Bordelon (DDR 881) - Naval Cruise Book

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- 4 lg , .V , .. , ,,...,,.. ..,,.,,,.,. -NV .. ,,-. Al.. lv- --.4.,,1, ,gg.,f.,-.:..-4...v. v.. . .- V. , .- A . Ywl. -Y MV-- LT, Duffield checks gun - target line. 25 JANUARY - During a combined sea- air mission against coastal defense sites in the Bay of Brandon, an A-4 jet aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and the pilot ejected, landing in the water five miles from shore. BORDE LON remained on the scene to provide suppression fire during the helicopter rescue of the pilot. 31 JANUARY - While patrolling the North Vietnamese coastline on a foggy morning, a strange radar contact appeared. Moving in to The whaleboat . . . 42 investigate, theicrew at general quarters, BORDELON discovered an apparently lost U.S. Army landing craft moving toward the enemy shore. After ensuring that it was not a trap fonly a few days after the PUEBLO incidentb, the craft was escorted away from the coast where a boarding party was sent over in the whaleboat to investigate. After giving the lost and hungry eleven-man crew box lunches, BORDELON and PERTH escorted the craft south to the DMZ and safety, . . . makes the LC U.

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' ' f .num or: i'uc31'g'ipi ,wus 4 . J.'...., I l' OPERATION SEA DRAGON Operation Sea Dragon, one of the most 1 t successful continuing operations of the Viet- nam conflict, tasks Seventh Fleet cruisers and destroyers with the destruction of North Vietnamese logistics craft, trucks convoys, storage areas, highway choke points, and coastal defense sites. For twenty-three days the BORDELON participated in Sea Dragon, cruising along the North Vietnamese coast- line, always on the alert for elusive WIBLICS blasting shore targets once or twice a day, halt- ing the southward flow of material and supplies, carrying the way to the enemy, The ship oper- ated first with the Australian guided missile destroyer HMAS PERTH, whose commanding of- ficer served as task unit commander, then with the USS HOEL fDDG 133 with their Commodore, 1 COMDESDIV 152, as unit commander. V, G 1' 'nu--, , ,.,., ! J HMAS PERTH QD 385 41

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G UNFIRE S UPPORT DMZ - l CORPS - CUA VIET - CAP LAY: familiar names all, recall the 12 days spent conductingl gunfire support for the Third Marine Division just sout of the Demilitarized Zone. Ranlging up and down a ten-mile stretch of coastline, BOR ELON brought her five inch battery into missions as varied as supporting platoon level operations around the Cua Viet beachhead and knockin out enemy artillery positions on Cap Lay. With almost tie entire crew iplit into two sections, the ship was ready to and often id fire twenty-four hours a day. lt did not take long! to learn to sleep soundly with the gruis booming over ead. Didn't it seem like we rearmed every ni ht at 0200? Didn't it seem like projectiles were carried tgom the after magazine to the forward magazine one day and back again the next? These events became routine and almost insignificant compared with the magnitude of the job to be done. More minor events served to highlight the days - a Coast Guard boat coming alongside for ice creamg mail call. Q A 1 . ufy 3 Q W V 115, v R ? gf if ' ff V fr M 2 SN Aycock and SK2 Calimag stand by in Mount 51 handling room. Taking on bullets at the midships station