When I served in Dickson we made several cruises to the Caribbean. As I mentioned in my earlier Email Dickson and our sister ship Gainard were in
DESDEVGRU TWO. The two ships would get underway from Newport RI, take a couple days sailing down to Norfolk (We leap frogged almost all the time while in open seas.)
This leap frogging was to give each of the new destroyer officers an opportunity to man the con for underway replenishment, which is a fairly dangerous operation. The US Navy (to my knowledge) is the only navy that two ships steam at high speed parallel to one another mere yards apart to rig a high line between the two of them for the purpose of ransferring any sort of cargo (fuel, ammo, stores, mail, movies) known as underway replenishment.
All the way down to the Caribbean and back when in open ocean one of the two of us would steam quickly ahead of the other. Then maintain a steady course and speed while the other ship raced up to cruise at the same course and speed running parallel as I described above. Sometimes we would rig the highline most often not. After sustained steaming at close quarters for several minutes the other ship would pull forward several miles to start the process again. Hence we leap frogged all the way down and back.
We would stay in Norfolk about a week while the students attended Combat Information Center (CIC) training. The bridge and CIC are the two hot spots aboard any ship while underway.
After Norfolk we were off to Guantanamo Bay Cuba. At that time all US Navy vessels went into General Quarters and stayed in that condition the entire time in Cuban waters. I have some memories 'sea stories' (if you will) about 'GTMO', or GitMo if you have any interest.
A few days in GTMO, then off to Calebra, an island that the US uses for target practice. This NGFS (Navy Gun Fire Support) was important training not only for the students but for the crew as well.
We took some liberty usually in St. Thomas, St. Crouix, once in Bermuda, and often (my favorite) San Juan Puerto Rico. Then we would sail back home to Newport. The whole trip took about a month it seems to me. It seems to me that I made something like 3 of these cruises while I was assigned to Dickson. We probably made a cruise once a quarter.
Highlights of my tour in Dickson would include:
When high lining a ammo pallet hit the edge of the main deck fell off and banged into our port screw. That put us inport in San Juan for about a week. I was restricted to the ship all but one day (I was not a happy camper).
Pulling into Bermuda our sister ship rammed us port side aft, put a big hole in the after berthing compartment. Scary! I have a hazy recollection of Dickson being target for the testing of a new torpedo. If my memory is correct the submarine would fire a torpedo (no warhead) at us and we were to try to out run it. We were at GQ all that day. The scuttlebutt was that If the torpedo hit us it was quite possible it would penetrate our hull. The skipper outran several of them before they
finally gave it up.
