The Reeves when homeported out of Yokosuka, Japan from 1966 - 1968.
Departed Long Beach, CA, May 26, 1966. Assigned to Seventh Fleet for 720 days. During that time 493 days were underway and 312 days were in the Tonkin Gulf. Reeves steamed 162,000 miles during the deployment, consumed 12,272,000 gallons of fuel taken on during 158 unreps. So that’s 68% of the time underway and 43% of the time on Condition 3 watches with an unrep approximately every four days. During that time the Reeves rescued seven downed pilots, one boatload of refugees and received our first hostile fire. When we were on our way to the Gulf we'd stop in Subic for fuel, our bird (a Huey & crew), a van (a cargo container fitted with intelligence electronics and a crew of spooks) and two .50 caliber machine guns.
"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh - holystone the decks and scrape the cable."
Unknown
Daily Routine
While in the Gulf of Tonkin we were continuously on Condition III watch status. So we would have one missile battery manned, one missile house, one 3" 50 gun mount, CIC and Weapons control and ASW. Of course the underway bridge watch sections and the engineers were doing their part as they never get a break. The watches were in three sections and in addition to standing two four hour watches every day you were required to participate in ships work during the regular workday. If you had the mid watch it was 2345 hours to 0345 at your watch station, grab a few hours sleep, breakfast, quarters and "Commence ships work". Did you ever have a school of flying fish smack into the forward missile house and the ASROC launcher while you're standing quarters in the area? Happened. Early chow for lunch, relieve the watch at 1145. Weapons Control calls on the X43J sound powered circuit to let us know that Noon-time Charlie is on his way. OK, I'm ready. Designation received, radar locked on. Weapons Control, Radar 2, target has turned outbound. 1545 you're off watch and the evening is yours. What, did you forget the unrep? At 2000 you hear, "Set the Underway Replenishment Detail." As you are proceeding to your amidships station, on a cloudy moonless night, you discover that the 3" gun mount is trained inboard. &%$## that was a hard barrel. As we get in line behind USS Cimarron (AO-22), the 1MC relays the info that there are only two ships ahead of us for refueling. OK! If things go well, Reeves will start refueling in about three hours. 2300, we're almost done refueling. 2330, unrep is finished and midwatches are secured early so they can go down for mid-rats before relieving the watch. Now, all you have to do is repeat this for four weeks with some minor variations and you have our standard patrol period in the Gulf. FYI, it seems that Noon-time Charlie flew out of the Hai Phong airport almost every day. Tweren't nothing but a little Mig-17, couldn't do much harm.
Sampan Incident
During the afternoon, we were informed that an A-1 Skyraider pilot had observed a small boat loaded with Vietnamese out in the Gulf. As he made as pass on the boat, preparatory to blowing them out of his free fire zone, they were waving a white cloth at him! He notified the carrier about this incident and was told to stay in the area and keep and eye on the boat and the people. The A-1 had hours of loiter time an so he proceeded to start flying circles for the afternoon. While this was going on Reeves had been assigned to proceed north to pick up the people and investigate the boat. Speculation runs rampant about the hidden purpose of the mystery boat. Who are they, suicide troops with a bomb underneath the boat? Why would they take the risk of rowing out in the gulf when there planes out there shooting up boats all the time? The first A-1 is relieved by another A-1 and Reeves is steaming on.
After about six hours we reach the area where the boat is and all the landing party members and security guard force people draw weapons and ammo at the small arms lockers and the armory. So along the port side of the ship we have about 40 nervous men armed with Thompsons, M1s, BARs, 30 Cal machine guns, 50 cal machine guns, M60s etc. The helo crew broke out their weapons and the 3"-50 gun mount was manned. We were ready for those rotten suicide bombers or pirates or whatever! We were ready to turn that wooden terror craft into sawdust!The whaleboat is launched, and the brave crew motors out to inspect the wooden terror craft and the suicide bombers manning it! Undoubtedly the boat crew is taking the highest risk assignment of the evening. But, where is the danger coming from? Well, no shots were fired, no bomb was located, and the terror bombers were just terrorized refugees. After getting the four men a woman and her baby on the ship the wooden fishing boat was scuttled and the whaleboat retrieved. Then all the weapons and ammo were returned to storage, the regular Condition III watch was reset and most of the crew returned to the regular routine. The refugees were berthed in the forward anchor windless room and a helo from the carrier flew them out in the morning. No one on board could speak their language. It did give us something to talk about for a few days.
Fire at Sea!
Do you smell smoke? That was the question being asked in the passageway outside DC Central at about 2000. There was a distinct smell of smoke and it wasn't cigarettes. The staterooms, berthing compartments and offices in the area were quickly checked and the results were negative. The OOD had been notified while the checks were being made and GQ sounded shortly. We were about a day out of Subic on our way to the Gulf of Tonkin (where else?). The personnel manning the optical gun directors up on the 03 level aft of the after mack reported a hot deck. When the damage control party inspected the area they determined that the transmitter room for the aft 55B fire control radar was on fire.
The hose team popped the lock off the WTD but, when opened the heat was so intense that all they could do was spray water into the transmitter room. Since we only had one radar on each end this transmitter room only had half the equipment it was designed for and the other half was full of cardboard boxes with large expensive transmitter tubes and a lot of flammable packing material. This space was located over the three inch Ready Service Magazine and the proximity to that ammo caused some anxiety. About this time another opening that could be used to get water on the flames appeared. A portion of the aluminum overhead in the transmitter room melted and collapsed into the room. A hose was dropped into the opening with the nozzle open and some progress was now being made to get that fire under control.
After the fire was out the investigation started. All the ashes were sifted to try to find any remains of an incendiary device. To the best of my knowledge nothing suspicious was found. But, now Reeves was going on patrol at North SAR with only half of the missile batteries operational. Didn't seem like too bad a deal, the North Vietnamese had pretty well learned not to mess with Uncle Sam's canoe club. Of course we expected to get those regular visits from noon-time Charley. We didn't know what would happen if we didn't lock one of those radars on him. We did have problems with the #2 radar, of course we had problems with those radars all the time. But, the radar crew did manage to get the damn thing to track at noon and all was well.
A4 Rescue
Most of the pilot rescues were made well away from the ship and were kind of anonymous events. On this Saturday there was an A4 flying hot straight and normal through the bright blue sky above us. Looked pretty normal till he punched out! No radio traffic not even a "How do you do?" The sea was calm and the pilot hit the water less than half a mile from Reeves, so the whale boat was launched to make the pickup. This pilot had taken a 37 MM through the arm. His arm was only attached by a few strands of skin so he used his flight suit belt to make sure it didn't get misplaced during the rescue. He knew where Reeves would be so after the hit he just pointed the nose toward us and ejected when he thought he had achieved CPA. After the pickup our doctor stabilized the pilot, had his arm packed in ice and the Jolly Green came from the carrier to return the pilot to better medical care. He did write some letters to the ship expressing gratitude for saving his butt. There was nothing that could be done for the arm.
Combat Action
As these incidents go, ours wasn't much. Well, it wasn't much unless you were the downed pilot, a member of the helo crew or on the North Vietnamese gun crew. All of those people would tell you it was a hairy bit.
In the middle of the afternoon "Set the Helo Detail" rang out. There was a pilot down in-country and we were receiving his emergency transponder loud and clear. Reeves turned to launch the helo and commenced a run toward shore. There was a fuel problem, in that the helo might not have enough to make the return flight if things didn't go well on the rescue. Of course there were some people, on the beach, that intended to turn this into a disaster for the Reeves' helo crew. The helo is in-country, Reeves is running for the beach, our shotgun (USS Blue DD-744 with two twin 5"38 gun mounts) is spoiling for a little action and the downed pilot is wounded, out of his head and hiding. The decision is made to put a helo crewmember on the ground to search for the pilot and the helo will take evasive action to avoid the hostile machine gun fire. North Vietnamese search parties are in the area trying to find the pilot or the crewmember and taking shots at the helo when it passes by. The pilot is found, by the crewmember! Pilot is out of his head and thinks his rescuer is the enemy so he is resisting rescue. Simple solution, large crewmember subdues pilot. Helo returns, makes the personnel pickup, avoids getting shot out of the sky and bags ass for the beach.
Back on Reeves it is about 1600 and I've been relieved from watch and am up on deck getting a little fresh air when the Helo Detail is alerted that our bird is returning. I look up and see that Huey go past us at max knots. Hey, I thought he was low on fuel. What's going on? When a Huey is at max speed about 10 ft off the water, it is standing on its nose and that big rotor is pulling it through the air. Whumpp! Whummp! Huh? What is this Whumpp shit and what are those black clouds scattered around the vicinity of the helo and the Reeves? Then I realize, those bastards are shooting at us! About that time I see flame belching from those 5" on the Blue. Realizing that a dungaree shirt is not nearly enough body armor for this situation I head for my GQ station. The DD silences the gun battery, our helo returns to a safe landing, the pilot survives and the good guys have a minor victory. Medals are handed out and years later the entire crew receives the Combat Action Ribbon.
Noplace Really
On our way back to the USA we were going by way of Sydney, Australia; Christchurch, New Zealand and Pago Pago. Obviously, the shortest and most direct route. After we had initiated the "wogs" and received passage through the domain of King Neptune it was time for our scheduled fuel stop. If you check the charts, there aren't many gas stations down that way. We were told by an announcement over the 1MC that we were stopping at an Australian facility and we were not, repeat not, to fraternize with any of the natives. ??? The off watch sections were being allowed to go ashore and the Australian Navy had opened their club to us. Well, now that was a ray of sunshine! So some of us put on dress whites and booked passage on the liberty boat for an afternoon ashore at "noplace". The club was simple, unairconditioned, and quickly ran out of cold brews. But, if you were willing to partake of warm ale, that was available. The warm ale had the habit of spraying about half the can on the ceiling when opened. Well, some of us decided that this sitting and drinking was entirely too boring so they wanted to return to the ship. ??? When they arrived at the pier the ship's boat wasn't there waiting for them so, they contracted with the local natives for passage back to the ship. Do you readers remember that earlier part about the natives? Well, the first dugout sank! Everyone made it back to the pier, although a little damper. So, did the four scoundrels from Fox division take heed of the omen? No, they contracted for another boat! Well, that one made it back to the ship. And, who do you think greeted them upon their arrival? Do the initials XO mean anything to you? Well the XO remembered that 1MC announcement and secured their liberty for the five days we were in Sydney.
Returned to Long Beach, CA August 12, 1968
© 2007 USS Reeves Association. All rights reserved. Last update: 13.04.07