THE STORY OF THE MAGNETIC MINE THAT ESTEEM SWEPT IN 1956

Most of the histories of USS ESTEEM (MSO438) which appear on the worldwide web, in this site and others, include an item that ESTEEM was the first MSO to sweep an magnetic bottom mine. The date was August 8^{th 1956. I was serving as Engineer Officer at that time and was on the bridge when this event occurred.}

There were no overt hostilities in the world then and the fact that we swept a magnetic mine might make some future historian wonder what was going on. Hence, I add my two cents worth about how this came about.

The mine swept was an obsolete U.S. harbor defense mine. It resembled a huge hockey puck with a six-foot long magnetic sense coil rising out of the top lid, looking like a wheel axle. As I recall, it contained well over one ton of explosive, so was going to make a mighty blast when detonated.

The mine had been planted just off the shore of San Nicholas Island, some fifty miles off the coast of Ventura County, California in about fifty feet of water. The sweep exercise was part of some sort of test of the mine. It was well marked with a buoy.

ESTEEM streamed its magnetic tale, set the sweep controller in accordance with the pertinent mine parameters, fired up all three of the sweep generators, and brought all personnel up on deck for safety.

We paralleled the coastline and set a course to leave the mine to starboard, about 700 yards distant at the closest point of approach. We thought that we would have to make several runs before bringing the sweep gear close enough to the mine to detonate it. As a result, no one was prepared for the blast that occurred even before the ship reached its first CPA, let alone the magnetic tail. No cameras were at the ready and we had only our memories to share. We were far enough away that the shockwave was not severe and there was no damage to ESTEEM.

One thing was for sure - it was a good thing we started the exercise well away from the mine. We never learned what set it off so far away. One hoped that it wasn’t our own magnetism. It seems likely that the mine was set to be far more sensitive than it was supposed to have been and the sweep program was putting out too much power. It gave us a small indication of just how risky going against a hostile magnetic minefield would have been. Thankfully, we never had to find out.

Now about the mine emblem on the bridge: At that time, ESTEEM and GALLANT were engaged in a friendly rivalry which included the occasional practical joke. We painted a mine on the side of the bridge as a "gotcha" for the benefit of the good folks on GALLANT. It was never considered to be a real combat badge. But apparently the painted mine stayed with the ship and now is part of its history. The emblem can be seen just forward of the "E" in the 1957 aerial photo of the ship shown on this website.

Stan Cochran

Joseph "Joe" Fink

On January 22, 1970 I began my Navy career in Company 057 in "boot camp" in San Diego Ca. After boot camp, I was sent to Basic Electronic School also located in San Diego. Upon completion of basic school, I was transferred to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay for ET "A-School" and "C-School". When I finally completed the courses there in August 1971, I received my orders to report aboard MSO-438, the USS Esteem located at Long Beach, Ca. The ship had just completed an extensive renovation. It had also just been re-commissioned. Most of the time spent at sea was taken up by checking out all of the newly installed equipment to make sure all worked, as it should. Other times, we just stayed in the Pier 9 neighborhood at Long Beach. On September 8, 1972 we received official word that the ship was changing homeports to Honolulu, HI to be a part of the Reserve Training fleet. We were informed that one-half of the crew would be a part of the nucleus crew and the other half would be placed elsewhere. I was selected to be part of the nucleus crew that would be training the Naval Reserves of Hawaii. We headed out for Hawaii September 1972 all by ourselves. We were told that this was the first time a Minesweeper ever made such a voyage by itself. The day after we left Long Beach, three LST's left San Diego. They caught up to us, re-fueled us underway, and they proceeded to Hawaii. They arrived a day before we did. The trip from Long Beach to Hawaii was great. We did just the daily routine and there was no pressure on anybody. The weather was ideal. We knew that when we arrived in Hawaii that half of the guys on board would be going to be leaving, so we just took it easy. While the ship was in Hawaii, I became the leading ET on board. Since we had no regular Radarman for our nucleus crew, I was the ‘acting’ leading Radarman in CIC while we were underway. Most of the training we did was on one weekend a month and we would steam up and down the west side of Oahu. During the two week training in the summer, we would travel in such a way that on the weekend we would pull into port in either Kauai or the big Island of Hawaii. In January of 1974 we received word that we were going to Viet Nam for Operation End Sweep. Instead of using the Reserves in Hawaii, it was decided to get active crewmembers from the minesweepers stationed on the East coast to fill out the ship’s crew. In February of 1973, we were joined with our fellow sailors and headed for Guam. We spent a few weeks there and then off to the Philippines and Subic Bay Harbor. We spent 42 days in Subic Bay then had a few days R & R in Taiwan and then on to Vietnam. When we arrived in Haiphong, our mission was to plot the mines in the harbor once we were told to start. After about 30 days we were given orders to return to Subic Bay. On the way back, we encountered a Typhoon that had us bouncing around for about three days. After that was over, we encountered some engine problems and required a fleet tug to tow us so we could keep up with the other ships. Something happened that our rudder suddenly turned hard to one side and in doing so, caused extensive damage to the ship. We were being towed via our anchor chain and it broke loose and we lost all of our chain to the ocean. We recovered as best we could and were able to get back underway on our own power. When we arrived in Subic, our ship looked like we were in an attack. After a couple weeks in Subic Bay for repairs, we were on our way back to Guam and we arrived back Hawaii around the end of August 1973. In mid 1975 we received word that the USS Esteem was going to change homeports again. This time it was supposed to go to Seattle Washington. Since I had less than 6 months left to my enlistment and I did not want to re-enlist, I was allowed an ‘early out’. So on September 1, 1975, I departed the USS Esteem after 4 years, to go back to Philadelphia for discharge. As I departed the ship, the Quarterdeck watch rendered me honors by ringing the ship’s bell and announcing "Fink Departing". During the time I spent on board I saw a complete change of crew, and I went through 3 ship’s captains. During my time on board I advanced from ETN3 to ETN2 and I received the National Defense Service Medal, the Good Conduct Award, and the Navy Achievement Medal. After I received my Honorable Discharge from the "regular" Navy, I did join a local reserve detachment of Sea Bees for two more years. During this time, I was advanced to ET1 and I was put in charge of training records for the unit. After two years I finally decided I have had enough.

At home, I worked for a small electronics company for two years that manufactured emergency lighting systems and burglar alarms. After that I worked for AMP Inc for 22 years as a machine controls designer and a manufacturing engineer. After a takeover of the company by Tyco Electronics, my services along with 4000 other employees were no longer necessary and I was left go. I now am currently working as a project manager for the Square D Company in their local field office close to my home. I have been married since 1970 to my wife Juneen and have two daughters and one granddaughter.

ET1 Joe Fink