Brinkley Bass (DD 887) - Naval Cruise Book

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Japan was markedby trips to Tokyo, visits to the Great Buddha at Kamakura, and vast purchases of Japanese radios, tape recorders and cameras. First exposure always means overindulgence. If everything BRINKLEY BASS sailors bought in Yokosuka were plugged into the ship at one time, we would have lost the load. With painting, minor repairs and adjustments completed, we left Japan for our last jumping off place before Yankee Station, Subic Bay, Philippines. In port in Subic Bay, there was a frantic rush to get--the ship ready for change of command. On the morning of August seventeenth, the BRINKLEY BASS was decked with flags and bunting and Commander Steven van WES- TENDORP assumed command. The next morning we got underway again, still screening the HANCOCK, for two days of operations off the Phili- ppine coast. On the night of the nineteenth, LTJG Louis PLOTZ, the pilot of an F-8 crusader, ran short of fuel and ejected from his aircraft into choppy seas. Twenty minutes later, with the captain conning, we had him aboard the fantail, safe and sound. Returning LTJG PLOTZ by helicopter to the HANCOCK, we steamed on to Yankee Station and two weeks of unex- citing work planeguarding for HANCOCK. We returned to Subic for four days and then back to the HANCOCK un- til we were called by USS LONG BEACH QCGN-95 to serve as her Shotgun , surface raid defense ship while she acted as strike support ship, keeping track of air strikes into North Vietnam. By the beginning of October, Subic Bay was becoming a second home port for the BRINKLEY BASS. We spent the first 4 days of the month there again,'before getting underway again with USS MAHAN QDLG-115 for a month of search and rescue. First we went to Danang for a day of SAR training, then up to the Gulf for duty. Halfway through the month we were detached to rejoin the USS LONG BEACH when USS POWER's firecontrol radar broke down. So, all in all, October was a pretty dull month, operationally speaking. Otherwise, we had some good things to occupy our time. Supply supplied weekly steak barbecues on the fantail, and mail service was exceptionally good. Several offi- cers and men were given tours on the LONG BEACH, and there was a full schedule of drills and exercises for jun- ior officers on the bridge and the engineering department below. BRINKLEY BASS rejoined the MAHAN for the last few days of October before being relieved and heading back to Subic Bay.