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From: Pat Moloney
Subject: Heavy metal - Fall 1987
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 19:11:53 -0800

From my archives, 1987, Indian Ocean, Ranger/Missouri Battlegroup. USS MISSOURI approaching for a drink. 

I had an interesting start with her [USS MISSOURI (BB-63)] once the BG's combined. I would send JP-5 over from rig 4, using a 4" hose. They would always shut us off, saying the fuel was off spec. We had been sending it to RANGER with no problems and I had the Cargo Mate check our entire hookup from tank to hose with no result. The CO to CO relations were getting a bit frosty unfortunately. We had a transfer going where I had the freight rig over too and we got the usual off-spec report on JP-5. I asked the CO to have their sample and their analysis sent back over on the freight rig just on the off chance there was something that was contaminating the fuel between my hose and the sample spigot. We got the sample and their paperwork, I turned the conn over to the Chief Mate and dropped down to the Cargo Lab to run my own analysis. As soon as I had their paper in hand I saw the problem. I did my own test and took my paper back to the bridge. Got on the phone CO to CO and told him the problem was that his fuel guy was reading the graph 90 degrees off. The fuel was on spec, just turn the paper the right way. It was an easy mistake to make and I explained that I had a lot of time working with fuel and cold spot the error right away. No sense in getting some petty officer reamed out for something that he probably hadn't been properly trained for anyway. Relations suddenly got much more cordial. After the unreps the BB would kick up to flank speed, move up about a ship length and go hard over away from us. Truly a sight to gladden the heart. M/

From: Pat Moloney
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 21:23:58 -0800
Subject: A friend in need, parts 1 & 2 - Fall 1987

Part 1
We were out on the Indian Ocean beat with RANGER and MISSOURI battlegroups. HASS and SPICA were among the support ships. Had 2 AOR's, an AE and maybe another AFS.We were temporarily away from the BG doing consol ops with our commercial tanker support. We were probably headed back to rejoin the BG.

The players:
USNS HASS (T-AO 145) Capt Pat Moloney
USNS SPICA (T-AFS 9) Capt Leroy Gill
USNS SIOUX (T-ATF 170) Capt Arne Willenhag

Night time, I'm on my bunk reading, ship steaming alone to rdvu. Radio calls, Can you come in here? We think SIOUX is in trouble.

I don't remember if our guys were reading other ship's traffic (routine) or they heard SIOUX on the radio, but they were coming out of the Red Sea, short on gas, short on water and short on groceries and nobody was taking ownership of them. They had been chopping from one administrative boss to another and sort of got dropped through the cracks. I got on the radio, CO to CO. Arne comes up with his easily recognizable Scandohoovian accent and relays his sad plight. I said for gas and water he had come to the right shop and I would call Leroy since SPICA was approaching the neighborhood on the way back from a supply run to Diego Garcia. Arne: Oh, Pat, You are manna from heaven. Me: Let me talk to Leroy; he stocks the manna. Called the BG cdr and got auth to divert and bring SPICA to take care of our little buddy. Called Leroy, "What does he need?" " I don't know, sounded pretty low on all stock." The fleet tugs only had a steward baker, no Chief Steward, so supply matters weren't their strong point. Leroy: "No problem, I'll have our Supply dept set up rations for 22 for 3 weeks." 

The next morning SIOUX and HASS rdvu and a thirsty tug pulls alongside. Tugs don't routinely unrep, but her Chief Mate was my old Cargo Mate. We sent over rig 3 and kept the wire slack. Put a 4" pigtail on the 7" hose and then necked that down to a 2.5" firehose. They came up with the appropriate fitting on their side, and let there be gas. We rigged a 2.5" hose under the fuel and sent them potable water from our domestic tanks. Their evap was on the blink and didn't like the very warm seawater much. While we were pumping (low pressure) the SPICA came bounding onto the scene. They waited until SIOUX was topped off with gas and water, had broke away and set flight quarters. SPICA helo comes over with several cargo nets full of groceries and fresh fruit/veggies. We left SIOUX heading back to Subic and very happy with their lot in life. HASS and SPICA headed back to BG ops, having taken care of the little guys. 

Part 2.
A year later, the HASS is heading from Subic to Yokosuka for the 3 month overhaul that would prepare her for her INSURV inspection. We'd been working the North Pacific and South China Sea beat for a few months. We had to offload all our cargo fuel and clean tanks during the transit north. That meant leaving Subic with no ballast, cleaning the midship DFM tanks as fast as possible, get some water into them to hold her down and relieve the pretty serious stress condition we were putting her into, then get some water into her up forward to bring the bow down. The bow was only drawing 2 feet when we left and she'd pound in the lightest seaway. 

We took off and immediately started the tank work. I was holding about 6 miles offshore. We were taking it easy, maybe 10 knots to avoid pounding and got a couple hours north, when one of our engineers managed to dump the feed water tank to the bilges, causing a low water boiler casualty and shutting down the plant. 

Sad to say, there was a design flaw with the ship (class). The emergency diesel generator is up forward, way up forward. With the bow as high as it was, the diesel could not pull cooling water up, and promptly overheated and shut down. With no ventilation in the fireroom, the temp shot up to 145 degrees, same as it always does when we have this kind of casualty. This was not new, unfortunately. From hard learned past experience we knew what to do. Wait for the diesel to cool down (several hours), when ready, put an electrician on the switchboard, light off the diesel, divert power to a firepump, cut an auxiliary cooling line to the diesel from the firemain in, which cools it, if done fast enough. Run the ventilation to cool the fireroom down to a mild 120 degrees or so, and restore the plant. Meanwhile no one can stay down in the fireroom for more than about 10 minutes (remember how far it is down to the boiler front). The engineroom was not much better. 

So there we are, dead in the water, drifting slowly toward the beach. I figured if we got too close I could anchor, but there was going to be an ugly time for the engineers. I wasn't feeling particularly charitable toward the engineers at that point anyway (one in particular), but an answer was at hand. My buddy Arne Willenhag and the SIOUX were heading south toward Subic, in visible range. I got on a handheld VHF radio and called them up. "Hey, Arne, can you give me a tow back to Subic so I can plug into shorepower and blow out my fireroom?" "No problem, what are friends for?"

I had him radio Subic, set up pilot and tugs and get me a temporary berth at Cubi Pt. long enough to cool down my fireroom, get the plant lit off, then get the hell out of Dodge. Arne and his gang passed us a line and hauled us right in at 8 knots. Turned us over to harbor tugs and pilot and went off to a well deserved break. 

We tied up, I spent a little time in the fireroom with the Chief Engineer, then grabbed my Ops Lieut. and hopped a taxi to CTF 73 to explain our little diversion, me still soaking with sweat from the fireroom visit. Got that squared away, set up tugs/pilot to sail 3 hours later and jumped another cab to the Cubi O'Club and poured down a couple San Miguels (to replace body fluids of course), then back to the ship and sailed shortly thereafter. The particular engineer was not allowed back on watch anytime during the transit and was paid off in my overhaul crew reduction. 

Anytime I'm feeling a bit full of myself I remind myself of these pictures to get back to ground level. M/ /

From: Pat Moloney
Subject: Re: Heavy metal - Fall 1987
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 22:25:50 -0800
To: Terry Kuehn

Hi Terry,
I'll group scan them. If you want some individual ones let me know. I'm a battleship fan, BIG TIME. My battleship library is significant. One time I won a bet (Asahi beer) by naming all the US BB's and all the BB classes (post DREADNOUGHT) in the world. I have a gavel made of the deck planking of the 1897 USS OREGON, and eventually the teak that I got from the USS MISSOURI will be turned into a gavel base.

All my photos are from sea level. Keep your testicle stowed.

(1987)

That photo of the joint battlegroup with MO and RANGER was a fun shot. We were steaming in the formation box at 10 knots, 500 yard intervals. On signal, we increased to 15 knots and tightened up to 300 yards, all except MISSOURI. Somehow, she missed the signal. I was conning from the port bridge wing, keeping one eye on the LEFTWICH ahead of me (I can still practically describe the weld marks on her stern; 300 yards dead astern, at 15 knots is breathtakingly close), and one eye on the big picture. I could see RANGER crawling up MISSOURI's stern and mentioned to my Lieut, Shit, RANGER's going to eat the battleship! RANGER laid on her whistle and the BB kicked it in the butt. Black smoke from two stacks, the stern dropped, dug in and she leaped ahead and hauled off to starboard. All the ships on my side of the formation promptly hauled ass too, and I gave a right 20 deg rudder. We weren't too far off track when things were sorted out and I was able to ease back into position by going to 18 knots. The photos look great but I can tell you all CO's had elevated pulses while the cameras were clicking and were very happy to put some water between us.
M/

Re: TORPEDOES ON OILERS - February 1983
6/24/11 Patrick Moloney
To Vern Bouwman, Terry Kuehn
From: Patrick Moloney
Sent: Fri 6/24/11 9:07 PM

Hi Vern,
As usual, I have a sea story to go with this. Mine was being on the receiving end when I was Capt. of TALUGA T-AO 62.
Pat

Torpedoes away

Some time around February ‘83 we received orders to participate in a submarine training exercise. Being tracked by subs was nothing new. We assumed that it happened everytime we went out. This one was different. We were to be used as the target vessel for a live fire exercise with practice torpedoes set to run well under us. I was less than pleased about this program.

About 8 years earlier, when I was Ensign Moloney, I was attending Damage Control Assistant school on Treasure Island. One of the training films we saw was a shock wave test in the 60’s called Operation Sailor Hat. A 500 ton pile of TNT was cooked off and one of the trial ships was the test ship USS ATLANTA (IX-301), a former Cleveland class CL. She weathered the simulated atomic blasts just fine. A few years later she was used in the same role TALUGA was going to be playing. A sub fired an early version of the Mk 48 torpedo at her with a practice warhead. The torp ran high and hit the hull and the remaining fuel, which is high explosive in its own right, cooked off and the former light cruiser broke in half and sank!.

In our case, we were going to take a 40 year old tanker, loaded with oil, and at that time, the only oiler in mid-Pac, and shoot torpedoes at her that were supposed to pass safely under us. I was not impressed. I mentioned my concerns to the operations folks but was told that the torpedoes were very reliable and each Mk 48 cost more than TALUGA was worth these days. What could go wrong?

The sub that was going to be doing the shooting was the one year old USS SAN FRANCISCO (SSN-711). I figured, if nothing else, it was a good excuse to get aboard the sub. I called ahead to set up a CO to CO chat. My Chief Mate was an Annapolis grad who had seen the light and opted for a life of crime with the hooligans in MSC. He had never been on an SSN either so he tagged along. I must admit to getting a charge out of being bonged aboard the sub…TALUGA – arriving!

Had a nice talk with the CO and XO. The Mate and I were very impressed with the boat; extraordinary quality of construction. It made our 40 year old, hand-me-down oiler look pretty ramshackle. On the other hand, I had more square footage in the head in the TALUGA’s Master’s suite than the CO of the sub had in the closet that passed for a stateroom.

I told him about my concerns and the story of the ATLANTA. He knew about it. They bring it up in the torpedo schools. He said that the tests were highly controlled and mentioned that if Mk 48’s had cost another couple million bucks each, the navy probably would have commissioned each one. They didn’t get to shoot them very often and were really looking forward to the test. As I recall they (there would be two shots) would be set to run at 60 feet and pass well under us. I still wasn’t comfortable but had to go with the plan. We arranged our track and timing and parted to meet a couple days later off Barking Sands at Kauai.

We made our run on time, on track and at the right time I was able to watch one, then another, yellow painted torpedoes run well under the ship, but still easily visible in the clear Hawaiian water. There was no wake and I was surprised that I didn’t hear propeller noise. Our steam turbines weren’t that noisy but I didn’t hear the torps like I expected.

We went back to Pearl Harbor without even refueling anybody and I never had a chance to thank the sub driver for missing. Still one of my least favorite memories.