Joseph Kennedy (DD 850) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 14 text:

OPERA T10 S DEPARTME Op orders and plans, briefings, exercises, piles of reports, and port and starboard watches - - these are the first things that spring to mind when one says, I'm in the Operations Departmentff Although some- times the communications was less than perfect and occasionally the radars were not at peak effi- ciency, the department that is expected always to have the answers, usually had them. When it was all over -- when the last radar repeater had been secured, the last radio circuit taken down, the last port berth safely entered --'the men could honestly look at each other and admit, We can hack it.

Page 13 text:

ffcgaznzlazfion Teamwork was the keynote throughout the long summer, the efficiency with which the ship performed as a whole during our deployment would have been impossible without the continuous efforts of the officers on these pages. Placed near the top of the chain of command, and delegated the responsibility for assuring fulfillment of the ship's mission, our Executive Officer and Department Heads ably filled their managerial billets. To the Exec belongs the responsibility for the administrative functioning of the entire ship. He is a court of inquiry, a policy maker and a paper mill, and heaven help anyone who doubts that he has the authority to go along with these duties! Like the Exec, the four department heads are in charge of the administrative efficiency of their respective areas. Procedures must be right, reports must be filled out on time, everything must click on paper. Even more important, though Cone some- times wondersl, the operational performance of the departments should be as effective and flailless as possible. Ops has to know what is going on, where, and what to do when we get thereg the Chief Engi- neer has to get us thereg and the gun boss has to take the objective when we arrive. Luckily, the divi- sion officers and their men do the rest. LT JOHN P. KELLY Operations Officer ji D n , A 5 LT JERRY D. GARRATT Weapons Officer LTCJGJ DON C. WATTERS Supply Officer

Page 15 text:

OC 15212252011 AENSIGN RALPH H. RUEDY Communications Officer Say, Chief, what do all these rows of buttons do? Radiomen, signalmen, quartermasters, yeomen and personnelmen - - nearly autonomous groups linked by their love of confusion: this is how OC Divi- sion sometimes appeared to the untrained eye. fEven the trained eye could be fooled intothis be- lief - - right, Mr. Ruedy?P The pace was hot and heavy throughout the five months with the Sixth Fleet. Often there were more circuits to guard than there were receivers and trans- mitters to put them on. The message traffic volume was fantastic, and not all of it was incoming, either! A routine took all day to get on the skeds, and perhaps longer to route. Routines became priorities, priorities ,became op immediates, and oh thank heaven for on-line crypto! Signalmen were in short supply during the bluster- ing month of March, but the balmy days of May brought volunteers seeking refuge from the deck force, where they had to chip and paint and mess cook. So we taught them how to chip and paint on the signal bridge. With no Loran to guide them, the quartermasters had to re-learn navigation. Included were lessons from the radarmen on the fine art of using a rubber compass. As for the white-collar boys in the office, they were pretty busy typing up everybody's reports. But, ah, no watches. ROBERT J. ANTHONY SA DONALD L. CARTER QM3 HENRY A. DOWNING SA GEORGE M. EMERY JR SA RONALD M. GRATZ RM3 RICHARD W. HAHN SM2 DAVID W. HALL YN3 THOMAS L. HINGST PNSN