordoninc]

Thank you Ray for serving and thanks for the pictures. God Bless You

[Blaine]

Destroyer?

[Ray]

Destroyer?

Knox class fast frigate.

USS W.S. Sims

a.k.a. : "mighty fine ten fifty nine"....."silly willy".....

They called them (Knox Class) Macnamara's folly when the shipyard contracts were signed. Latest technology... dual forced air, 1200psi high temp. boilers but just a single screw. Made no sense.

The Sims was patrolling-off Beirut in 1983 when the Marine peacekeepers were being evacuated and came under rocket and mortar fire. The new york times reported...."The USS Sims FF-1059 fired a 21 round salvo from it's 5" cannon and the guns of Beirut fell silent !"

That was her day in the sun....everything went downhill from there......

I was on her for med. cruise '87 and unitas '88 and several drug interception l.e.o. ops.

decommissioned in '91 and sold to turkey for parts and scrap in '99....

[wecsoger]

Thank you for your service.

Me, I did the Air Force. Our bases tend to not move around so much. (grin)

[OldWin]

Thank you for your service, Ray. Time flies, doesn't it?

[earlmck]

Sounds like you have some good memories of your time with the white hats Ray. I also spent a couple years on a gray floaty thing (USS Bon Homme Richard), left mine a bit over 50 years ago. In that era we saw the port of Subic Bay and the world of Olongapo. And 45 to 60 days later we got to see it again. And again and again.

I didn't have any bad times but it wasn't fun enough to generate much nostalgia a half century later. But it sounds like you got to see a fair bit of world; if it was my call every American kid would go off on some such adventure.

And don't these stupid navigational collision "accidents" make you wonder what happened to our old U.S. Navy? Mind boggling: I think we are well out of it.

[draperjojo]

Was there a Commander Tom Moore on that ship?

[Ray]

Was there a Commander Tom Moore on that ship?

From the decommissioning brochure list of COs....

Thomas J. Moore Feb. '73 to July '74.

[Beaker]

Reminds me of "join the navy and see the world".

One of my best hunting friends grew up in a Dallas suburb and had never been anywhere or on water larger than local lakes to fish and water ski. So right out of high school he joined the navy hoping to see the South Pacific.

He spent his entire tour teaching water skiing and small boat operation at a navy recreational facility on nearby Lake Texoma!!

I don't know why but I find this really funny! Interesting how the military works sometimes.

[Larkbill]

The Navy is well know for their penchant for putting square pegs in round holes.

In the Big War my Dad was a Signalman but had been turned down by the Air Corp because of his extreme color blindness. In their defense he ended up there because once he got on the ship they found out he knew how to run a sewing machine (6 sisters) and already could send and receive Morse faster than the captain's personal Signalman. He and his brother wanted a ham radio but couldn't afford one so they built their own telegraph between the house and barn. Spent hours having discussions in Morse. A lot of their ship to ship was by signal lights. Only problem was someone else had to pin the flag pieces together for him to sew because if they let him do it the flags were not very useful.

I joined the Navy to see the world and ended up serving over three years in Albany, Ga. Closest I came to sea duty was crossing the Ohio River on Ford's ferry at Cave-In-Rock, Illinois. Twice.

[hfcable]

Sounds like you have some good memories of your time with the white hats Ray. I also spent a couple years on a gray floaty thing (USS Bon Homme Richard), left mine a bit over 50 years ago. In that era we saw the port of Subic Bay and the world of Olongapo. And 45 to 60 days later we got to see it again. And again and again.

I didn't have any bad times but it wasn't fun enough to generate much nostalgia a half century later. But it sounds like you got to see a fair bit of world; if it was my call every American kid would go off on some such adventure.

And don't these stupid navigational collision "accidents" make you wonder what happened to our old U.S. Navy? Mind boggling: I think we are well out of it.

my first cousin, charles clayton, was a fireman ? on the Bon Homme Richard in the late 60s prob 67-69? was in the far east’ , i think, road out a typhoon, which he thought would sink her etc.... might have been there when you were

[earlmck]

my first cousin, charles clayton, was a fireman ? on the Bon Homme Richard in the late 60s prob 67-69? was in the far east’ , i think, road out a typhoon, which he thought would sink her etc.... might have been there when you were

Yep -- we'd have overlapped: I was on '66 - '68. I remember the typhoon fondly. They closed all topside access but I watched from up in the island as waves broke over the bow and splooshed back nearly to the island. If you think of how a carrier is constructed you realize that is quite a sploosh! I don't think it worried anybody: we were all immortal then.
The Bon Homme was one of the WestPac carriers that circled around out in the Gulf of Tonkin running air ops 12 on 12 off for months at a time bombing those North Vietnamese targets that McNamara would allow. We got the occasional Olongapo break to restock supplies and allow the boys to let off steam. And other things.

[hfcable]

i haven’t talked to him in years - but will,ask him more about this—- neat

i am too much a loaner - [ havent seen any relative in 30 years]

smalll world indeed