Moale (DD 693) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 67 text:

But it was not all ASW. The time was approaching when COMSIXTHFLT would call on his ships to operate at peak performance, and the Commodore wanted to be ready. Thus it was, midshipmen and OOD ' s were put through the mill and helmsmen were harried with quickly changing commands as the squadron conducted hours of maneuvering exercises called DIVTACS. All this was in preparation for the biggest event of them all. On the Mid- watch of 22 June, fully psyched fot the days ahead, we sped through the of Messina, three ships in the wake of USS COLUMBUS (CG-12), at the unbelievable speed of twenty kn

Page 66 text:

CO LU O o LU DC o Q LU Ql CL O LT Anastasi supervises the recovery as Moale approach es the expended torpedo. SI i Vajay and GMG3 Schumacher t ke tc the wate r to harness the fish as the Cap- tail awaits word on the bridge. rh partying over, wc continued our training, concentrating n ow on the ship ' s primary on— ASW. At times we were detached with a sub jnd an assist ship and ran hour alter hou of dual ship attacks. At night wc UlIK ' i the task group for Vceplays called Transitexes ■n : hich we provided protection for th l body ag ainst a sub nanne lurking somewhere b [ w. Set the ASW Attack Team , Standby torpedo became familiar mands, and the snipes below ansv rered wildly var r-ing bells, frantically adjusting super- heat to match the changing situation.

Page 68 text:

IFLAPEX The biggest pcrforn lance of the year was callcc FLAPEX. It w ired two dress rehearsals that had every- thing the real thing had but the audience. We w ere putting show offeree, a nd the theme of the play was Power for Pat . The players ncluded just about every unit of the fleet. Iron the sleek subm rines to the ungainly amphib . The occa- sion was Sixth Flee t ' s Twentieth Anniversary i thc Med. Out role was rclativ civ small, but it had its own spectacular qual tics It was una zinglv simple. As soon as the announcer stopped talking we alew our whistle, pulled the trigger and e-fired two rack of hedgehogs into the air. It was more of it tor us than for the spectators since wc had n ever seen it don. culler and we v ere closer to the action.