WOWSERS

My U.s. Naval experience
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In My Junior Year of High School, I joined the Naval Reserve unit in Portland,Or and served aboard the DE- Uss Mc Guinty once a month.That summer we made a 2 week Cruise to San Diego, Cal., and had a great time in Tijuana, Mexico. Great experience for a young empressionable kid. Guess it was the 1st time I got drunk on my ass :P
The day after H.S. graduation I left for boot camp in San Diego, Cal. Then was sent to Pearl Harbor to serve aboard the DD-468 USS Taylor, a Fletcher WWII class destroyer. I served active duty on this ship for almost 2 yrs.
http://portal.jointforcescommand.org/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/10007/History%20USS%20Tayor%20DD468.jpg[/img]This is the brief History of the USS Taylor.
http://portal.jointforcescommand.org/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/10007/Ready%20to%20deploy.jpg[/img]We are getting ready to deploy on our westpac tour I always liked this pic :D
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We deployed Feb 1966. After a brief stop at Midway for fuel and observing the goonie birds on the island. We continued on to Yokosuka,Japan and was observed continuously on our tour by the Russian plane called the Bear. We carried Ash cans,Torpodeos,and Hedghog mortors since we were basicaly a anti submarine warfare ship. We did shadow a Russian sub off the coast of Viet nam for a short period.
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We continued on to Yankee team off Viet Nam where we met up with the USS Yorktown Carrier, plus other ships, Cant remember the Other Carrier, for troop support fire power off the coast.

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Here we are grouping together with Yorktown and other ships.
http://portal.jointforcescommand.org/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/10007/Ready%20for%20action.jpg[/img]Getting ready for action with our 2 five inch guns, and our 3" anti aircraft guns.
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finally fired our first shots from the 5" guns, firing into the hills to give the ground troops fire support.
http://portal.jointforcescommand.org/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/10007/Fire%20support%20.jpg
We almost shot down our spotter plane in the pic, we heard that one of the 5" nose piece's on the projectile was set for air burst. I heard he was pretty pissed off, Nothing like almost getting shot down by a friendly.
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We pretty much continued shell bombardment around the clock, at one point pulling into Da Nang Harbor where the Heli's were transporting the wounded ground troops to the Hospital ship. We fired 500 5 inch rounds over the city of Da Nang into the hills. They never told us what we were firing at. At night we usualy met the supply ships and replenished, ammunitions, and other supplie's
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We finally got some breaks after being at General Quarters for a long time. We then left the area for a while for other assignments before returning for more action. A lot of our fire support was up and down the coast of viet Nam. Da Nang, Phu Bai, Chu Lai, clear up to the North.
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At this point we left for Taiwan where we patroled the Taiwan straits between Communist China, to protect Taiwan. We also had a great Liberty port in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
http://portal.jointforcescommand.org/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/10007/Party%20time.jpg
This was one helluva party in Taiwan, Lots of Gals, booz, and barfen. I just know I gotta be in this pic somewhere's, probably lying under a table someplace. I remember barfen at one point.
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At one point we conducted war excersizes off the philippine's with British, Austrailian, and New Zealand ships
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In July 1966 we finally returned to Pearl Harbor.I remember we were in Vietnam two different times during Feb 66 to July 66. My memory doesn' serve me very well at what exact time and where we were at specific times.
After returning to Pearl Harber, I transfered to the uss prairie a destroyer tender, rode it to San Diago and was eventually discharged to my old reserve unit in portland, Or. as a Petty Officer 3rd class.
We visited the following Liberty ports.Yokosuka, Japan Cheap booz 1.50 5th of wiskyDa Nang NamPhu Bai NamChu Lai NamKaohsiung, Taiwan My favoritKeelung, Taiwan Probably got too drunk to remember this port.Hong KongSasabo, JapanSubic Bay, PhillipinesBang Saen, Tailand Bangkok, Tailand Great city.
I copied all the photo's from my cruise book which they made up for us when we returned from westpac.