As If We Had Never Been There

Five months of destroyer duty in the Gulf of Tonkin on the Preble (inset) included everything from supporting the Oklahoma City as its six-inch guns tore into Quang Tri Province to daring rescues of downed avia­tors. But peace ultimately hushed the guns in Vietnam and left the crew with little more than vivid memories.

The USS Preble (DLG-15, now DDG-46) sailed into the combat zone off Quang Tri Province, northern South Vietnam, on the night of 22 August 1972, for what was to become her fifth and final combat tour of the Vietnam War. Immediately upon her arrival she was or­dered to a holding station near the USS Oklahoma City (CLG-5) behind the line of ships on the gunline.

It was a moonless night, and the sea was surprisingly calm for monsoon season. Occasional flashes of light and the muffled rumble of gunfire came from the beach a few miles away to the west. The low whine of forced draft blowers feeding air to the boilers in the firerooms below and the quiet lapping of the chop against the hull were the only other sounds. Despite the occasional sound from the guns ashore, it seemed like a peaceful night so far from home.

Suddenly, the blast of naval gunfire from the six-inch guns of the Oklahoma City shattered the quiet. Fire from five-inch guns mounted on the tins cans in the vicinity joined the chorus of her salvos. Seconds later, the flashes of shells exploding on the shore had the effect of giant orange strobe lights. Several secondary explosions lit the beach, and many fires started. Hulks of enemy trucks and tanks burned brightly beneath the twisted and shattered trees lining the shore.

For many on board the Preble, this was their first taste of true combat. That sight of instant destruction in break­ing the siege of Quang Tri City was not soon forgotten.

Picket Ship Duty

Upon completion of this gunfire support mission, the

Preble was assigned to cover both the southern and mid search-and-rescue stations off the coast of southern North Vietnam. The third station, located not far from Haiphong Harbor, would be the responsibility of another ship. The Preble would have to cover the area around Vinh south­ward to the Demilitarized Zone that separated North and South Vietnam. In the first two weeks of this first line period, the ship and her crew completed the task. The Preble was the first and only ship to do so throughout the entire Vietnam War.¹

She was ideally suited for combat search and rescue and antiair warfare picket duties. Her electronics, sensory, and communications gear consisted of: three-dimensional air search, and air and surface search radars; Navy tactical data system; tactical air navigation; and a platform on her fantail large enough to handle the specially modified Si­korsky SH-3 Sea King helicopter, affectionately called “Big Mother.” Her Terrier/Standard ER missile battery and five-inch, 54-caliber rapid-fire automatic gun mount were also capable of handling air or surface threats.

The Preble was a veteran of search-and-rescue duty. In September 1965 during her first Vietnam combat deploy­ment, she participated in the war’s first overland rescue of a downed aviator from a sea-based helicopter.² During her third cruise to the Tonkin Gulf in 1968, Lieutenant Clyde E. Lassen’s Kaman UH-2A Seasprite helicopter was em­barked on board the Preble. Shortly after midnight on 19 June, he and his crew took off on a heroic mission to rescue a downed Navy F-4 Phantom crew some 20 miles south of Hanoi. Lassen later received the Medal of Honor for his daring night mission, flown against intense enemy ground fire.³

On 23 August, the Preble was relieved of her mid search-and-rescue duties. She sailed south to take station off the coast near Dong Hoi, North Vietnam. Earlier that year, on 19 April, this was the scene of the Battle of Dong Hoi Gulf. While the USS Higbee (DD-806) conducted shore bombardment, a MiG dropped a bomb on her aft twin five-inch, 38-caliber gun mount, wounding four sail­ors. During the engagement the USS Sterett (DLG-31) downed a MiG with her Terrier missiles and sank two attacking enemy gunboats.

The first two weeks of search-and-rescue duty was monotonous for most of the crew as the ship patrolled her

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box pattern near the little rock island of Hon Gio. The only real excitement was walking on the bulkheads during the Typhoon Elsie evasion. The departure and arrival of “Big Mother,” or more important, the arrival of the “Log Helo” bearing letters and care packages from home, were welcome respites.

The situation was far different for those in the opera­tions department. They worked long shifts in the cool darkness of the combat information center, staring in­tensely into their radar scopes as they controlled the Air

Force and Navy Alpha Strikes and their protective anti- MiG combat air patrols in our area.

Laredo 16 Is Down

Activity began picking up in mid-September, as the car­riers arrived back at Yankee Station after the typhoon eva­sion. On 13 September, the Preble picked up an emer­gency beeper from an A-7 Corsair oft the USS Saratoga (CVA-60). It had been shot down by enemy aircraft. The

Pilots from a downed Air Force F-4 Phantom (below) discuss how the Preble crew executed their rescue with the ship’s CO and XO. The SH-3 Sea King helicopter “Big Mother” (right) searched for and rescued both personnel and mail. Opposite, on 24 January 1973, the recently signed cease-fire agreement meant little to the crew, who did not think twice about returning fire. Far right, the same day, an enemy shell “ventilated” the commodore’s cabin on board the Preble.

Preble's operations people quickly vectored our shotgun destroyer, the USS Wiltsie (DD-716), which was closer, in for a quick and successful rescue operation.

The weather on the morning of 16 September was rainy and turned to overcast as the day progressed. Moderate winds had whipped the Gulf waters into a choppy state. During our “nooner” at around 1240 hours, an Air Force F-4 Phantom, Laredo 16, took enemy ground fire while making an attack near Dong Hoi. The pilot and his back- seater were fortunate in getting their damaged bird feet- wet over the Gulf near the Preble before having to bailout.

The ship’s lookouts spotted their point of impact, in spite of the heavy seas. The Preble and the Wiltsie poured on the steam racing to the rescue. In the meantime, two Marine Corps AH-1 Sea Cobra helicopter gunships showed up for close-in support. When the Preble arrived moments later, the now soggy aviators were under the watchful, circling choppers, acting as angry hornets pro­tecting their nest. Disregarding the rough seas, the Preble dispatched her motor whaleboat and quickly picked up the happy and lucky pilots. They were on board, safe and sound, within 25 minutes of hitting the water.⁵

Finally relieved of southern search-and-rescue duties on 19 September, the Preble arrived at Subic Bay Naval Base, Philippines, two days later. While the ship was in port and the crew enjoyed liberty in nearby Olongopo City, President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law.⁶ This made for some interesting time off for the crew, with armed guards at the entrance to every bar, sort of like leaving one combat zone for another.

Planeguard for Sara

The ship departed Subic Bay on 1 October and headed back to the Tonkin Gulf. As she crossed the South China Sea, word came about the tragic accident on board the cruiser USS Newport News (CA-148). The center eight- inch gun of her “B” turret had exploded while she was bombarding North Vietnam. Twenty sailors eventually died and nine were wounded in the explosion.⁷

The crew was in a solemn mood as the Preble entered once again the troubled waters of the Tonkin Gulf. The ship soon took up position as planeguard (rescue) de­stroyer astern of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CVA- 60) on Yankee Station. For the next two weeks the Preble fell into the rhythms of the Sara as she went through her cyclic operations in which both ships ran up to full speed, the Preble following in the Sara's wake, while the carrier launched or retrieved her aircraft. An hour or so of slow maneuvering followed, while the planes performed their strike missions over the beach in North Vietnam. The ships then ran back up to speed and did it all over again.

During a night launch operation, the Sara passed word back to the Preble that a man had been blown overboard by a jet blast. The ship immediately slowed, and all avail­able hands manned the rails, peering out into the darkness, scanning the seas intently for the lost sailor. After several minutes of fruitless searching, the Sara indicated that her

crewman, although badly shaken, had been found in the safety nets below the flight deck. That deck hand had been fortunate. Even with a hundred pair of eyes searching in­tently into the dark of night, it would have been extremely difficult to spot something the size of a man floating on the vastness of the Tonkin Gulf.

The Saratoga departed Yankee Station for shore leave in Singapore, and on 15 October the Preble headed back closer to shore to resume South-search-and-rescue/antiair

warfare picket duties. No one was happier than the boiler- men in the firerooms below decks. The sustained runs at full speed had required all four of the ship’s boilers to be on line. The firerooms, each with two boilers, were hot enough with just one lit-off but became intensely so with both fired up.

A Rendezvous with Rice Bags ______________

The men up in the combat information center were very busy for the final two weeks of our second line period, as we once again steamed our box patrol near Dong Hoi. They directed numerous Air Force and Navy strikes. They issued several MiG warnings while controlling MiG-CAP fighter patrols. “Big Mother” was dispatched twice to the area near Tiger Island to provide surveillance assistance when high-interest electronic support measure signals were intercepted in that vicinity.⁸

The crew awoke one morning to look out over a sea turned brown, the surface being covered by thousands of brown rice bags floating in the early morning sun. This was our first direct evidence of the effectiveness that “Op­eration Pocket Money,” the mining of North Vietnam’s major ports and rivers in May 1972,⁹ was having on the enemy. Since the communist freighters could no longer use the North’s ports and unload their cargoes with impu­nity, they were now attempting to float the desperately needed food stuffs into the enemy on the tides.

Carbines were issued from the small arms locker and sharpshooters on board began “holing” the rice bags so that the sea water could ruin the rice or sink the bags. It was a shame to waste all that rice, considering the hunger in Southeast Asia, but a fighting ship has little extra room for storage. It was more important to deprive the commu­nists of it, for it is a lot harder for a soldier to fight on an empty stomach.

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announced that “peace is at hand” on 26 October and bombing and naval bombardment of North Vietnam above the 20th parallel halted.¹⁰ Below the 20th, though, where the Preble was operating, combat operations continued.

On 2 November, armed reconnaissance aircraft under the Preble's control spotted an enemy convoy of some 150 trucks. The ship quickly requested additional aircraft and directed them to the area. After the smoke cleared, the final bomb damage assessment stood at 80%.¹'

Combat operations were soon curtailed against North Vietnam, as the Peace Talks in Paris progressed. The Preble departed the Gulf on 5 November for port visits to Hong Kong, Kaohsuing (Taiwan), and then reprovisioning and repairs at Subic Bay.

Christmas on the Gunline

After the well-deserved liberty and getting the ship back up to full operational readiness, the Preble returned again to South-search-and-rescue station on 27 November.

On 1 December the U.S. command in Vietnam an­nounced that for the first week since the first week in January 1965, no Americans were killed in Vietnam dur­ing the last week of November.¹² This was good news to all, but in the meantime, the war continued up North below the 20th parallel.

With the cessation of bombing farther north, the assets from there came southward. This meant route packs I, II, and III in southern North Vietnam, the Preble's backyard. This gave the operations personnel the opportunity to as­sist in directing B-52 bomber missions. The rest of the crew during this period could hear and then feel the per­cussions of those awesome strikes while patrolling off the coast. It was definitely a comfort to be on the directing, instead of the receiving, end of that rain of 750-pound bombs.

Peace negotiations broke down in early December, and full-scale bombing and naval bombardment resumed above the 20th parallel on 18 December. On 19 Decem­ber, while conducting shore bombardment, the USS Goldsborough (DDG-20), one of the Preble's, sisters, was hit by shore batteries, killing two crewmen and wounding three others.¹³

As Christmas approached, the Preble neared comple­tion of her third line period. The crew was excited and happy for it was going to spend the holidays in Japan. Prior to departure from the Gulf, Secretary of the Navy John Warner and Commander Seventh Fleet, Vice Admi­ral James Holloway, visited the ship. Shortly after they left, the ship began its transit out of the troubled Tonkin Gulf.

The holiday spirit of the crew did not last long though, for as we made our turn to the east south of Hainan, a change of orders directed us to the gunline off the Cua Viet River and the Demilitarized Zone. We arrived on sta­tion and got our first fire mission on 25 December. On 27 December we encountered our first enemy shore-battery fire. Fragments from 122-mm. shells littered the decks after each mission, attesting to the numerous near misses that the ship received.

The Preble, equipped with a forward-looking infrared gun director, acted as direct fire support ship during night operations on 28 December. The ship’s gunfire interdicted a truck convoy traveling down the coast, destroying sev­eral trucks and setting off numerous secondary explosions and fires.¹⁴

The ship was relieved on 29 December after having fired 532 rounds of 5-inch/54-caliber ammunition in four days on the gunline.¹⁵ As we headed out of the gulf on 30 December on our way to Sasebo, President Richard Nixon announced again a halt in aerial and naval bombardment of North Vietnam above the 20th parallel.¹⁶ The North Vietnamese were willing to talk peace after feeling the brunt of American military power once again.

After eleven days the Preble headed back to the Tonkin Gulf. While transiting the Taiwan Straits on 12 January 1973, a Mayday reported an F-4 Phantom II down nearby. The Preble diverted from her transit and assisted in the coordination of the rescue effort which culminated in both aviators being recovered.¹⁷

The Final Push for Peace

The familiar sight of Hon Gio Island and the environs of the Dong Hoi coast once again greeted the Preble as it took up picket station of 14 January. Because of the prog­ress of the Paris Peace Talks, all combat operations in North Vietnam stopped on 15 January. The Preble re­mained on station off Dong Hoi until the 23rd when the USS Worden (DLG-18) relieved her. Kissinger and Le Due Tho then initialed the terms for a cease-fire that would end the war, but would not take effect until 28 January.¹⁸ In the meantime, the Preble went to the DMZ and gunline duty to support the South Vietnamese in their effort to regain ground lost during the Easter Invasion of the previous year.

The ship began her fire missions on the 24th. Her accu­rate fire disrupted truck convoys and an attacking tank column.²⁰ But it was not a one-sided affair. On the first day the ship took hits from 130-mm. shore batteries which destroyed the antenna atop the aft mast. Another shell burst off the port side amidships and ripped holes in the superstructure and severely damaged the Commodore’s Cabin.²¹ The port lookout was slightly wounded. The crew did not know it at the time, but this was the last hit on a U.S. Navy ship by North Vietnamese shore batteries in the Vietnam War.²²

Over the next four days, the Preble fired 431 rounds supporting a South Vietnamese battalion’s advance over miles of fortified enemy-held territory. In return, the ship received some 169 rounds of enemy shore battery fire.²³

The sun rose through partly cloudy skies over the calm waters of the Gulf of Tonkin on the morning of 28 January 1973. At precisely 0800, the duty boatswain’s mate piped over the ship’s 1-MC announcer that the Vietnam War was over. The crew could once again go topside after being cooped up for the past four days of combat missions. Wa­tertight doors all over the ship burst open, and the crew began hooting and hollering and hugging each other. It was finally over after more than seven years of stopping and starting a frustrating “limited war.” The last four days had been like a microcosm of the entire war.

The quietness after the intense action of the previous few days was eerie. Sitting on the fantail as the ship slowly maneuvered in the now peaceful and placid waters of the Tonkin Gulf, I watched as the slight chop of the water washed over our barely visible wake. As the wake vanished and we departed, it seemed as if we had never been there.

'J. L. Cuzzocrea and S. P. Nauman, USS Preble (DLG-15), 1971-1973 Cruise Book p. 27.

²Ibid, p. 11.

³VADM Malcolm W. Cagle, Task Force 77 In Action Off Vietnam; The Naval Story in Vietnam, edited by Frank Uhlig, Jr.; (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986), pp. 47-49.

⁴CDR Robert C. Powers, “Linebacker Strike,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol. 100 (August 1974), pp. 46-51.

⁵USS Preble (DLG-15) 1971-1973 Cruise Book, p. 27.

⁶USS Preble (DLG-15), Chronology of Events, 31 July 1972-1 January 1972 Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C..

⁷LCDR J. B. Finkelstein, “Naval and Maritime Events July 1972-December 1972,” U.S. Naval Institute Naval Review, Vol. 99 (May 1973), p. 352.

⁸USS Preble Chronology of Events 31 July 1972-1 January 1973, p. 2.

⁹Rene J. Francillon, VIETNAM, The War In The Air, (New York: (1987), p. 137. ^,0J. B. Finkelstein, p. 354.

"USS Preble (DLG-15) Chronology of Events 31 July 1972-1 January 1973, p. 2. ¹²J. B. Finkelstein, p. 359. ^l3Ibid., p. 360.

"USS Preble (DLG-15) Chronology of Events 31 July 1972-1 January 1973. ^,5Ibid.

^,6J. B. Finkelstein, p. 360.

¹⁷ USS Preble (DLG-15) Chronology of Events 31 July 1972-1 January 1973. ¹⁸Ray Bonds, editor, The Vietnam War, The Illustrated History of the Conflict in Southeast Asia, (New York: 1983, p. 14.

^I9USS Preble (DLG-15) Chronology of Command Activities from 1 January 1973 to 31 December 1973; Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C., p. 1.

²⁰Ibid.

²¹Ibid.

²²Ibid.

Mr. Hart is an exploration geologist in Nevada who served as an electri­cian’s mate on board the Preble.