Denver (LPD 9) - Naval Cruise Book

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THE SKIPPER

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w PAC DEPLOYMENT lltUilUl! 1 Ljfing on refugees for transport to Subic Bay Phillipines. DENVER ' S share came to over 500 people who were bedded down under a tent city erected on the flight deck |amidst salvaged helicopters. UJLjjlAt ly lfew days in Subic the ship got underway for bkfiid ai: ' riving at White Beach on the 12th of May. 5 The next morning DENVER got underway on short notice in response to the Mayaguez Incident but word was received on the 85th to head back to Okinawa when the f Mayaguez was recovered. The rest of the month of May and June saw i DENVER support the Marine Corps with routine transits I from White Beach to Numazu at the foot of Mount Fuji in ;, Japan and a side trip to Pusan, Korea, where we all en- Ijoyed good liberty and shopping at low prices. July proved another busy month as DENVER took MOBILE under tow when that ship had a major engineering breakdown. That evolution and some ex- tremely rough surf off Numazu caused the loss of several days in our already tight schedule. Those days were made up in a record breaking switch of BLT ' s in Okinawa as DENVER conducted the unprecedented simultaneous . onload of one BLT while offloading another. The ship then ' went to Yokosuka, Japan, fopeiuch needed repairs arriv- fing 18 July. 911 The ship next got underway for Pohang, South M , Korea to put out Marines ashore for training prior to a landing exercise in August. During transit DENVER ex- ' - ' pptiiyM H i perienced a rather major fire in the after engine room which was finally brought under control only because of the heroic efforts of the engineering department per- sonnel involved in fighting it. After picking up Marines in Pohang, DENVER and other ships of Amphibious Ready Group BRAVO con- ducted a joint landing with Korean forces near Pohang encountering some extremely rough weather and surf conditions. Afterwards DENVER visited Inchon, Korea, on the Yellow Sea 28 August to 3 September. The ship arrived back at White Beach on 10 September after put- ting BLT 8 9 ashore at Numazu. When next underway on 17 September DENVER was enroute for a port visit to Hong Kong and thence to Subic Bay. While in Hong Kong the ship was required to get underway to avoid Typhoon Alice. On 89 October DENVER departed Okinawa for Home. On 18 November DENVER got underway from Pearl Harbor for San Diego with Commander Amphibious Squadron FIVE aboard in company with the rest of the squadron. DENVER arrived in San Diego on 16 November 1975 after seven and one-half months of a cruise which was highlighted by some of the most memorable moments in the lives of her crew anci thousands whose lives touched on the DENVER Doer| Best Ar m ,i the Fleet iif t i '

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LETTER FROM THE COMMANDING OFFICER The following pages present a portion of the history of our ship and a part of our lives. In leafing through them in years to come all of us will recall times of boredom, times of action, long hours of work and periods of dispair, but each of us will take pride in having been a part of it. Men of the sea know their ship as they know a friend. They can pick her from a group, they know her sounds, her smells, her motions and her moods. They worry when she acts strangely, jump to help when she falters, curse her and praise her, preen her, brag of her and defend her. She has a personality all her own, one that ' s given her by her crew and one that reflects the aggregate personality of that crew. These pages hold the personality of our crew and our ship. Our pride in showing her off to visitors, compassion displayed in our mission of mercy off Vietnam, our concern for damage to her and our routine daily life in her, are all shown here. Each of us had a part in making DENVER a great ship, and great she is. Long hard steaming, continuous day and night loading or off loading, rushing to make up lost time, and rapid repair of casualties all made it possible for us to boast We never missed a commitment. Never will DENVER stand taller than she has during this period. It has been my good fortune to have been part of her crew. I am extremely proud to be counted among Denver ' s Sallors, and to have had a part in her history. H. T. JENKINS, JR.