This one has puzzled me for years. If I remember correctly we were heading for the Med. and playing ASW games along the way. Somewhere out in the mid atlantic we picked up a sonar contact and we followed it for miles. Sonar declared it to be a submarine. Sonar was trying to make contact with the sub but the sub refused to ID itself. The Captain asked for permission to drop depth charges on the sub. We received permission and proceeded to drop depth charges.

Did we hit or sink a sub? you may ask. Not exactly. The sub turned out to be a ridgeline and the return sonar signal off the ridge pinged just like a sub. We tracked the ridgeline and it moved just like a sub would. So much for our antiquated sonar at the time.

Comment fron David Fay:
I recall something that may tie into incident 1. I do not recall the year but we were in the Atlantic off the coast of Georgia and picked up an unidentified sonar contact, later confirmed to be a submarine. we (and another vessel) tracked it for hours, trying to make contact via underwater Gertrude voice system, but could not get through. finally, an old WWII U.S. sub surfaced, one we had given to the Turks if I remember correctly, and its crew was very surprised to see us. They claimed they had no idea any other ships were in the area.
Another time the LT and another 242 can made contact in the same area or a little further south and followed it for two days. It refused to answer Gertrude communications and granades, not depth charges, were dropped in an effort to force it to the surface. at the same time, there was some international incident the Navy had to answer to and the entire task group was turned around and spent weeks off the canadian coast. we never did determine the identity of the second sub - if indeed, with the sonars we had in those days, there was a second sub.

c) Does anyone remember this incident and could clarify the incident?

Incident 2:

I was manning the radarscope in CIC at the time of this incident. It happened on the 12 to 4 am watch. If I remember correctly, LTJG Vollmer was the OD at the time. We were in a screen pattern on the starboard side of the Wasp out approximately 2000 yards. The Wasp gave orders for a new screen pattern to form and we left to station on the port side of the Wasp. Mr. Vollmer must have thought we had plenty of space between the carrier and ourselves as he tried to go to the next station in front of the Wasp. Evidently not a good idea. As we were taking station the Wasp came into the green grass area of the radar scope. I cranked the scopes range in as close as it would go. When the Wasp went into that green area the object is less than 300 yards away from the ship. At this point I left the console and went out of CIC onto the deck. All I seen was the Wasp off to our side heading at some place ahead of us and we were cutting across its direct path. I remember that I doubted that we would make it. All of a sudden the LT went into emergency backdown as the ship started to shake due to the sudden change. I don't recall if we changed directions at that time but I do recall the heavy shaking of the ship.

QUESTIONS:
a) Does anyone remember this incident?

b) Was it Mr. Vollmer who had the con at the time of the incident?

c) If it was Mr. Vollmer, I am sure Mr. Vollmer got reemed out by the Captain but, was he brought up on charges or anything like that? For what its worth, myself and other crew members always considered Mr. Vollmer one of the "good guys." Besides the tongue lashing and verbal abuse from the other officers, I hope that was as far as it went.

Comment fron Charlie Sauer:
I was the port lookout. I remember the word being passed on the Wasp to prepare for collision with a destroyer (guess which one). I could make out the faces of guys on the Wasp. I was scared, along with most of the bridge crew. Remember the Wasp sank the Hobson some years earlier. I remember the Wasps' anchor over us. When I visited the Intrepid (Tin Can Sailors are admitted free) I thought about that night, the bow hanging over us. I think Mr. Chapman had the conn. The Capt. freaked out, flew out of his sea cabin.

Incident 3:

While we were off the coast of Culebra and we were unloading our ammunition on the island, we fired our torpedoes from midships, 5 in all. One went out and sank before it hit its target. Another one turned around and started heading back towards the ship. I remember the concern until the torpedo either stopped working or ran out of fuel. Whatever, it sank.

QUESTIONS:
a) Anyone remember this incident? Like to comment?

Comment fron Charlie Sauer:
I remember the target was a huge rock painted white. The fish came back at the ship alright. I was on one of the old 40mm mounts just aft of the bridge by the #1 stack. If my memory is true, it ran astern and sank. None hit, right? **** IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY - NONE HIT THE SHIP OR THE TARGET :-).**** Ralph

Didn't we sink a lifeboat from the Texas Tower? That was another wild night. We just came on watch when the tower went over. We heard the last message.
Funniest sight on the LT was Mr. Cefalu shooting a Thompson submachine gun (Shake Rattle & Roll) when we fired off all the small arms ammo. I stuck to my favorite, the M1. My favorite officers were the Skipper and Mr. Dobbs, which sounds like a TV show.
Charlie

Incident 4:

(The paragraph below was taken off another web site - I can tell you it did not happen while I was on board. We did get the stanchons flattened on the bow on one cruise and I believe the Keppler had a forward gun mount knocked loose during the same cruise. On a different cruise I do recall a depth charge breaking loose from its rack and it rolled back and forth for a day or two because the seas were too rough for people to go back and secure the dislodged unit.)

Another unofficial story tells of the Hurricane the Lloyd Thomas weathered in the fall of 1959, which split open a crack in the after engine room, bent both 5 inch gun mounts, destroyed the depth charge racks, and bent the starboard screw shaft. Went into drydock for repairs, I believe it was Brooklyn Navy Yard as I remember. One of the deck guys on the bridge told me estimated wave height was 55 feet average!! We ate nothing but sandwiches and cool aid for 5 days. Everyone on board thought we were going down.

(We were in dry dock 3 times during my time on board:

• Once to repair minor damage caused by Hurricane Donna while tied up in Newport.
• Went into Brooklyn Navy Yard to repair damage from colliding with the Norris while hi-lining.
• Went into Brooklyn Navy Yard for FRAM II.)

(Concerning this above statement, there were a couple of occasions when we hit bad storms and I thought we were going down. I remember on several occasions when I placed my rack at a 45 degree angle and slept in the croch formed between the bulkhead and the bunk to prevent being throw out onto the deck during a bad roll. Loved those 2" thick mattresses. And they wonder why people didn't re-enlist...)

(When I came on board some of the crew members mentioned the flooding of the aft steering compartment during an exercise and they stayed out to sea with the compartment flooded - before my time on board)

QUESTIONS:
a) Anyone remember this incident? Like to comment?

COMMENT from Wilbur E. Lee:
I spent 3 years in the after engine room and do not recall ever having a split in either port or starboard hull...I do recall while being Miked off Newport RI during a storm that we were supplying the Norris with Aux. steam and electric power because their power plant was down for repairs, that when we pulled away from them (because of the severity of the storm) their anchor caught the port side of the ship and tore a hole several feet long in the rear sleeping quarters. This was just under the rear depth charge rack. The Norris was tied to the mike as I recall and we were tied to the Norris feeding them power...The storm became so severe that we were headed into the onslaught and running about 10 or so knots while tied to the Norris just to maintain our position....When word came that we were going to cut loose from the Norris we tried to unbolt the steam line and also properly disconnect the power cable but the seas were so rough that we had to cut ( at least the steam line with a fire axe). I do not remember how we disconnected the elect. power cable. When all was cut loose the storm kept the ship pushed up against the Norris and as we turned to get away from the Norris their anchor caught the rear portion (sleeping quarters) of the ship and tore open a rather large gash

COMMENT from Joe Slimak:
IN REF TO YOUR QUESTION: THE DEPTH CHARGE INCIDENT. I DO REMEMBER THE INCIDENT BUT NOT THE TIME FRAME. AS IT WAS ONE OF THE K-GUN DEPTH CHARGES. I REMEMBER IT WELL AS IT WAS ROLLING BACK AND FORTH OVER MY BUNK, PORT SIDE, AFTER COMPARTMENT.
IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN, IT EVENTUALLY ROLLED AFT AND DAMAGED THE AIR VENT FOR AFTER STEERING AND FLOODED IT. WE HAD A BUCKET BRIGADE TO THE AFTER HEAD WHILE THEY STEERED MANUALLY IN ALMOST WAIST DEEP WATER. IT TOOK SEVERAL HOURS BEFORE THEY COULD GO OUT ON DECK AND SEAL THE VENT. I'M NOT SURE IF THAT WAS THE STORM IN WHICH WE DID GET A CRACK IN THE HULL, MAIN ENGINE ROOM, IN WHICH WE WENT INTO A FLOATING DRY-DOCK IN MELVILLE FOR REPAIRS.
I'M NOT SURE IF THAT WAS THE STORM THAT CAUSED THE FORWARD 5" MOUNT TO SPIN INTO IT'S STOPS OR NOT. WE HAD RUN INTO A COUPLE OF REAL GOOD ONES OFF THE GRAND BANKS OF NEW FOUNDLAND. I CAN REMEMBER WATCHING THE BOW OF THE WASP GOING UNDER SOME WAVES AND THINKING THAT HER FLIGHT DECK WAS 65' ABOVE THE WATER LINE. HOW THE HELL BIG ARE THE WAVES THEN?
AND YES, IN REFERENCE TO THE COMMODORES HAT, WE DID HAVE TO PAY FOR IT OR THE CREW WAS TO BE RESTRICTED TO THE SHIP WHEN WE GOT INTO PORT. IT WAS WORTH IT THOUGH.
JOE SLIMAK
PS. THE FIGHTS BETWEEN THE CREW OF THE WASP AND DESTROYER MEN WAS IN THE SUMMER OF 58 IN GITMO. REMEMBER IT WELL. MET THE LT IN GITMO, JULY OF 58 AND SHE HAD A ROUGH CREW.

Question from Mark Crosbie:
Does anyone remember? On the first WesPac cruise "69-70, we were up and down the firing line and we got a mission to deliver a small Austrailian Special Forces group "Up River" where many believe a destroyer should never go. Shipmates remember the mission but the date or especially the "Name" of the river goes unanswerd and I need the info badly.
So far the decklogs archive has not proved helpful, probably because of the wrong dates.
Thanks guys and smooth sailings.
You can contact Mark at cros99@comcast.net