i have been posting my sea tales in a number of Facebook groups that were not directly related to amphibious ships, mostly destroyers. As i was posting this account of my experience in the Amphib Navy. I pretty much covered the waterfront in my 22-plus years of active sea duty. i do not wish to offend anyone. So, if you do not like these posts in mostly destroye FB groups, please let me know and i will desist.
Anchorage had been underway from Numazu for a couple of hours when we received a radio message from the chain of command. It directed us, rather than going to Vung Tau, to stop in Okinawa at the Navy’s base on White Beach. Studying the message, we decided they must want us to unload some of the equipment that couldn’t possibly be used in the evacuation of Vietnam, with the code name (Hah!) “Frequent Wind.”
We arrived in just over two days pulling into the pier mid-morning. After we had tied up, two Marine colonels came aboard and were escorted to the Captain’s cabin. Shortly afterward, the petty officer of the watch passed the word on the 1MC, “First Lieutenant, report to the Captain’s Cabin.”
I climbed the ladders to the Captain’s Cabin and entered. CDR Aldana introduced me to the two Marine colonels. One was from CINCPACFLT to observe all that was happening. The other was the Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) Commander. He was a thin man of medium height with the marine buzzcut, a pencil thin mustache with a swagger stick by his side.
He immediately dashed my hopes of an offload. He wanted to add more. I was flabbergasted. “Where?” i thought, This is crazy.” i looked toward CDR Aldana. It has been a long time, but I don’t think he actually said anything to me, but from his head nods and gestures toward me, i knew he was giving me the okay to go head to head with the MAU commander.
“Colonel, sir,” I began, “We are overloaded now. Our flight deck is jammed with flood light trailers and medical vehicles. Our ramps are not designed to carry equipment, but ours from the main deck to the mezzanine deck and the mezzanine deck to the well deck are full.”
“The colonel was unfazed, “We have to load this equipment! We must maintain unit integrity.”
My argument was not going well. I said, “But sir, I understand the need to keep the MAU and its equipment together, but you can’t possibly use all the trucks that are loaded with heavy weather gear in an evacuation in a tropical climate. You certainly know more about your MAU than I do. I do not understand why you need 24 tanks to conduct an evacuation.”
I felt like I was not going to win this battle. Then, I received some help from an unexpected source. The colonel from CINCPACFLT, fortunately senior to the MAU Commander, prodded the swagger stick colonel and said, “You know he’s right, John. We can bring everything back here and reestablish the MAU’s integrity when the evacuation is over.”
Swagger Stick got a dejected look. He conceded and told me (and the CO) to offload the heavy weather gear trucks and about half of the tanks. I was elated.
Of course, that ended up being a 22-hour offload. The ramps were clear, but the flight deck was still crammed with vehicles. As soon as we finished the offload, we got underway around 1600. I breathed a sigh of relief.
But within four hours of heading south in the Philippine Sea, we received yet another radio message. We were return to coast of Okinawa where a CH-46 helicopter would land on our flight deck and be carried to the evacuation.
We were back to scrambling as we reversed course, moving equipment, heavy equipment in the open sea, not the most comforting event to encounter at sea. The ramps which once held the M54 trucks with heavy weather gear now had medical vehicles and flood light trailers, secured with the greatest jury rig of tie downs one might imagine.
But we cleared the flight deck proper even though there was equipment stacked right up to the demarcation line for the actual helo landing spot. As we tied down the last vehicle, we received a message from the helo. I donned my safety vest and flight quarters helmet. I was now the Air Officer, but more of a safety observer as my Landing Signalman Enlisted (LSE) did the tough job of directing the landing of the CH-46 on a small spot on a rolling LSD in the open sea.
Success. We once again headed south. We should have had time to get to Vung Tau and distribute our load amongst the other amphibs before the evacuation.
Of course, there was another monkey wrench thrown into the works. A typhoon was developing in the South China Sea. The Navy weather guessers erring on the side of caution did not want the Anchorage to get caught in the storm. We were ordered to go east of the Philippine Islands and wind through the islands The Anchorage turned west before Samar, passing north of Panay and Mindoro and sliding up the west coast of Luzon into the US Naval Base at Subic Bay.
When we arrived in Subic, we were informed we had to wait a bit longer after the typhoon had cleared as there were sailors flying in from the states and would ride us to Vung Tau for transfer to their next duty stations. So our delay was extended again.
We went across the South China Sea with an Speed of Advance (SOA) faster than normal, attempting to get there before the evacuation started. But the delays kept us from our goal. Frequent Wind began on April 29 and began in earnest April 30. We arrived in the early morning, Thursday, May 1 and went to our assigned anchorage.
Our problem was the entire Task Force 76 was engaged with the extreme volume of helicopters and small craft bringing out refugees, both American embassy folks from Saigon and others using every means of escape.
We were hogtied. The Anchorage was so full of vehicles we were stymied. We could not take on evacuees. This may have been a good thing in that our captain was more concerned about security than helping the refugees. He had devised a plan to put all of the evacuees in the well deck in essentially tents and manning the wing walls with fire hoses in case problems arose.
I wanted so much to be involved in the evacuation but was glad we would not take on any evacuees with those plans. We launched our LCM8s to assist in helping the refugees find a Navy ship that could accomodate them.
No, my job was to watch.
Listed below are the Navy ships/commands involved in Operation Frequent Wind and the subsequent recovery of refugees fleeing their country.
Task Force 76
USS Blue Ridge (command ship)
USS Oklahoma City (Seventh Fleet flagship)
Task Group 76.4 (Movement Transport Group Alpha)
USS Okinawa
USS Vancouver
USS Thomaston
USS Peoria
Task Group 76.5 (Movement Transport Group Bravo)
USS Dubuque
USS Durham
USS Frederick
Task Group 76.9 (Movement Transport Group Charlie)
USS Anchorage
USS Denver
USS Duluth
USS Mobile
Other ships joining the task force :
USS: Hancock
USS Midway
Note: Each carrier was carrying Marine, and Air Force (eight 21st Special Operations Squadron CH-53s and two 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron HH-53s[12]) helicopters.
Other Amphibious ships:
USS Mount Vernon
USS Barbour County
USS Tuscaloosa
A guided missile frigate:
USS Worden
Eight destroyer types for naval gunfire, escort, and area defense:
USS Richard B. Anderson
USS Cochrane
USS Kirk
USS Gurke
USS Rowan
USS Cook
USS Bausell
The USS Enterprise and USS Coral Sea carrier attack groups of Task Force 77 in the South China Sea provided air cover while Task Force 73 ensured logistic support.
The Marine evacuation contingent, the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade (Task Group 79.1), consisted of three Battalion Landing Teams (BLT); 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines (2/4), 1st Battalion 9th Marines (1/9), 3rd Battalion 9th Marines (3/9) and three helicopter squadrons HMH-462, HMH-463, HMM-165 along with other support units from Marine Aircraft Group 39 (MAG-39).
Task Force elements came from Wikipedia
