DD 27 DD 407 DLG/ CG 31 DDG 104 |
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DD 27 DD 407 DLG/ CG 31 DDG 104 |
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Last month the new Sterett was commissioned in Baltimore. Some 60 Shipmates from the Association were present. I know I had a great time both exploring Baltimore and reveling in the Commissioning Ceremonies. I’m sure some of us had more fun than others but the event was energizing for me personally.
Evan Mickel – Job well done!!!!!
Evan worked hard on the Commissioning Committee and contributed greatly to the Commissioning event. Not only did he coordinate the Association's needs but he also arranged for several special opportunities for the crew during their week in the Port of Baltimore. We all need to thank him all the work he did.
The Port and the City of Baltimore rolled out the red carpet for Sterett, making the Commissioning one of the highlights of the year. Residents, veterans and many active duty military attended the Commissioning. Offsite parking had to be coordinate with busses, bringing the throngs of attendees to the Pier. Seating on the pier spanned the length of the ship with a special area designated for the Sterett Association.
The Sterett
also shared the Pier with the USS Constellation. The Navy League and the
City arranged for this historical ship to join the celebration and berthed
it at the bow of Sterett. It was a real treat to have them both together.
The historical past and the ultra new, high technology of USS Sterett join
the history books with a salute from it’s roots, steeped in the tradition of
the world's greatest Navy.
We all had a great time. Constellation also seemed to enjoy the event, she even fired a round for effect.! Notice the cannon smoke over her bow sprit in the left photo below.
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I know John King has a wide
selection of pictures from some great vantage points like the one above to
cover the events of Commissioning Week. He has taken the time to consolidate
the best into a USS Sterett (DDG 104) Commissioning commemorative photobook.
I was a pleasure to all of you who attended and I look forward to the 2009 Reunion next September. Look for a Reunion Update later this Fall.
Regards,
Wayne McBrian
President, USS Sterett Association
The commissioning of the USS Sterett (DDG 104) was extremely successful. Even
the weather cooperated! A crowd of over 5,000 watched the Sterett "come alive"
once again.
The Chairman of the Sterett Commissioning Committee was originally told to
expect approximately 2,000 spectators. The President of Bath Iron Works, John
"Dugan" Shipway, who has attended many commissioning ceremonies was quoted as
saying, "this is Hollywood stuff."
Thanks to all of our Sterett Association members who supported this huge
undertaking. Your financial contributions, interest, and involvement ensured
the success of this historic event. The genuine goodwill exhibited between the
new Sterett crew and Association members helped solidify the bond between us.
For those who attended, we hope you have fond memories of the commissioning and
your time in Baltimore.
Your Association has one more request; please provide with feedback about the commissioning. Even if you did not physically attend the commissioning, did you find the commissioning blog useful? If you did attend; think about events you attended, accommodations, transportation, communications. What did you enjoy? Where could we have improved? Your Association will come up with some lessons learned in an effort to improve our future gatherings/reunion
You can contact Evan or any the other Association officers through their e-mail address listed on the 2007 Officers Page:
http://sterett.net/public/Assocofficers_07.htm
Captain Jack
A number of shipmates attended the services for Capt Jack Hilton at the Ft. Meyer Old Chapel on August 13, 2008, with interment at Arlington National Cemetery. Association past president John King spoke on behalf of Capt Jack's many shipmates, remembering his leadership and contributions to careers of those he led. He will be missed at our future reunions.
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This month marks the somber twenty fifth anniversary of the shoot down of the
civilian Korean Airlines Flight 007 by Soviet interceptors. This horrific act
took place in the early morning hours of September 1, 1983. The shoot down
resulted in the tragic loss of 273 passengers and fight crew and led to an
international crisis, both on the diplomatic front and on the high seas where
the US, in a cooperative effort with its regional allies Japan and South
Korea, rushed assets to an area in the northern Sea of Japan where the airliner
was believed have gone down. This was an area in international waters that
extended just outside the 12 mile territorial limit of the USSR – north of
Monoron Island to the west of Sakhalin.
The Soviets also immediately moved ships and aircraft into that area, as well as into sectors within their own territorial waters where the allied vessels were not allowed to search. Against the backdrop of the Cold War, the allied and Soviet search efforts were working at cross purposes. These operations had all makings of a tense showdown situation between the Superpowers with potential for disastrous consequences.
One of those assets ordered to the area was the US Seventh Fleet’s USS Sterett
(CG 31). Arriving on station September 14th, it became Flagship of the US
Search and Rescue/Salvage Task Force 71. Many Sterett Association shipmates who
served aboard CG 31 at this time will recall the days of this deployment as very
demanding ones – a balancing act which required taking many factors into
account and where rigorous adherence to procedures was paramount. It’s now
evident the crew's training paid off. They were able to keep their wits in
a very fluid situation, that came with several surprises and close calls.
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If you
want to read up on the “big picture" and details the overall KAL 007
incident, there are numerous sources of information available, including
books and other media and on-line. Many of the earlier controversies
have been cleared up following the collapse of the Soviet Union and with
the passage of twenty five years. Some questions still remain. Good
broad coverage and interesting details are available in the "open
source" Wikipedia entry on the KAL 007 topic:
Particularly relevant sections are: “The Soviet search and rescue missions", “Soviet harassment of U.S. search and rescue" and the “Crash Scene".
(To return to the newsletter after visiting a link, just click the "Close" (X) button in the upper right corner of your internet browser window) On the twentieth anniversary of the shoot down in 2003, The Discovery Channel produced an investigative documentary as part of its "Unsolved History" series. A DVD is available.
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Up Close and Personal
Shipmate and KAL 007 Ops vet
Tim Page relates: “During
the search and salvage operation, the OOD was instructed to adhere (obviously)
to the nautical rules of the road to the letter. We were shadowing the...salvage
ships that were towing the "drones" that had the equipment/cameras tethered to a
long cable and running a grid search. If they got off the grid, the search would
have to start over. The speed and direction was critical so the equipment would
not get tangled or caught on the bottom of the ocean. We (i.e. CG 31) would
steam right by those guys and keep the (what we called the “KGB boats")
Russians from impeding their search. We called them KGB boats because there was
always a civilian on the bridge wing in a long coat that looked like a KGB agent
(Note: the Wikipedia article also mentions that there were “KGB border guard
boats" deployed as part of Soviet operations.)
Tim recalls that those KGB’s would “..get right up in front of the US ships, cut their engines, and start drifting to get us to back off the search (or in a situation I remember) to alter our course. Tim remembers one close encounter: “We slipped by the Russian ship so close… “that the next day, one of the Boatswain mates went over the side to inspect for damage. You could literally step on onto the deck of the other ship!"
As most sailors know, normal search and rescue/salvage operations are challenging enough by themselves. They normally call for nearly full attention and focus on the search grid. Add to that the new dimension of unusual and dangerous harassment maneuvers that Task Force 71 now had to deal with. Topping it off, add the arrival of Soviet naval combatant ships on scene and threatening flyovers of Backfire bombers that had to be tracked attentively. It was clear the Sterett-led Task Force was in the soup with its hands full. A real busy situation, to say the least!
And then, there was the
attempted (and, in some cases, successful), “mooring cutting" tactics!
Sterett’s CO during the KAL
007 Search Ops, Capt. George Sullivan shares his recollection of what can be
called the “Sunday Afternoon Incident".
“First, we have to remember
that these were the days before GPS. We were restricted to operating outside
the 12 mile limit and usually tried to keep a mile or two buffer. At that
distance, navigation fixes were not very accurate particularly for the purpose
"scanning" the bottom to find the black boxes. You will remember the fleet tug
Narragansett and the CG Cutter Munro had side scanning sonar which they lowered
by cable from their fantails. (One also had a TV camera that would be lowered
when something looked promising on sonar.) The search and salvage ship
Conserver, also on station, had a 'pinger locator'. ('Black boxes' contain a
pinger that last 30 days.) As they were sweeping the area, an accurate plot
needed to be kept of what area they had covered."
“We hired three Japanese tugs and put them in a three point moor outside the 12
mile limit. Using triangulation off the three tugs, the scanning ships had an
accurate fix of where they were. The Soviets didn't like this, hence the
trawlers were sent out to cut these moorings. They were successful at least
twice that I can remember."
“There was one Sunday afternoon when we were sitting by one of the tugs and five
trawlers came down on us in a "Form 1" trying to take out the mooring of the tug
next to us. As the trawlers came in on us, we were continuously sounding 5
short blasts on the whistle. As I recall, and looking at the pictures, the
first two trawlers, with gear streaming, passed ahead of us. The third came in
very close but passed ahead. At this point, the tug master decided to slip his
mooring and haul out of there. The fourth trawler headed directly at us, and
turned just before he would have hit us, but he got the mooring anyway. I
ordered full astern at the last minute and just as I did he turned. I kept it
on for less than 30 seconds - it had little if any effect. The pictures I have
of this are quite definitive,"
“We tried to pick up the floating buoy and lines from cut mooring so we would
have some evidence of what they did but it drifted so fast we couldn't get to it
before it got inside the 12 mile limit."
Moving to Modern Day
Our thanks to Shipmate (Lt.) Aaron Houston who sent along a photo of the Republic of Korea flag cordon presented to Sterett for the ship’s role in the Recovery effort (displayed above). “This flag cordon was in the CG 31 wardroom before it was remodeled in 1993 at South West Marine in San Diego. We are reliably informed that the flag cordon is aboard the new USS Sterett and will be displayed in DDG 104’s “Heritage Passageway".
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Take a Look: Click on the link below to view a photo gallery covering some of the incidents described above and other pictures related to CG 31’s participation in the KAL 007 Ops. This link will be included and expanded in a new section on the website covering the topic as a source of pride and information on our ship heritage. As with other parts of the Association website, this section should be considered a “work in progress" so more shipmates can contribute additional items, fill in gaps, and tie up the loose ends. If you have anything to contribute on Sterett's role in the KAL 007 Search Operations. send a note along to: the web administrator at webmaster@sterett.net
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Thanks also go out to Eugene
Moosa-Mikami who tipped the Association last June about the upcoming 25th
Anniversary. Since the big focus at the time was on the August DDG 104
Commissioning, the anniversary might have passed unnoticed. Some KAL 007 ops
vets may recall Eugene, an AP Reporter, who came aboard via US Marine helo on
September 24th for a shipboard news conference. He had been covering
the shoot down, early on, from nearby port of Wakkanai in Northern Japan.
After covering this story on station with Sterett – his first byline aboard a US Navy ship - Eugene continued his career as a reporter and eventually filed many other stories from other ships of the Seventh Fleet. He sees his time aboard CG 31 in 1983, however, as his “Baptism of Fire" and now describes its role as “flagship of a small but brave flotilla in the hottest scene of the climax of the Cold War"
Eugene keeps his CG 31 Sterett ballcap. When we locate copies of his dispatches and photos, they will be posted in the new section on the website.
- Mike Garrity
September 15, 2008 PayPal Account Balance
Currency
Available Balance
U.S.
Dollar:
$3,408.55
September 15, 2008 Naval Federal Credit Union
Description Balance
Association
Checking
$2,501.04
Share
Savings $6,075.42
Total
$11,985.01
Final Tally of USS Sterett (DDG 104) Commissioning Donations
Members Donating Total donated
34 $8007.00
Special Request: We are trying to contact Michael Anthony JOHNSON, who was an SA on STERETT in Subic Bay in the 1983 timeframe. If any reader, knows his
whereabouts, please contact Dennis Dean at: dennis@dennis-dean.com
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Members in Good Standing - (as of September 15, 2008) |
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Total 162 |
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Blue shading indicates shipmate who served aboard WWII Sterett DD-407 |
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