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USS Schofield FFG 3
Here is some Ships History
in no particular order.
Click here for ships pictures from beginning to ....
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USS Schofield FFG 3
Here is some Ships History
in no particular order.
Click here for ships pictures from beginning to ....
One of SCHOFIELD's unique experiences took place during the WestPac Deployment of 1972-73. Shortly after our December 'Change-of-Command' we were sent to the Indian Ocean (IO). In late January or early February we got our first port visit, Bandar Abbas, Iran. It is a very unique place with very unusual customs. Certainly alien to us. Once underway we headed south for our assigned "op-area". We steamed around for awhile and on the 13th of February we suffered a shaft casualty which put us DIW (Dead-in-the-water) for the remainder of the day, thru the night and into the next morning. While the IO is known for its heavy seas, for the time we were out there it was table top flat. Anyway, around noon on Valentine's day, here comes USS Bainbridge to take us in tow. That was bad enough, but when she put out the word that we were "...underway on nuclear power" ... well you can just imagine. We got our casualty fixed about four hours later and got underway on under our own power. We lost out on a port visit to India, but gained a visit to Victoria Islands. What a place! Kind of like the way Hawaii would have been in the '20s and '30s, 19 that is.
Interesting story.. SCHOFIELD spent a lot of time DIW during her first couple of years. Those Foster Wheeler steam generators were a bit cranky and the snipes even sent salt water from the water compensated tanks to the boilers that cost us some embarrasing moments in the Gulf of Tonkin.
However, I think the most unique experience was the rescue of the USS Warbler (MSO something or other) in typhoon conditions off the coast of Taiwan.. She was DIW and xferring fuel to her generators in buckets just to keep the radios and lights up. We shot the mouth of the harbor at 27 knots to compensate for the storm setting us down on shoals. Then it was max speed into the storm and rigging for towing at the same time. I rigged that tow and can tell you it was one of the hardest and best performances of my career. We took Warbler astern, made the turn South and handed her off to a Fleet Tug the next day.. Naturally, the storm had passed by then and the Fleet Tug couldn't see what the big deal was all about.. Of course, you could also consider the night that the Frank E. Evans was cut in half by the Austaralian Carrier Melborne. We Could hear the crew member's screams on the '26 sonar when the fwd section leveled off at about 150 feet before going to the bottom.
Yes, SCHOFIELD has certainly done some interesting things, wouldn't you say?
Warmest Regards,
Neil D. Hamilton (BMC Ret)
pacificus@prodidgy.net
