50 Yrs Ago Today, Mullinnix pulls into St. Raphael, France

Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood)
Mullinnix, like many ships, suffered her share of scrapes and bruises. Nothing can compare to her sister ship Decatur. Earlier, on 29 August, she suffered an engine room fire while docked in Naples, Italy. The fire was extinguished after two hours during which the ammunition stores were flooded as a precautionary measure. On 27 September, 1963, her sister-ship USS Barry DD-933 will accidentally discharge a torpedo into her deck house while moored alongside in Newport, Rhode Island. Fortunately, there were no injuries or significant damage. The following year on the 6th of May, she will collide with USS Lake Champlain CVS-39 in the Atlantic 150 miles east of Cape Henry, Virginia. Decatur will sustain heavy damage to its superstructure (both masts lost, the bridge & both stacks crushed), again there are no personnel injuries.

With the sky forked with lightning, the air pungent with the promise of rain, Mullinnix, in the company of USS Laffey, anchored at St. Raphael, France at 0816 on 28 October. Liberty call was announced for the ship’s crew. The weather continued to deteriorate throughout the day. Thick clouds turned the water a dark gray with only a few white flecks of foam here and there. Gulls flew low, wings kissing the water, their distorted shadows in a race they would never win. With the wind at 30 knots, the sea rolling, featureless, sheet metal gray, the Captain suspended all boating at 1850.

Orders were given to the engineering department to be on 10 minute standby for getting under way. Word was relayed to the shore patrol parties to order everyone back to their respective ships.

St. Raphael was a relatively small town that spread in broken fingers into the valleys and up the sides of low rolling hills, lush green broken occasionally with clusters of man-made structures lining narrow winding routes that passed for roads. Each cluster constituted a disjointed chain of bars, casinos, cafes, and brothels spread over a wide area causing unobserving sailors to stray far and wide.

They’d headed off to the nearest cluster. There, to overhaul the entire culture of the Navy and maybe even get laid, or at a minimum, drunk. The quartet were greeted by a quaint and tidy southern French village with arched stone bridges, standard French architecture, relatively friendly people and the proverbial sturdy gray stone church built by missionaries.

Hungry the four stopped in the first bar they spotted that served food. They ordered a couple dozen oysters and bottles of French wine – one each.

“Hey, is it true these things are an aphrodisiac?” asked Benson.

As a BM3, Benson’s dungarees should have identified him a working man. His didn’t. Pressed shirt, knife-crease in his pants, mirror shine on his boondockers. Ball cap fitted like a major league third baseman. Key chain on his left most belt loop with enough keys to open a car dealership. He had red hair and a narrow nose that ended abruptly above thin lips, all courtesy of his Irish ancestry.

“Not really,” answered is buddy, six-foot four-inch Sam “Stretch” McDonald. “I had a dozen in the last port and only 11 worked.” Waiting for some laughter and not getting any he added, “Old joke.”


To be continued...
Cheers,
Woody

50 Yrs Ago Today, Mullinnix replenished from USS Denebola AF-56; USS Altair AKS-32; and USS Canisteo AO-99

Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood)
The special sea detail was set at 0540 on the morning of 23 October. The early morning air was dry but crisp. Most of the crew had on their dungaree jackets. The wind whistled up the cuffs of their bell bottoms and suck their body warmth away like a witches’ thorax on a cold winter’s night. The sky was a striped fiery orange, and the clouds between were pink. First, Mullinnix set a replenishment course 090, speed 10 knots, to commence her approach to USS Denebola AF-56. Shortly after, at 0750, the 1MC trilled again, violent as the trajectory of a bullet, and the ship was alongside USS Altair AKS-32 to take on stores.

In 1959, USS Altair had received a helicopter-landing platform to enable her to carry out early vertical replenishment operations. She also received a complete material handling system, which included new elevators, forklifts, trucks, conveyor belts, and the first electronic accounting system to be placed aboard a ship. This greatly facilitated her task of keeping track of the more than 25,000 items in her general stores inventory.

By 0850, Mullinnix was taking on fuel from USS Canisteo AO-99. As she came along side, the white orb of sun suddenly disappeared behind the massive oiler’s superstructure. Following refueling, the ship proceeded to station SAU I in formation 6V1 to continue operational exercises with the fleet.

During fleet operations, the force steams in a variety of deceptive formations to ensure any detection system does not see the classic "bullseye" formation made famous in countless public affairs shots and never used in operations. At 0922, Mux commenced broad weaving and turn count masking – a practice where a multi-engine ship operates her main engines at different random RPMs to confuse an adversary as to its actual speed by controlling acoustic emissions.

Other deceptions and tactics included the use of sprint and drift tactics to vary the composite radiated noise signal level generated within a group of ships, blending into sea lanes, deceptive lighting at night (blacked out warship) to imply merchant or cruise liners instead of warships, use of surface search radars similar to ones used by commercial ships, and minimizing any kind of transmissions.

While commencing a zigzag plan and conducting ASW exercises, Mullinnix proceeded to investigate a Mad contact – a contact through magnetic-anomaly-detection. It was later identified as a local fishing trawler.

To be continued...
Cheers,
Woody

50 Yrs Ago Today, Mullinnix Departed Mitilini

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


Mullinnix departed Mitilini the morning of 20 October under clouds crackling with thunder that gave no rain. The crew felt that Mullinnix was moving, but at that moment it was as if the clouds were in motion and Mullinnix was still and waiting. A number of the crew took the motor whale boat to the USS Laffey to function as engineering drill observers. The party included ENS Max Downham, ENS Gary Smith, ENS Charles Garverick, SFP2 Taylor, DC1 Williams, EM3 Ross, BT2 Jacobs, MM1 Tansey and MM2 Alterio.

The engineering spaces of these older cans left something to be desired. Their smell was like a mix of salt and rot. The rust had freshly painted surfaces on the run. Williams, Jacobs, and Tansey knew what they were in for as all had served on older cans before being assigned to Mullinnix. The biggest trouble they saw wasn’t the Laffey, rather pulling duty with three ensigns. Ensigns – all were college jocks, most were arrogant, no work ethic nor people skills, and all lacked simple humility.

Ensigns Downham, Smith, and Garverick had troubles on their minds as well. Tin cans had always been insular places, protective of their traditions, virtually incestuous in their shipmate relationships and attitudes toward other sailors. Ensigns weren’t consider sailors – a tradition ensigns simply weren’t apart of and never would be.

However, they were the leaders of this little expectation. The problem they faced was with leading sailors. They never were quite sure if the enlisted men were following or chasing them.

Mullinnix, as with the other ships, continued to do her share to bring the good will of the American people to Europe. While conducting operations in the Aegean Sea, she received a message that a local man, E. E. Staypol, was seriously ill on Irakia Island and desperately needed transportation to a hospital in Athens. In a matter of minutes, the private affliction of one man became the concern of the entire ship’s company. As the Muxmen fired up the boilers, the temperature rose and the steam drove the dual shafts faster and faster, forcing the steel of the bow to knife through the water that lay between them and the stricken man. When Mullinnix arrived at the tiny fishing village of Ayios Kirikos, Commodore Kelly himself went ashore to supervise the removal of the man from the island to the ship.

Once aboard, the EOT rang full speed. As the ship sped towards Athens, Chief Hospital Corpsman Sumners administered treatment to ease the man’s suffering from his post-operative complications. Steaming all night at 25 knots on 1A and 2B boilers, Mullinnix entered the harbor of Athens at 0508. With the aid of civilian pilot Captain Ben, Mullinnix moored port side to Custom House pier in Kentrikos harbor, Piraeus. The rising sun made the water look like hammered copper. After delivering their patient to an awaiting ambulance, Mullinnix’ crew was underway at 0617, speeding back to fleet operations.

To be continued...
Cheers,
Woody