USS MULLINNIX DD-944
Thanksgiving in Bermuda
1965
1965 Mullinnix Deck Logs
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During 11-27 October, Mullinnix, as a Unit of Task Group Alfa, hosted a group of students from the National War College and Armed Forces Staff College. During this three week cruise in the VACAPES Op-Areas, the Task Group put on a demonstration of its ASW capabilities.
GO TO Liberty Call Bermuda (Thanksgiving) 1965
On 15 November, Mullinnix was underway from D&S Piers to participate in a 3-week cruise to maintain her ASW readiness and to develop new tactics in this vital field. On this trip Mullinnix spent Thanksgiving in Bermuda, arriving a few days earlier on 24 November at the Tender Piers. Thanksgiving was celebrated on 25 November and the ship left port on 29 November.
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Thanksgiving. The unofficial start of the holiday season. It's that magical time of the year when friends and families come together to share stories and a wonderful meal. It's a time to kick back and relax. For some. Others do not have that luxury. Not everyone gets to go home for Thanksgiving.
Throughout the history of the United States Navy, ships have served countless Thanksgiving and holiday meals to their hungry sailors. The tradition is nearly as old as the holiday itself.
The promise of turkey and stuffing to sailors certainly puts the doldrums of midrats into perspective. The Thanksgiving meal was no doubt one of the best meals of the year for sailors, only rivaled by Christmas dinner or beer days/steel beach barbecues.
Navy menu item were typically written down and organized by course (Soup, Main, Sides, Dessert, etc.)
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The ship arrived back in Norfolk on 3 December. On 7 December, she moved to NAD, Yorktown, VA. From there, she moved to Norfolk Naval Station, Portsmouth on 8 December. From December to late March 1966, Mullinnix received extensive repairs to her boilers in Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The picture below is of Mullinnix in dry dock.
Some disappointing news, at 0855 on 26 December, the ship's store was broken into and approximately $400 worth of watches were missing.
While in Portsmouth, the ship spent the vast majority of her time starboard side to USS Claude V. Ricketts DDG-5.
Following this overhaul, MULLINNIX sailed for the Caribbean. She received extensive gunfire support training at Cullebra Island in preparation for her deployment to the Western Pacific in early June 1966.
To be continued...
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Ed Moore remembers: One of the Mullinnix's sister ships (also) had an explosion in the boiler room, killing 1 or 2 sailors and injuring 1 or 2 others. A 19-year-old fireman was somewhere between the back of the boiler and the bulkhead. While I was on the Mullinnix, I spent enough time working extra duty in the boiler room that I probably should have worn red stripes instead of white ones. One night, while burning off a couple of extra duty hours with a 2nd class BT by the name of Franks, he began yelling to me to jump into the bilge, at the same time pulling chains on the boiler. Thinking he was kidding, knowing the tricks that snipes and deck apes would pull on each other, I remained where I was.
After things had calmed down; he was a little upset with me for not going into the bilge like he told me. He then informed me that the boiler almost blew. He said this was caused by sudden unexplained water drop. He said that the system we had, as all the Forrest Sherman DDs, was a 1200 lb. system. For some reason they either worked great or as in our case and a few others of the Forrest Sherman class, had this little problem.
We also had a chief BT up to have his stripes taken away (he had been chief less than 6 months) for going into the boiler while in port. He wanted to find out what had caused a major break down while we were out at sea. The yard birds blamed him for the trouble. Supposedly there were regulations about the military personnel doing certain things while in port for repairs. They sent some admirals out for a hearing.
Some guys I kept in touch with, that made the 1st Vietnam cruise (1966), told me the boilers broke down while they were to give support to the Marines off shore and had to be towed in. It's just a shame after they had had a known similar problem with the boilers on these ships that another kid had to die.
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