My ship, the USS Knapp DD-653 was also in Typhoon Cobra and picked up some of the survivors from the destroyers that capsized.
TheI was on the USS Saufley DD465 from MAY44 thru JULY46….. Was a Water Tender 3rd class and served in the forward fire room. Fire control is an all to often forgotten inovation, but the Fletchers had the first Navy computers that gave greater accuracy to gun control.I was a Communications Technician Operator in the early 1970s on the USS FORRESTAL and was exclusively a teletype/crypto operator. In the early 1970s the navy shifted over to a single fuel called DFM (Distillate Fuel Marine) that was much cleaner and could be burned in any type of plant aboard surface ships. Then he further blew my mind when he told me ISHERWOOD left her shore bombardment duties to go out and relieve the LAFFEY way up North on the radar picket line, the hotspot for the kami’s, and six days later SHE took her hit. That is, other than boilers. The Gearing design was a minor modification of the immediately preceding Allen M. Sumner class. I served aboard the Heermann till June of 1955 as GM2. Never talked much about it.. Told grandfather of shelling a gasoline tank with Jap machine gun on top killing Marines going ashore.
Caperton was recommissioned at Charleston SC in 1950. D type boilers were used on World War II built steam powered destroyer escorts and they became virtually universal on all conventional steam powered vessels that entered service after the war. They have air conditioned some spaces to allow sleep overs by scouts. To get from forward to aft or vice versa it was necessary to go up on the main deck.
He was eighteen years old from Philadelphia,PA.I served aboard the USS STOCKHAM DD683 homeported in NEWPORT, r.i. from April 1953 to June 6, 1956 as a Radioman P.O.
Essentially this provided two completely independent engineering plants. Henry “Hank” Vaughan, USNA ’40.
The machinery spaces were loaded with asbestos insulation. Dad was a Chief Boiler Tender from ’34-’54… Shaw, Cassin, other tin cans.Shaw was a Mahan Class destroyer that entered service in 1936. I was a Radioman (RM 3). The approach was by the “John Wayne” method consisting of a 25 knot approach, delivery of the weapon, and a high speed retreat.The surface to surface torpedo essentially disappeared from the post war fleet, although destroyer types were later fitted with anti-submarine homing torpedoes.After the war all 20 MM gun mounts were removed and the forward 40 MM mounts were replaced by a pair of ahead thrown anti-submarine projectile (Hedgehog) mounts. On the Fletchers it was necessary to go out into the weather but the Sumner and Gearing class ships were fitted with enclosed passages.I served on the Ammen DD527 (’59, ’60) and was also on it when it collided with the Collette in 1960. This 10 March 1942 plan, for a 2270-ton (standard displacement) ship, is a development of Scheme "B-II" of 30 September 1941, and was the basis for the DD-692 class design. The ship spent time in the Caribbean during the cold weather months in Norfolk. He described to me many practices on four piper destroyers that I still remember today, 2017. Hull: Destroyer IV We went back to our luxury liner. The Captain made a quick decision & order that we start are training right then & there.The reason being that we would do a better job at staying on course. She was a good ship…TNMy father was a fire controlman on the McCord.
Have to admit the enclosed passageway fore and aft was a big improvement on Sumner.
We were still all WW2 except for upgrades on electronics, no 20mm, and a tripod mast.
Shaw was scrapped in 1946. I was a Water Tender 3rd class in forward fire room….. We all took turns at the four functions and each of us “blew a safety valve” at least once when we could not shut oil valves fast enough (steam pressure over 615 pounds.)
I lament the fact there are not many of us WWII vets left! Finally they cleared the Suez canal and we were one of the first destroyers to go thru the Suez.I was a BT aboard a Fletcher class destroyer commissioned in 1941 as the USS Philip DD498 and sailed out of Pearl Harbor from 1965-1968. All valve stem packing was removed from each manual valve. as the tube or transistor crypto would have come some what later.. Was the ship to shore comms via manual morse or was it teletype?
The ship is currently on display in Buffalo, NY.
assignment aboard The U.S.S.