USS MULLINNIX DD-944

15 April 1972
Headed to Vietnam

USS Mullinnix DD-944 Enroute to Vietnam 1972
Courtesy of Doug Lafleur
(Video taken from USS Biddle CG-34 [no sound])


15 April 1972 - Mullinnix Enroute to Vietnam
(Picture Taken from 01 Level of Mullinnix By FTGSN Frank "Woody" Wood)
[Other ships are one of the following: USS Biddle CG-34; USS Glennon DD-840; USS Sarsfield DD-837]


Mullinnix steaming towards Vietnam
(Picture from USS Biddle's 1972 Cruise Book)

Atlantic Ocean enroute to Vietnam Gunline. USS Mullinnix DD-944 and the USS Biddle CG-34, USS Sarsfield DD-837, USS Glennon DD-840 were ordered out of Norfolk, Mayport, and Charleston, SC in response to the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive.


FTG3 Greg "Birdman" Berry and SN Walter "Brew" / "Animal" Brewbaker Jr.
Ships in background are USS Biddle DLG/CG-34, USS Sarsfield DD-837 and USS Glennon DD-840
Outside of Rodman, Panama - Enroute to Vietnam





15 April, 1972 (Atlantic Ocean, Enroute to Vietnam)

Dear Mom, Dad, Sue

Well, we go through the canal tomorrow (16 April) morning. We have to get up at 4AM. It will take about 8 hours to get through. I bought a Polaroid Square Shooter II for $22. It takes pretty good pictures. We get 6 hours liberty on the pacific side while we refuel. We pull into Pearl Harbor 27 April. It’ll take us 12 days to get there. That’s a long time at sea. From Pearl we go to Midway, then Guam, then Subic Bay, Philippines. That’s the base we’ll be working out off. It’s getting hot down here again. It’s about 80 degrees during the day, and we’re still going south. We get a little card when we go through the canal like when you go across the equator. We get one when we go across the International Date Line too. Well, this was short but I’m still alive. Write Soon. Love, Frank



In the picture above, FTG3 Don Boettcher is being hit by Walter Brewbaker Jr. CS2 Anthony “Tony” Despenas (Head cook and peanut butter/jelly sandwich maker) is the referee. Photo was taken on Apr 15, 1972 somewhere in the Atlantic. The air was heavy with heat and smelled of diesel - a brutally hot day! The crew watched movies on the torpedo deck at night (weather permitting) and boxing events in the late afternoon after work and drills and more drills and more drills. Getting ready for the real thing…


Aft MK 68 Director (Enroute to Vietnam, Apr 1972)

The aft Director (just forward of MT 31), in conjunction with the aft radar room, directed the majority of the gun fire support mission in 1972. Most of the missions were directed on target by spotters on land and in the air rather than locking on enemy targets with radar. The spotter’s coordinates would be fed into the computer in the aft fire control room, which in turn would direct the gun mounts in the proper direction and range.

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