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
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
posted by Frank A. Wood at 17:18
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