Chipola (AO 63) - Naval Cruise Book

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CAPTAIN ROBERT B. BALDWIN Captain Robert Bemus Baldwin was born in Minneapolis, Minesota in 1923. He attended the United States Naval Academy and was commissioned in June 1944. His first duty was served aboard the USS BIR- MINGAM during which time the cruiser participated in the Iwo Jima and Okinawa Campaigns. Captain Baldwin earned the Purple Heart for wounds received during a Kamikaze attack at Okinawa. In 1946 Captain Baldwin entered fiight training, earning his wings in September 1947. He served with Attack Squadron 44 as a fighter pilot until 1954 when he was assigned to VC-5, the Navyis first Operational Special Weapons Squadron. In January 1956, Captain Baldwin attended the Naval Aviation Training Center at Patuxent River, Maryland, for test pilot training. He graduated in June 1957 and went to VC-3 as a team leader during tests of the FJ -3 Fury,' Fighter Jet. After transitional training with VC-3 he reported to Figher Squadron 154, the first F-8 Crusader squadron in the Pacific Fleet, as executive officer and later became Commanding Officer. Following this he went to the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Promotion Plans. In 1959 Captain Baldwin was a finalist in the Original Project Mercury screening. He returned to Aircraft Carrier Squadron duty as Commanding Officer of Fighter Squadron 51 in 1961. In February 1963 he assumed command of CVG 61. Captain Baldwin came to the CHIPOLA from BUPERS where he served a year as Executive Assistant to the Chief ef Naval Personnel, Captain Baldwin's decorations and awards include the Bronze Star with Combat V , the Purple Heart, the Pacific Theater Medal with two battle stars, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Vietnam Service Medal. Captain Baldwin left CHIPOLA on 11 June 1967 for command of FORRESTAL.

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xv, I Qf 1 V- hi x ll L Uss CHIPOLA qAo 635 Dew Named after a river flowing through Georgia and Florida, USS CHIPOLA CAO 635 has had a long, if interrupted, career since her launching at Sparrows Point, Maryland on 21 October 1944. CHIPOLA was commissioned on 30 November 1944 in plenty of time to engage in ac- tion in the Pacific Theater of World War II. She received three battle stars for her re- fueling of attack ships in the campaigns at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Third Fleet operations against Japan. CHIPOLA was on hand for that historic moment when the instrument of surrender ending WW II was signed aboard USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay. After the war the CHIPOLA served as a tanker transporting fuel from literally one end of the World to the other, making about twenty trips around the world while so en- gaged. Upon the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, CHIPOLA served with the Seventh Fleet for which participation she earned the Korean Service Medal. On 1 August 1955, shortly after the war's end, CHIPOLA was placed out of commission. Her rest was fairly short lived as she was recommissioned on 29 September 1956 as an MSTS tanker. In this capa- city she carried fuel along the East Coast of the United States until she was again placed out of commission on November 1957. CHIPOLA remained in moth balls until September 1961 when she was once again called on by the Navy to resume her role in the auxiliary fleet. Outfitted and readied for sea, she was recommissioned in Baltimore, Maryland on 17 December. One month later she left those snowy climes for the nation's only Pacific Island state. She arrived in Pearl 1 bor in March 1961. ' Since arriving in the Pacific, CHIPOLA has completed four previous deployments with Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific. During her fifth deployment in WESTPAC, .JHIPOLA refueled three hundred seventy three ships, ranging from the small SWIFT boats if our giant attack carriers, an example of the continued reliability and effort of the ship nd crew. I ' CHIPOLA's record of service is an impressive one. Her officers and men look forward continued operations in the Pacific area, upholding the Service Force Motto-Service, ubility, Support. This is the story of her fifth deployment.

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CAPTAIN LAWRENCE W. KELLEY Captain Lawrence W. KELLEY, USN, assumed command of the oiler USS CHI- POLA CAO 635 on 11 June 1967. Born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1922, he was graduated from the Rox- bury Latin School in 1940, from Amherst College in September 1943, and was com- missioned in November 1943 from the Naval Reserve Midshipman School at Notre Dame. His first duty was as Ordnance Oflicer Beach Jumper Unit Number Six. ln 1946, Captain KELLEY served as Operations Officer at the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Virginia. In 1947 through 1948, Captain KELLEY served as Executive Oliicer aboard QLSMR 5105 and then as First Lieutenant aboard CLST 11025. From there, he attended General Line School in Monterey, California. In 1949, he commenced a sea tour, serving as Signal Oflicer aboard USS ANTIETAM CCV 365, Operations Oflicer aboard USS G. K. MACKENZIE CDD 8365 and finally as Operations Oflicer to Commander Destroyer Squadron 14. He served as NROTC Instructor at Yale University from 1951 until 1953. Captain KELLEY assumed command of USS AGGRESSIVE CMSO 4225 in 1953 and remained in that billet until 1956 when he departed for Rome to serve as Chief, Plans and Programs Branch, MAAG Italy. In 1959 he returned to the United States and became the Torpedo ASW Evaluation Officer at the Key West Test and Evaluation Detachment. From 1961 to 1963 he served as Operations Ohicer aboard USS OKLA- HOMA CITY QCLG 55. He became Commanding Oliicer of USS WALKER QDD 5175 in 1963, which assignment he held until February 1965. His tour prior to assuming command of USS CHIPOLA was on the Staff of Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet where he served as Assault Forces! Sea Surveillance Ofiicer. Captain KELLEY's decorations include the Army Commendation Medal and the usual World War II Campaign Medals, and the Vietnam Compaign Medals. Captain KELLEY and his wife, the former Florence Ullrich of Oak Park, Illinois and Monte Carlo, Monaco and their son, Kevin 9, reside at 5-A Kamakani Place, Honolulu, Hawaii.