|
The entries on this page date back to 1997-98 and
email addresses might not be current. If you try to email someone and it
bounces, try to send your message from the Crew List.
****
SF2 Thomas J. Taylor (Plankowner)
Email: katchme101@gateway.net
I served aboard the Tucker
from March, 1945 to October 1949. I attended Boot Camp at Camp Perry, VA and Fleet Training School
at Norfolk, VA
then arrived at Orange,
TX for duty aboard the
Tucker.
Upon commissioning the ship went on shakedown
operations to determine the hull integrity among other things. From there
Tucker went back to the
shipyard for minor repairs. After that we went to Galveston TX
for refueling.
On the way to Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba,
(GITMO), we did onboard training exercises. In Cuba
we loaded weapons and ammunition and went to Norfolk. On our way there, we
encountered a hurricane that did a lot of damage including the deck
superstructure and the gun mounts.
We then proceeded to Puerto Rico
for gunnery evaluation. In our evaluation group was the USS Duncan, USS Perkins, and the USS Rogers. Of the four of us, they
passed the evaluation and were assigned War Patrol Duty in the Pacific.
We failed and were assigned antisubmarine duty off Nova Scotia. Our homeport was then Portland, ME.
It was the COLDEST and FOGGIEST I have ever seen in my life. We remained
there for the duration of the war.
After V-J Day Tucker
was assigned duty in the Pacific and were homeported in San Diego, CA.
We were then sent to Tokyo Bay via Hawaii
for occupational duty for approximately 6 months. We then were sent to China
for back-up duty for the Chinese nationalists. Our homeport then was Singtaow, China. And did river duty on
the Yangtse
River. Then came
back to the States to Mare
Island, CA for
drydocking.
After repairs Tucker went to Long
Beach, CA for Atomic Warfare School
and also for a security clearance. After that we went to the Pacific for
underwater atomic bomb experiments and was part of the FIRST Underwater
Atomic Explosions at Eniwetok. Then back
to the shipyard at Mare Island,
CA for repairs and
decontamination.
Then went to San
Diego, CA and
stayed there. Tucker then
got orders back to the Pacific and to Japan if my memory serves me right.
I didn’t go to Japan
due to a injury I got while onboard.
I was discharged in October, 1949. The crew and
members I remember were: Capt.
Barney Meyers 1945-1947, Capt. Ferguson 1947-until I left the crew. Lt. Zech (division officer) and
left to sub school and was later a commander on the USS Nautilus. Me, I was a second
class petty officer (shipfitter) now known as hull technicians.
2813 Southfork Dr.
Knoxville, TN 37921
(423)693-8567
Fair Winds and Following Seas: Thomas J. Taylor
****
LT. G. Donald Fisher, SC, USNR
(Ret.)
Email: cdfisher@earthlink.net
I served as the Supply Officer on Tucker from April, 1950, to
December, 1951. In that tour we spent nine months in Korea from November,
1950, to August, 1951 operating out of Yokosuka and Sasebo when not in
Korean waters or in the China Sea or Formosan areas.
When I joined the ship it was in dry dock at Vallejo, CA
with a crew of about 10 officers and less than 200 enlisted. We
finished up in the yard just as the war broke out, went to San Diego for
training and built up to 20 plus officers and almost 300 enlisted before
getting to Japan the same week the Chinese came in the war.
The ship was radar picket (DDR875) then and we
switched divisions before going over. We went from Division 52 with four
picket ships to Division 32 with one picket ship and three DDs with
torpedoes. Otherwise the ships were equipped about the same.
****
FT2 Kay Walden
Email: lkayw@tctc.com
I went aboard Tucker
in April of 1956 after ET school in the Great Lakes Training
Center. I left in
August 1959 as FT2. My name is Kay Walden. "LK" as most of the
fire control gang called me.
We took three tours to the far west and in those days
our main job was to steam up and down the China
Straits to keep China
from invading Formosa.
I was pleased to read what happened to the old Tucker. When I served it was a Radar
Picket (DDR). Thanks for the memories.
****
SK3 Terry Williams, USNR
Email: jtwill@swbell.net
I joined the Navy Reserves at Waco,
TX in 1968 while a student at Baylor University. After graduation, I
reported for active duty in October, 1969. I was assigned to the Tucker and caught up with her the
next month at Sasebo.
At this time Tucker
was homeported in Yokosuka but was
deployed most of the time in support of U.S.
and Allied troops in Vietnam
doing shore bombardment or carrier ops in the Gulf of Tonkin.
During the 1970 Cambodian invasion, Tucker
took up blockade duty off the port
of Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
After being reassigned to the West Coast with the rest
of DESRON 3 in August, 1970, Tucker
spent some major yard time at Long Beach Shipyard and headed back for the
Far East the next year. We took the
northern route for our transit where we experienced the phenomenon of
snow (mixed with sleet) while refueling at Adak, Alaska,
Naval Station on the 4th of July. Remember the old recruiter's
description about Adak? "There's a
beautiful native girl behind every tree." ( At last report, there
are still no trees on Adak
Island )
I was detached from Tucker
in August, 1971, at Subic Bay and returned to San Francisco where I was temporarily
assigned prior to being released from active duty.
As with most crewmen on a Gearing class destroyer, I
performed many functions. In addition to regular duties as a storekeeper,
my favorite job was trainer on a 5" gun crew. In my spare time, I
was the ship's photographer and handled press releases and information
requests.
I currently live in Spring, TX, a suburb of Houston, where I'm
an insurance agent.
****
FCC(SW) Jerry Golabowski, USNR
Email: k3uod@hotmail.com
During the summer and fall of 1972, while attached to
the Ship Repair Facility, Subic Bay, I
helped install a SEA CHAPARRELL missile system on the Tucker.
Chaparrell (Spanish for road runner) was an Army
missile system normally mounted on a tracked vehicle. The Navy borrowed
25 launchers from the Army and adapted them for ship board use. I and 5
other Fire Control Technicians were sent to the Army missile school at
Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama to learn how to maintain the system,
then we were sent first to San Diego then Subic Bay and Yokosuka to
install systems aboard FRAMs.
Just before Tucker
was to sail for the Viet
Nam, the system crashed and I
volunteered to ride along and fix the launcher. It took me two days to
figure out the problem and five weeks for the part I needed to get to the
ship (it caught up to us in Singapore where we were
getting our boilers re-tubed).
Fixing the launcher only took an hour once I had the
part; after which I had a terrific 5 days of liberty in Singapore. Getting back to Subic was a little complicated. I had to ride the Tucker back to the gun line,
highline to the USS Vesuvius in late November, helo into Da-Nang then
wait 4 days for a flight to Subic.
Tucker pulled into An Thoi for liberty one Sunday in late
October or early November and drank their club dry. The next day we had a
sad incident as we were proceeding back to our assigned station. One of
the guys in the fire room (whose name I did not know) was cleaning the
deck plates when he backed into exposed wiring from an alarm circuit that
the ICmen were repairing. He was found dead behind a boiler. We returned
to An Thoi and piped his remains over the side. He was sent home from
there.
Tucker was an old worn-out ship in 1972 but she was still
serving our country well. While aboard the Tucker, we fired thousands of rounds at the Mekong
Delta in support of Army units there. The 5" 38 cal guns never
missed a beat and the 600 lb steam plant never dropped the load the whole
time I was aboard. I was an FTM2 back then. I left the regular Navy in
1975 and joined the Naval Reserve in 1979. I'm still drilling and now
have 24 years of service (combined active and reserve).
****
George Rogers
Email: georog@mis.com
Web site: http://.wp.com/georog/george1.htm
I went aboard Tucker
to relieve LT Holmes
as Engineer Officer. It was just before Christmas, 1972. Fresh out of Destroyer School
with a pregnant wife and daughter in San Diego.
Notable leaders in the Engineering Department were LTjg Steussy (MPA) and ENS Dunning (laid back, young
kid, "M" Div. Off.). LTjg
Artie Beck was A- Division Officer. He was working for
Southwest Marine out of Long
Beach in about 1990. There was MR1 Frank Grochowski, aka Ski.
He retired in 1993 as a CWO3 which isn't bad (he says) for as many times
as he really, really enjoyed himself on liberty. MM1 Ron Coleman, A-gang supervisor
was later to be CWO4.
The BTC's name was James Dinwiddie, a fine man whose hand I would
like to shake today for keeping a young engineer out of trouble. And what
a character Master Chief
Machinist Mate Greenaway was. He had a running feud with MM1 Craft. EN1 McGee, EM1 Zavala
and BT1 Cooper
were some others I remember. LT
Kaufold was the Operations Officer. He and I were at each
other's throats constantly. Other officers I remember were LTjg Kinnaly (ops type), LT Hinds (tall red headed
Weapons Officer). LTjg Tilden
(smart assed, snot nosed, know it all kid in weapons), Captain Fox (macho
ex-submariner), and LCDR Hall
(XO), a great guy.
An HT Fireman named Manka was electrocuted behind #3 boiler. He was
all sweaty and not wearing a shirt (you could do that in those days) and
he brushed against some bare wires for the high water alarm the IC men
had been working on. They didn't bother taping them up and knocked off
for the day. Somebody re-energized the alarm and along came Manka. He had
been dead for some time before he was discovered because rigor mortis had
already set in. They couldn't find him for morning quarters and the ship
was underway so they started looking and were just on the verge of
turning back track when they found him.
Here is a story related to me only recently by a
shipmate (good thing I didn't know then): "At about 2300 on 31 Dec
72 a couple of the senior petty officers in the Engineering Department
got together for a few social drinks to celebrate the upcoming new year.
All the booze that we had smuggled aboard was brought to the machine
shop, along with mixers and ice and the party began. About 0030 we ran
out of booze. Rumor had it that MMC
Zupinski had a bottle of Imperial that he was willing to
let go of. As luck would have it he was the EOOW on watch. So a quick
call to main control and a clandestine meeting outside the CPO quarters
replenished our supply. The party was going great until MMCM Greenaway called looking
for MM1 Craft.
They hated each other with a passion. Well Craft yelled into the phone
"Speak up you senile old bastard, I can't understand you because
I've been drinking". END OF PARTY!!!! We immediately cleared out of
the shop as if somebody had thrown a grenade in the door, without leaving
a trace, all we had to show for it was some great headaches in the
morning."
It was in early 1973 when the Henry W. Tucker was returning from
WESTPAC, that we made a trip to Australia,
New Zealand and Tahiti. In New Zealand we were invited
to a party hosted by wives of deployed officers of the New Zealand Navy
(there was a similar affair for the troops as well) and one of the hors
d’oeuvres was little hot dog-like sausages the ladies called small
boys. Lt. Innocent (yours truly) asked "Why do you call them
that?"
We also spilled a little black oil there while
refueling and the Kiwis gave us a chemical in five gallon cans which when
poured on the spill caused it to sink. We (procured) a few extra cans
when they weren’t looking for possible future problems and
it’s a good thing we did.
In Tahiti everybody
went on liberty except, as I recall, Chief Dinwiddie and me. We were left to CDO and
refuel. The Tahitians only had a little black oil left in the bottom of
their tank and it was thick and pressure was low. It took forever and we
needed every last drop we could get so we could make it to Hawaii. We
squeezed every drop of fuel oil we could hold into the tanks. As I recall
we even filled the waste oil tanks with fuel. I remember this 1st
Division kid coming back to the ship for more money in a rental car. He
was way too drunk to drive and somehow I got his keys away from him and
told him he would have to stay aboard. He was understandably upset and
attacked me but Chief Dinwiddie
intervened and defused the situation. At mast, the Captain asked me if I thought
he had learned his lesson but I had to say, no. I wonder how he turned
out?
We did spill some oil that night and we made use of
the chemical we got from the Kiwis. The water in Tahiti
was so clear however that you could see it pinned to the bottom. What
didn’t sink drifted across the harbor alongside a cruise ship and
next morning when we got underway, nobody except the BTC, his minions and
I knew of what we had done.
Good ships and good crews. They don't make either of
them anymore, now everything has to be politically correct. The ship
doesn't have to run, just shine. I have always resented being given
(along with a gaggle of other real world engineers) a tour of USS
Bainbridge and being told that this is the way they wanted our ships to
look and be run. No matter that ours were WWII relics without the
unlimited funds and cream of the crop personnel (including officers)
available to nukes.
The FRAMs weren't just good ships, they were great
ships. All you needed was a little bailing wire and some TLC and they
would run forever.
We sold Henry W.
Tucker to Brazil
on 3 Dec 73 and they renamed her the Marcilio Diaz D25. Last I heard she
was still going strong. They built those FRAM's to last. "When
you're out of FRAM's you're out of cans".
****
MR1 Frank Grochowski AKA
"Ski"
Email: Dunoon@juno.com
By the time I retired in 1993
I had served on 10 ships but the old "Mother Tucker" has a
special place reserved in my memories. She was a great ship with a great
crew, we worked hard and we played hard.
Like the time we pulled in An
Thoi and drank the club dry. I remember riding a little bum boat back to
the ship, the weather was getting bad and the boat was rocking pretty
good. One minute I was sitting in the boat and the next minute I saw the
boat upside down and I was in the water because somebody had pushed me
out of the boat. After sitting in the club for hours I could barely walk
much less swim. Somebody tossed me a life ring and I managed to get over
to it. The rest of the drunks on the boat were yelling and telling me to
let go the life ring and swim over to the boat but there was no way I was
about to turn loose of it. Somehow I lost one shoe and as I was floating
there I kept thinking there was no sense in keeping the other one, so I
kicked it off too. When we arrived back at the ship the XO, LCDR. Simon was waiting for us
on the quarterdeck. I stood there barefoot and dripping wet and requested
permission to come aboard. I then asked the XO "Don’t you get
a shot of brandy when you fall overboard". He not very politely told
me that he thought I already had more than enough. Great liberty, but
damn near drowning did put a damper on it though.
We had some great times: Taiwan, Thailand
, Tahiti, Australia,
Subic Bay, Japan,
Hong Kong. Remember "Kulo" the
little brown mutt that MM1
Spencer brought aboard in Hong Kong
who became the ship’s mascot? He would go up and down every ladder
on the ship except the one to M&B berthing. He fell down that one too
many times as a pup and would sit at the top of the ladder and bark until
somebody carried him down. Does anybody remember what BT2 Hodge would do while
playing with the dog?
Since decommissioning I have
only run into three other Tucker
shipmates. I ran into LTJG Artie
Beck in 1990. He was working for Southwest Marine in Long Beach. I was
on the USS Prairie AD-15
and I met him when we went into the yards. I ran into CWO4 Ron Coleman (MM1 in
A-gang) in Mayport FL in 1984. We went to the local Fleet
Reserve Club and tipped a few cool ones while reminiscing about the Tucker. I then talked to George Redboy (I think he was a
GM or TM but I'm not sure). He was working for the Veterans
Administration in San Diego
back in 1990.
Like everybody else aboard I
had more than one job. Being the "MR" was the primary but I
recall a lot of time standing throttle watch in Main Control and a lot of
time humping powder cases as a member of the port section gun crew. To
ensure that I got some fresh air I was assigned to stand under a hovering
helo to pass the fuel hose up to them as a member of the HIFR detail.
Walking off the brow for the last time was really tough. I had found a
home and now they were taking it away. It was the end of an era for all
the FRAMs. They had served well but were simply getting too old. You
could keep them running forever with a little bailing wire and a little
love.
The demise of the FRAMs was
really the beginning of the demise of the Navy. The new motto was
"Run she may, but shine she must". The watch word was
"Politically Correct", right and wrong no longer mattered as
long as it was politically correct. When I was aboard the Tucker I loved the Navy and said
that if they ever wanted me out of it they were going to have to use tear
gas. But after 24 years, 6 months and 10 days I retired.
We had some really good
officers aboard (and a few idiots). You always knew where you stood with
those guys. It was called leadership. Today the Navy's leadership account
is bankrupt, there are no leaders, only politicians and managers. What I
used to call "Good Liberty" is now referred to as "An
Alcohol Related Incident" I have a gut feeling that when the feces
strikes the oscillating air mover that the politically correct boys are
going to be found wanting and the so called leaders are going to be
wishing they had some of the old salts who would charge hell with a
bucket of water, but then it will be too late.
I guess the highlight of my
career was qualifying as OOD underway aboard the USS Prairie AD-15, but as good as
it felt to stand on that bridge it didn't even come close to how good it
felt standing on the rolling, pitching deck of the Tucker. Remember that return trip
from WesPac when we hit the rough weather coming out of Pearl and it caved in the front of
Mount 51? She was a great ship.
Lt. Rogers told you about the New Years eve party
that took place in the machine shop (all without his knowledge, Thank
God). Well I was there and I'm here to tell you it was a GREAT party.
Right up until the time Master
Chief Greenaway called looking for MM1 Craft. The master chief and
Craft hated each other with a passion but I think they both deserved half
the blame. I used to go out of my way to aggravate the Master Chief. I
would be standing throttle watch in Main Control and the Master Chief
would be the EOOW. I would face the throttle board and let out a soft,
high pitched, warbling whistle. The exact same kind of sound you would
hear if you had a vacuum leak. Well the old master chief would grab his
flashlight and go looking around the engine room trying to find it. I
guess master chiefs back then could actually see vacuum, otherwise why
would he need a flashlight.
Despite having really enjoyed
myself in every liberty port I still managed to retire as a CWO3 (which
is about 5 pay grades higher than I ever thought I would be). I called it
quits when the Navy quit being fun, when leaders were replaced by
politicians and right and wrong no longer mattered as long as you were
politically correct.
****
Harold Zimmerman
Email: hlhzimm@adelphia.net
Kay
Walden is right about steaming along the China
Coast to prevent an invasion of Taiwan.
He Didn’t mention the Fire Control Radars for shore batteries that
had us targeted, we tracked these by electronic counter-measures. Also
there were many times we were not allowed on deck because of small arms
fire from the many fishing boats that were always there.
I left the Tucker in July,
1959, and reported aboard the USS
Helena CA75.The Helena has an organization, and we hold a
reunion every two years. Is there a Tucker organization?
****
Robert Tate
Email: bob543@peoplepc.com
Thanks for the information. I
wasn't on the Tucker very
long so don't remember hardly any of the crew I served with.
I spent most of my time on
the USS Harry E Hubbard
and just attended their 10th annual reunion in Tacoma.
I have added the Tucker address to my Navy folder
and will check back often.
****
YN 3 Paul W. Machart
Email: pwm41@gra.midco.net
I reported aboard in January
1962 at Yokosuka, Japan, some time in the early
morning hours of 0100 hrs. as a SA from boot camp at San Diego to spend
my 4 yrs. of active duty aboard her and I departed the Tucker at 1600 hrs
in August of 1965 from Yokosuka, Japan, as a YN3.
I would like to hear from all
shipmate that served during the same time frame. I did enjoy my time
onboard the ship and have some very good memories. I will send as much
info as I can at a later time.
****
Dave Richards
Email: DRICH671@aol.com
Served aboard Tucker 1955-56.
I am happy to have found this web site, and saddened by learning of her
eventual fate. Worked in the ship's office during some of my tour with
her.
After completing a deployment
to Westpac in 1956 I was transfered to the Hamner DD 718 for a very short period and eventually
was transfered again to the Hanson
DDR 832 where I completed another Westpac tour and was
subsequently released from active duty in Jan. 1957.
I have in my possession a
cruise book for Tucker in 1956. I looked at it again after visiting your
web site and it brought back a lot of good memories and some not so good.
(fortunately most were of the good type).
****
STG2 Bruce Bender
Email: bender.company@comcast.net
I reported to the Tucker in
April of 1966 when she was home-ported in Yokosuka, and served aboard her until
January 1968, when I was transferred to the USS Hollister (DD788). The captain of the Tucker from
December 1965 through July 1967 was Commander John H. D. Williams. The XO was LTCDR George E. O’Brien. Captain Williams
was relieved in July 1967 by Commander Sheldon D. Kully.
As a Sonarman, my ASW Officer
was LTJG Fulmer,
who reported to LT. Hiram W.
Clark. Other officers in Weapons included ENS Richard M Gibson (gunnery), ENS Michael Connor (navigator),
LTJG Robert Sanders
(first lieutenant) and ENS Jim
Atwill (ASW). The Chief Boatswains Mate and MAA was Chief McCurdy and The Chief
Sonarman was Chief Payne.
My division (WA) included GM2
Grogg, GM2
Stoker, GM2 Julian. My closest friends included Pat Eberlein, Doug Mundschenk, Pete Peterson
and Larry Jeske.
The ship's motto was Have Gun
Will Travel, and it never spent much time in port. I remember the first time
we left Yokosuka,
I was the new kid joining a well-seasoned crew. We hit a typhoon about 3
days out that lasted for about 3-4 days. You talk about a quick
education! At that time in my life, I had no idea a human being could get
that sick. Most of the time was spent in the Tonkin Gulf
on SAR or in
NGFS. The Tucker was on SAR when the Forrestal caught fire on Saturday,
July 29, 1967. We didn't help fight the fire...if I remember right, that
was done by the McKenzie,
Our job during the Forrestal ordeal was to assist in searching for
survivors. I can remember sitting on the ASROC deck, watching the
Forestall burn from a distance.
A few statistics from Tucker's June 19, 1967 through December 23, 1967
cruise book are as follows:
Days at sea (151)
Days in Port (37)
Fuel oil used (3,191,265 gal)
Underway replenishments (UNREPS) (59)
Steaming hours (3,548)
Nautical miles steamed (53,434)
Rounds of naval gunfire support (1,514)
She was a good ship manned by a bunch of REALLY great
guys. I'd love to hear from any of them.
****
Errol Samuelson
Email: sdprthd@aol.com
The picture of the UNREP you
had on the web site brought back one of my most harrowing experiences on
the Tucker.
I was on the aft phone and
distance line on the DASH deck for that UNREP, as I was for most of them
during that time. My partner on the line at that time was either GMTSN John Lewman. As you had
written in your account, the weather was terrible and the seas were
running quite high. The conning officer was having difficulty maintaining
station on the oiler, but we managed to get the span wire across and get
it connected to the king post.
But once the span wire was
connected it was discovered that the tensioning device on the delivery
ship was not working properly. As the ships came together the span wire
would go into the water and bounce erratically as it skipped in and out
of the water. But more threatening was the fact that as the ships moved
apart the slack would go out of the span wire and it would literally hum
like a guitar string being plucked. Each time the wire would slack a
little, the after station rigger would climb the king post to attempt to
trip the pelican hook and release the wire, but it was jammed tight from
the tension put on the span wire.
Two or three times the rigger
climbed the king post, jumping down each time the span wire tightened and
taking cover in the helo net on the opposite side. As the ships moved
apart once again it was obvious that this time we were going to veer out
farther than we had before and as the span wire tightened, the king post
began to vibrate from the incredible forces being placed on it.
Suddenly, there was this
sound like an explosion as the king post separated about half way up
it’s height, sending shrapnel flying through the air and causing
the span wire and the top half of the kingpost to trail over the edge of
the deck and into the water behind us. As all of this was happening, I
was attempting to dig a hole in the nonskid covered steel deck to escape
injury from the flying metal while maintaining the phone and distance
line so we could keep comms with the delivery ship.
An emergency breakaway was
initiated and the last line to go back across to the oiler as we pulled
away was my phone line. I don’t know if we played our traditional
breakaway song that night, I suspect "Have Gun Will Travel" was
far from the minds of those on the bridge.
****
Bud L. Branstrom
Email: pbs@lewiston.com
My name is Becky Gebhart. I
am the daughter of Bud Lewis Branstrom who served aboard the Henry W. Tucker from 1956 to 1959.
He passed away in May,
1998, but not without leaving behind some stories, photos, mementos, and
tour book of his time onboard. I miss him dearly and cherish these items
that he left for us. They are what led me to this page.
He had also told
stories of touring the China Straits. The best treasure I have is a
set of lamps with dragons on them and are entirely made of sea
shells. I remember him telling of trading his coat in Formosa
for these beautiful lamps.
I was excited to
discover this page, which helps me to understand more about what a great
impact the Navy had on his life. I was also excited to see the names of
two men who wrote letters at this sight, that are in my dad's tour
book. They are Kay Walden
and Harold Zimmerman.
I realize they may not have
known who he was, but it comforts me to know that there are people that
may have shared the same experiences with him and to know that serving on
the Tucker has filled
their lives with the same sense of pride, memories, and stories that will
be shared with their children and grandchildren. If anyone has
stories, photos or information about him my e-mail address is pbs@lewiston.com
****
GM2 Eugene A. Roll (original crew)
Email: 7rolls@garden.net
I enlisted in USNR July of
1943. Boot Camp Newport,
RI, Company 1054. First
duty Ship Repair - Argentia,
Newfoundland for 2 years.
Assigned to Tucker and
reported on board July 28, 1945 while she was in Casco Bay, Portland, Maine.
Her duty at that time was participating in radar and anti-aircraft
exercises off the Maine
coast.
After VJ Day, we were sent to
Boston Navy Yard to be re-painted and spruced up for Navy Day at St. Petersburg, Florida - Captain Meyer's hometown. Then
through the Panama Canal to San Diego and Pearl Harbor. Hit a bad storm on the way to Yokosuka, Japan. Arrived December 22,
1945. Had Christmas dinner there. (I still have the menu.)
We then went to various
Japanese ports and islands for repatriation of Japanese nationals. First
island called Amami-O-Shima. We were sent to relieve the USS McKean (DD784). I was transferred to McKean as my points were well over.
Then home on McKean to
Okinawa, Pearl and San Diego. Then the big boxcar railroad
trip across the States and home.
****
ET2 Carl Mulcahy
Email: carl.mulcahy@worldnet.att.net
I am an old Tuckerman having
served aboard her from early 1957 until late 1958.
I came aboard fresh out of ET
school, Great Lakes, Ill. while she was
in dry dock in Long Beach,
Ca. After completion of retrofit and shakedown operations, we took a
WestPac cruise as part of DesRon 32, with a slight detour through several
South Pacific islands and Brisbane,
Australia
(reported to be the first US Navy ships there since the war).
As reported by others, I well
remember the patrols in the Formosa
Straits as well as
port calls in so many places known to the men of the Destroyer Navies. I
have many fond memories (and some I probably should want to forget) of this
time in my life.
I left the Tucker in late 1958, to join the
commissioning crew of the USS Richard
S. Edwards, DD-950. I spent the remaining year and a half
aboard the "Ready Eddie", then mustered out in March, 1960.
I note several names in the
crew list from my time aboard, but have to admit that I cannot put faces
with these names. While at Treasure Island
during my mustering out, someone decided they needed my sea bag more than
I, and unfortunately I lost my cruise books with it, so I can't look up
the faces. I do have many, many photos from my time aboard, so I will dig
them out to refresh my memory. I applaud those managing this web site and
intend to revisit it regularly, with hopes of contacting more of my old shipmates.
Carl Mulcahy
10287 County Road 2468
Terrell, TX 75160
214-514-9528
****
BT3 James D. Rawlins
Email: rawlinsjames@aol.com
I was a crew member of the Henry W. Tucker from 1/65-12/67, as
a boiler tender (bt3) oil king, I was in the forward fire room and a
short time in the after fire room.
I would like to get to know
everybody that was on the Tucker. I really had a great time aboard this
fine ship. I was said to have grown up on this ship. I came on board a
cocky 138 lbs at 5'8" and left cocky at 188 lbs 6'0". But I now
had a trade as a boiler operator and still make my living as one.
I'm also the safety coordinator for the Marion
(Ohio)
Whirlpool Divisions maintenance department.
Thank you James D. Rawlins. Please
contact me if you wish.
****
BT3 Bill Lawrence
Email: Rubill98@aol.com
I went aboard the Tucker in 1948 when I got out of
boot camp in San Diego.
Was on her from 1948 to 1952.
Was in the Engineering Dept. I worked in the
fire room and was oil king for two years. I also worked as log room
yeoman when I first went on board,. I couldn’t type very well then
and still not much better today. I will always remember the good four years
I spent aboard her. Thank you Bill Lawrence.
1051 Wailea Way
Nipomo, CA 93444
(805) 929-9066
****
Rudy Freyman
Rudy Freyman
PO Box 84
| 
