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
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
posted by Frank A. Wood at 22:47
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