50 Years Ago Today, Mullinnix Prepares for pending cruise to South America!

(Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood)

Fueling was completed on 29 January from YO-59. The following morning Mullinnix slipped out of Portsmouth, to begin preparations for steaming south to Naval Base, Port of Spain, Trinidad in accordance with COMDESLANT Movement Orders 2-59. After making the mandatory degaussing run to maximize safety, she anchored in ammunition anchorage FOGTROT with 30 fathoms of chain to starboard anchor, mud bottom at 1142. After on loading 288 hedgehog rockets and 6 Mark 32 Torpedoes, and having transferred off 60 3”/50 cal. VT non-frag projectiles and 240 3”/50 AP projectiles, Mullinnix got underway to D&S piers, Norfolk, Virginia.

Norfolk weather in early February can resemble the Yukon. The sky and sea were slate gray and slack, the sun burned cold in the cold clear sky, the NE wind the kind that can bite your noise. During these mornings the crew mustered in a foul mood, at foul weather parade.

To be continued…
Cheers,Woody

50 Years Ago Today, Mullinnix Heads to Ammunition Anchorage Fogtrot!

(Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood)

Midday on 9 January, Mullinnix headed to ammunition anchorage Foxtrot near Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth. She anchored in 6 fathoms of water, sand bottom, with 30 fathoms of chain to the starboard anchor. Once the off loading of 288 H/E Hedge Hogs and pyrotechnics was complete, she moored portside pier Four (4), berth 26, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia. Cold iron watch was set in all engineering spaces as Mullinnix was receiving all services from the pier. SOPA was COMCARDIV 6 (RADM G.W. Anderson) in USS Saratoga CVA-60 transferring later in the month to USS Essex CVS-9.

The rest of January saw Mullinnix and her crew engulfed in minor repairs, on loading equipment and stores, as well as crew training. Other than a quick pier change to Berth 1A, Pier 1 in Portsmouth on the 16th with the aid of US Navy tugs YTB 499 and YTB 502, Mullinnix kept busy in preparation for a lengthy assignment with the nation’s allies in South America.

Unfortunately for shipmate W.L. “Willy” Campbell, he would not be riding south on the Mux. Campbell was a mean bastard. Campbell hadn’t lost his ‘Na Yacker’ accent. Like when he’d say, “Fuggedaboutit!” (forget about it). He’d tell a story of when he was a kid growing up in New York City. “We all lived on Mean Street,” he boasted. “The farther down the street you’d go the meaner it got. And I lived in the last fuckin’ house!” He had a slight limp like a sailor who’d been in a bar brawl. Which he had - most of the time. Campbell’s training consisted of a temporary transfer to US Naval Retraining Command, Norfolk, Virginia, under guard, for 20 days of hard ‘training’.

On the midwatch of 17 January at 0300 Andy Weckbacher was once again the man of the hour as he was delivered on board by the Shore Patrol. First thing out of his mouth was, “What the fuck happened to Campbell?”

To be continued…
Cheers,Woody

50 Years Ago Today, Mullinnix Returns to D&S Piers - For Good!

(Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood)

The first visit to Norfolk hadn’t been long. This trip was one-way. They were indeed heading home.

Two days later with the morning sun flickering like a Zippo flame, she passed Cape Charles Light and commenced steering various courses at various speeds conforming to Thimble Shoals Channel regulations. At 1158 she passed Fort Wool abeam to port, distance 1200 yards. The crew could taste home port. Pilot Captain L.W. George aided maneuvering her alongside the pier. Mullinnix moored portside to fellow Forrest Sherman USS Bigelow DD-942 in a nest of four ships at Berth 206 Destroyer – Submarine piers (D&S), Norfolk. She rested out board off USS Shenandoah AD-26, USS NOA DD-841, and Bigelow. On 7 January, the nest grew to six as the USS Meredith DD-890 and USS Stribling DD-867 moored alongside to starboard.

The crew took full advantage of the days in home port as they were aware that the Mullinnix was soon to return to South America in early February. Some, took too much advantage, some like Seaman Andy Charles Weckbacher.

Weckbacher was the most unNavy-looking seafaring specimen who ever served in the Navy. He had grown up in tough working-class South Boston. Andy always contended his innocence but rumor had it he’d join the Navy to hide from the law. At 0217 the night of 8 January, the ship received a report Weckbacher was treated for face lacerations at the USS Sierra AD-18 (a destroyer tender that was in commission for 49 years!) for injuries received from an unknown assailant at the D&S gate #2. No one knew at the time, but this was just the beginning of a string of incidences that would track all the way to the southern hemisphere.
To be continued…

Cheers,
Woody

50 Years Ago Yesterday, Mullinnix Heads Back To Her Home Port - For Good!

(Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood)

The new Navy Year would not have been complete without the traditional AWOL shipmate. The Mullinnix’ first AWOL sailor to ring in the ship’s first full year of life was shipmate G. F. Pearl, declared AWOL at 0330 Hours, mustering in the year 1959.

This would be a string of firsts of course. Seaman Pearl was only following in the footsteps of the Mullinnix’ first AWOL shipmate – none other than Fireman John Gerald Budd, who was the first ever AWOL Mullinnix sailor at 0800 on 10 March 1958 – only 3 short days after the ship was in commission. One wonders if this is stage-setting of things to come?

In an article entitled ‘Roster of New and Converted Ships Joining The Navy’ in the February 1959 issue of All Hands Magazine, Mullinnix was the first ship listed under the ‘new ship’ listing. The new year found this new ship Mullinnix moored port side to pier 3 west, Boston Naval Shipyard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, using standard class mooring lines doubled, modified by additional 1 1/8” steel wires fore and aft. SOPA was CONCRUDIV 4 in USS Boston CAG-1. On 2 January, running under a split engineering plant with boilers 1B and 2A and generators 2 and 4 in service, she steamed for Norfolk, Virginia for a Tender Availability, in accordance with COMDESLANT Op Order 232359Z of December 1958. Grey and white snow clouds covered the sky as she slipped passed Cap Cod Light. As a chill wind hit them like a blast, the excitement started to build in the crew - they were headed back to home port.

The first visit to Norfolk hadn’t been long. This trip was one-way. They were indeed heading home.

To be continued…
Cheers,Woody

50 Years Ago, The Mullinnix First Traditional Rhyming Deck Log!

(Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood)

The tradition of rhyming midwatch (0000-0400 Hours) deck logs to ring in the new year are almost as old as the Navy itself. Though not official, this storied tradition is over-looked by command and will probably continue for years to come. The practice of keeping the deck log entry short, concise, articulate is replaced my holiday cheer and riming prose. The honor of composing the first on Mullinnix went to LTJG J. A. Sears, JR, USNR, who penned:

Moored here in Boston on a rather brisk night
Warmed by the quarterdeck Christmas trees’ light.
Port side to pier three using standard manila
My coat lined alpaca, or perhaps it’s chinchilla.
With rigged wire preventers of inch and one-eighth
We watch for the Atlas’ orbit in spath.
We have been here in Charlestown most of this year
And are currently on the west side of the pier.
Cold iron prevails in our hill quite impervious
With the shipyard providing the needed pier servious
Of telephone, power, steam, nuts and bolts,
A few BTU’s and a couple of volts.
Cold iron watches on roving patrols
In the Main engine spaces – The city clock tolls
The birth of another in a series of years
That move silently round like some well-oiled gears.
Material X-RAY is our current condition
And its absolute setting is no supposition
For it’s checked by security watches terrific,
Merrill-Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, and Smithic.
Ships present include some of CINCLANT’s best tricks,
The BOSTON, the WASP, and the Young Mullinnix,
McGOWAN and WADLEIGH, the Stephen DECATUR,
The shiny new EDSON who will cross the Equator.
There are TUGS from the District, YD’s from the Yard
But duty ashore can’t be nearly as hard
Or as interesting as it can be on a “CAN”
An all-purpose ship for a well rounded man.
SOPA is here in the hull of the Boston
He’s COMCRUDIV FOUR near a town I get lostin.

We have been in commission just under a year
And March ’59 makes our birthday quite near.
The commissioning program was something to boast
With grand Mrs. Mullinnix here from “The Coast”.
The Ensign was broken, the first watch was set,
Twas a day that none of us soon will forget.
An outfitting period quickly ensued
And the hull with new Ship-Alts was firmly subdued
By air hammers, chippers, and welders galore
But by May we survived and left Boston’s shore.
After training in GTMO, we went south with a stranger
An obscure little vessel known as the RANGER.
From Trinidad’s coastline we sailed for Brazil
And we drilled and we drilled and we drilled and we drilled.
Then the Shellbacks gave out with sadistic ingratitudes
As we left in our wake the Northern Horse Latitudes.
On to Rio, Bahia, and Reciffe too,
Where we welcomed the people, they welcomed our crew.
Our Tampico stop later proved one of the best
And when it was time to sail from the west
Back to Boston for overhaul, families, forsooth!
For a few dry martinis, light on vermouth.
With our second yard period a thing of thing past,
We have painted the ship from the keel to the mast.
As COMSOLANT Flagship we’ll soon be displayed
So it’s goodbye to bean-town and “Anchor’s Aweigh”.
Anapestic quadrameter couplets, Adieu!
To my whole duty section a Happy Year New.

To be continued…
Cheers,Woody