Shipmate Gary Piercy and I recently discovered that we have the classic “small world” situation. His son, Brady, was a member of my daughter Katie’s high school class. In addition they knew one another well and hung out with a group of mutual friends. But it continues — Katie is now a school teacher on Oahu where Brady also now lives and works as a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines and they continue to hang out and bar hop with...

During the yard overhaul in Richmond, CA in 1967 the officers were initially left on-board until cutting and welding torches began to shower their quarters with sparks and smoke. On one occasion I was taking a shower and suddenly had more sparks then water showering me. Capt Bailey then went to bat for us and after considerable back and forth with the repair people both locally and in Washington he was able to get per diem orders cut to enable...

The JC went to Yokuska, Japan on the way home in 1966 because the Captain (Fred Bailey) learned that she had never made a port call in Japan. He then requested a shipyard availability in Yokosuka which was granted. But as the ship approached Yokosuka he tabled all of the work orders so the crew could enjoy some R&R in Japan after a hard deployment.  It also turned out to be a favorite liberty port for the Captain. He, the officers and...

During a semi-official wardroom farewell party for LCDR Fisher on 15 July 1966 in a hotel in Da Nang a bomb was detonated in a hotel immediately across the street on the same floor and facing the room the party was in. All except Capt Fisher immediately returned to the ship and thereafter there was no liberty in Da Nang. Dennis Hager

About a third of the cargo being transported into Chu Lai in 1966 consisted of palletized beer. This beer had by now become very important to morale and was subject to significant pilfering. Because of this a senior USMC officer now usually met and supervised the offloading at Chu Lai. The first time Jerome delivered a load the USMC officer counted every pallet and discovered we were short one pallet (about 80 cases of beer) and severely berated...