Hard Feelings: the USS Chicago CG-11 battles the USS Long Beach CGN-9
US Naval life at sea, PIRAZ duty, Shore Patrol, sea stories of the USS Chicago CG-11 in WESTPAC, with some attention to the USS Long Beach, 1972-1974
Navy
Marilyn and Gary’s Courtship
By Marilyn and Gary Pickens Arriving in the Bay Area Marilyn’s version: As a background to this story, I was living in San Francisco almost by accident. The Vietnam War had been going on for several years when I had applied for the job of U.S.O. Mobile Units secretary in San Francisco. It was May …
Yes! I Gave Blood Today!
I gave blood during the blood drive at work today, because I know that my type O blood is always appreciated. I try do this minor civic duty on a regular basis, so I went out and I gave a pint of blood when the blood van visited our company. This brought back many memories …
Loading Supplies
Replenishing supplies was always a big chore for the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11, or any other navy ship. There were several ways to do this. It could be done in port, either by using cranes or just by using simple manpower. Or it could be done at sea from a resupply ship. The Chicago could come …
Standing Radio Watch at Midnight
Radio Watch at midnight was, in my opinion, the worst watch of all on the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11. It was important, but boy, it was boring. Radio Watch only happened to me, and to the other members of the ON Division, when we were in port and the people who normally stood Radio Watch were …
Abandon Ship Drill
Abandon Ship was a very interesting drill, because we guys in the computer room would get to go outside. There were two phases to this drill. When I was a junior person in the division, I would go with my group to the exterior of the ship as fast as possible, and we would assemble …
Fire Drill
I don’t recall any fire drills while I was on the ship. I’m sure they had them, as fire was one of the greatest dangers of being on a warship. We had extensive training in bootcamp on extinguishing fires on a ship. We had numerous shipmates who could tell us about fires aboard ships. The …
Man Overboard Drill
I was never involved in one of these exercises, although we did have several people fall overboard while I was on the ship. The first thing to do was to throw the person a flotation device, and then report the event to the bridge. The bridge would immediately note the location and would report the …
Repel Boarders Drill
This was a problem for which we did a lot of drills. The purpose was to prevent an individual or a small group of people from coming aboard to sabotage the ship and its mission. As we practiced it, the intrusion could could be a single individual or a protest with hundreds of people. When …
Destroying Classified Information in the Incinerator
The computers I worked on printed a continuous log of the activities that the computer was monitoring. These logs were printed on teletype paper rolls several hundred feet long. Many times a day, we would have to remove the paper, date it, and put on a new roll. When things were really busy, we had …
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Driving from the Long Beach Naval Shipyard to the LAX Airport
The U.S.S.Chicago CG-11 had a ship’s vehicle, an old gray van. It was wrapped in a gray Navy canvas and was lashed to the side of the ship when we were at sea. The van provided the land transportation for the general needs of the ship when we were in port. Taking the ship’s vehicle …
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Escorting a Prisoner to the Brig
On one of my duty days in 1975 when the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11 was in port at North Island in San Diego Bay, I was assigned the task of escorting a prisoner from the ship’s brig (jail) to a larger brig run by the Marines at the San Diego Shipyard. I knew several days beforehand …
Guarding the Ship’s Brig
When I finally got my second class rating, it opened me up to many more responsible duties than I had previously been qualified to do. For example, as a Second Class Petty Officer, I could be a guard in the ship’s brig, the small jail for miscreants on the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11. One day my …
Guard Duty in the Snow at Mare Island, California
One of my first times to do guard duty was at the Naval Tactical Data Systems (NTDS) Command School on Mare Island in Vallejo, California, in the winter of 1971. I had the midnight watch, so I tried to get some sleep before going to my watch location. I always had the intention of going …
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Shore Patrol Duty in Olongapo in the Philippines
Shore Patrol duty was always something I dreaded when I was serving in the U.S. Navy. Sailors, after weeks at sea, would reach port with extra money in their pockets, and they would go ashore to do all sorts of activities—shopping, eating real food in restaurants instead of eating Navy chow in the ship’s galley, …
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Lowering the Colors for Navy Days in San Diego, California
Fleet Week, or Navy Days, as it was known locally at the time when I was serving in the Navy, has a long tradition in San Diego. The very first celebration of the prototype of Fleet Week, or Navy Days, was held in San Diego during the California International Exposition of 1935. This was a …
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Accommodation ladder (and whaleboat) watch
On the U.S.S. Chicago, there was a ship’s whaleboat, a small motorboat that was pointed at both ends (we carried several on the ship) which ran regularly between the Broadway Pier and our ship when we were in port in San Diego. We went down an “accommodation ladder,” which was a narrow flight of portable …
Whale boat
On one memorable occasion, one of my friends in the ON Division missed the first step on the ship’s accommodation ladder as he moved from the whaleboat to the Chicago on a particularly rough day, with a storm brewing. He ended up floundering in the water. In the rough waves, the whaleboat was sometimes high …
Commendation Letters to U.S.S. Chicago CG-11 in 1972
These letters commend the U.S.S. Chicago after the 1971-1972 WESTPAC deployment, which was my first cruise. This deployment was highlighted by the success of Operation Pocket Money and the mining of Haiphong Harbor. The original documents were posted in the officers’ wardroom. The text of each letter is copied from The Old Bluejacket website. http://oldbluejacket.com/chicago.htm …
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When the U.S. Navy Mined Haiphong Harbor (Operation Pocket Money)
WESTPAC TALES: When the U.S. Navy Mined Haiphong Harbor (Operation Pocket Money) by DS2 William Gary Pickens First, let me explain how I happened to be involved in this military action…. After I enlisted in the Navy (as an alternative to being drafted into the Army) during the Vietnam War, I was sent to Boot …
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My first (ghostly) adventure on the U.S.S. Chicago
WESTPAC TALES: One night in the wee dark hours of the morning sometime in the spring of 1972, when I was a brand new sailor, with a month or so of shipboard experience on the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11 under my belt, I was awakened by a call to GQ (General Quarters, or battle stations). I …
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Naval Boot Camp Adventures
March 16, 1970 — Day One On the day when my enlistment in the U.S. Navy officially started, my parents drove me to the Federal in Building in Denver Colorado. It was a bleak and snowy day, and we had to get up very early to get me to the building on time. I had …