In the late 1960s, one of the movies making the rounds in shipboard wardrooms and mess decks was a comedy titled If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. It told the story of a group of Americans vacationing in Europe; the movie’s title suggested the confusing pace of the trip.
Ten years ago, in January 1988, artist Bill Phillips and I visited the Persian Gulf in a whirlwind journey. The Naval Historical Center in Washington had gathered the two of us to document Operation Earnest Will, a convoy escort program then in progress during the war between Iran and Iraq. In three weeks, Bill and I visited ten ships. The title of our journey might have been “If it’s Tuesday, this must be the Midway."
The two-man idea was great, because I soon discovered that Bill was as amiable a traveling companion as he was a skilled artist. While I was conducting tape-recorded interviews, Bill was making pencil sketches and taking hundreds of pictures. The purpose was to document history, in both words and pictures, as it was being made. Along with the items that made it onto the sketch pad and tape cassettes, Bill and I recorded a kaleidoscope of mental images. There is space here to share only a few of the highlights.
Several months earlier, the guided-missile frigate Stark (FFG-31) had been badly damaged by Iraqi missiles. A few of the men with whom I talked had been either crew members of the Stark or had been involved in the damage- control effort that saved the ship. I recall talking with a communications technician who told me he was still having nightmares and flashbacks about that horrific night of fire and death.
Why would the Navy send him back to the Persian Gulf, of all places? “I’m a Farsi language specialist,” he answered. “Where else could they send me?”
On board the LaSalle (AGF-3) was Rear Admiral Bernie Bemsen, Commander Middle East Force. As we talked, he showed fatigue from being rousted many nights by reports of Iraqi aircraft on tanker-attack profiles. When he took the command, Middle East Force was a backwater outfit. Now, months later, it was the hottest spot in the Navy.
Captain Rich Genet was skipper of the cruiser Sterett (CG-31), part of the antiair protection in the Persian Gulf. He warned of the difficulty of sorting out combat aircraft from civilian airliners. His prophecy came true six months later when the Vincennes (CG-49) shot down an Iranian Airbus full of passengers.
Logistic support came from the combat stores ship White Plains (AFS-4), which Bill Phillips and I rode to the Gulf of Oman. One night, as we were going through the Strait of Hormuz and mindful of the range envelope for Iranian Silkworm missiles, I woke with a start. Shipboard noise I can sleep with, but now the ship was completely quiet because she’d lost all power. I went to the bridge, where I saw the rest of our convoy steaming away; no sense sitting around to keep company with a sitting duck. The restoration of power definitely brought a sense of relief.
In the Gulf of Oman we visited the destroyer tender Cape Cod (AD-43), which was providing maintenance and repairs to the Earnest Will escort ships. Ten years ago, seeing women on board Navy ships was still a remarkable phenomenon. But on our visit, women made up 15-20% of the tender’s overall crew and half the wardroom. The ship’s executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Deborah Gemes, left no doubt about her sentiments. A sign in her cabin read, “A woman’s place is in command.”
Two major combatants were in the Gulf of Oman, available to provide support to the convoys as they passed within range of the Silkworms. Captain Larry Seaquist welcomed us to the battleship Iowa (BB-62). On his head was a white baseball cap, evidently from an electrical cooperative in the state. It said simply “Iowa Power” and seemed to sum up the ship as well. At dusk one day, the Iowa had a “steel-beach picnic” on the fantail. Along with the cookout, the crew members got beer, having spent 45 consecutive days without liberty. Planes from the Midway took turns attacking a target sled astern of the Iowa. It was a Kodak moment.
In the Midway, nearly as old as the Iowa, were plenty of creature comforts added long after the ship was built. Included were around-the-clock closed- circuit television and a walk-in ship’s store filled with the latest in electronic gadgets. Quite a contrast to the minesweeper Conquest (MSO-488), which we had visited in the Persian Gulf. There the ship’s store had been a small opening at the bottom of a vent trunk. The proprietor sat on a turned-over wastebasket and sold candy bars and canned sodas— when they were in stock.
Whether on board battleship, carrier, cruiser, or minesweeper, the attitudes of the people we met were the same. Crew members were feeling good about themselves and their ships. For a change, they weren’t just training; they were performing a real mission. The outpouring of cards and letters from back home told them that their countrymen appreciated what they were doing.