TAGS PHOTOS, 1979-1981 |
Click the photo to display a higher resolution image. |
|
|
This Dutton photo was taken while she was
shifting berths to the Oakland Army pier, May 1979.
I had just bought a new Cannon A-1 camera and it was
one of the first photos I snapped with it. I remember that a Navy tug
slammed the Dutton into the pier. In
Yokohama
they had to repair a fuel tank baffle that was broken by this tug's
ineptness.
If I remember correctly, we had a couple of reps from
Bell Aerospace to check the gravity meters during our shake down cruise.
They left their rental car on the pier. While we were at sea, the Dutton got
re-routed to Port Huineme before we left for Japan. I wonder if the car is still
there?
|
|
|
Chris Smoot has pointed out the Japan cruise
during the summer of 1979. We first arrived in Yokohama, I think it was in late June. Shortly
before leaving on this cruise I discovered that I didn't have a Japan endorsement in my passport, so I had to run
by the Japanese consul office in
New Orleans to get one in my personal passport. For
some reason they kept asking me if I needed a weapons permit. Turns out that
we would arrive about the same time as President Carter.
This photo of
USNS H.H. Hess T-AGS-38 was taken in Yokohama June 1979. |
|
|
While in Yokohama
we arranged through the USO to climb Mt. Fuji during our
July inport when the Dutton went to
Yokosuka. This is a photo of me. The guy on the left
was one of the OcUnit2 crew. |
|
|
This is a group shot. On the right is our mag, I
believe it is Virgil Betencourt, On the left is Chief Castro, Gus
Gustaphoson (sorry about the spelling, he was a flag hawk!) is to the
chief's right, and I'm not sure who the other two guys are but they were
also part of the OcUnit2 crew I believe. |
|
|
The cruise from Yokohama
to Yokosuka was a memorable
cruise. We had a bunch of female middy's onboard for their summer cruise.
During "Hump Day" they were sealed in their room with aluminum foil. They
used a scissors to cut their way out in a very curvaceous way. One of the
middy's was the daughter of the Admiral in charge of the Pacific fleet at
the time. We kidded her the whole cruise that the USS New Jersey was
following us all summer. |
|
|
The Bowditch in dry dock in Baltimore May of 1981. I helped install a Bell
BGM-3 meter on the ship and also took care of the gravity meters on the
USNS Wyman T-AGS-34, before sailing off on the Wyman later that month. |