Pocono (AGC 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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Our visit to Guantanamo Bay complete,we finally brought VADM Mustin's barge aboard and set our course for Norfolk. On the way back CAPT Barkley invited VADM Mustin to inspect the crew during personnel inspection. At the conclusion of the inspection, VADM Mustin said that he was as pleased with appearance as he had been with our performance during the entire trip. As we got further north the weather turned colder and colder, but when we finally arrived in Norfolk, the warm welcome of dependents on the pier took the nip and edge out of the wind. It was great to be hom p Mwmwws A AUIIIIUL OUI' e again. W isa p g4UY ,i NW A 3 swgipg .1 N, J. i 1 32, ,Q s g at E, , N. is r aye N' A 'f fi .g ., , I my , W'-,..,.,..,,,.,,,,,,n x ' , f uw t - .XS t W W,-mW,Mm,,45 pppp , fe o......,,,W ,,.,,g w - . ....w..,,..., ..,, , f my V .Q N., A , 5 ' ' f WV, Z , ,, H b ' ' Q4-.,.,,, , f 1 , 13. - ,,, - K .-,,,,,,, ,. ' W ,M35 W -'f 1557? ,J!'lYx' .ti K K

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On to St. Thomas where we anchored out in the har- bor. Charlotte Amalie, the only town on St. Thomas, is a well known Nfree portn affording excellent shopping. The many shops are filled with all types of imported articles -china, watches, cameras, per- fume and crystal. While .here several groups of school children and Boy Scouts visited the ship for a tour.and refreshments. But we only stayed a short time here. Next stop on our journey was San Juan, capitol of Puerto Rico and one of the oldest cities in the western Hemisphere.p Its cosmopolitan pace was in direct contrast to the smaller quieter ports we previously visited. We spent four days touring in such interesting and historic places as Morro Castle and Old San Juan. We left San Juan early one morning and hopped down the coast to the Naval Sta- tion at Roosevelt Roads for a three day visit. The good weather was still with us, an the golf, fish- ing, and swimming were excellent. Our final port visit of the trip was to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It gave us a chance to see the place where we would later in the year spend three weeks in intensive training..

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Shortly after our return from the Carib- bean we had the first of our major graded training exercises, an Operation- al Readiness Inspection conducted in the Virginia Capes areagwe were gone for only two days but there was a great amount of preparative work to be done,earlier. The weather was bitter cold as we went through our paces, but the results showed that we had done an EXCELLENT job inspite of the weather. Prior to going to the shipyard,Navy ships spend a period of time called a Htender availabilityn-alongside a repair ship in homeport. 'We spent 3 weeks alongside the USS VULCAN, having some preliminary ship- yard work done. This was also a time for the crew to make final preparations for the yard. But we took time out for a ship's party, MC'd by a local disc jockey and enjoyed by everyone. .vi-1 Periodically all Navy ships must enter a Navy shipyard for overhaul and repair. During this time, the ship is torn apart and obsolete equipment is removed. Us- able equipment and materials are cleaned and repaired, new equipment is installed and alterations are made to the ship. POCONO entered such a yard period Iin April of this year. During the months from April to September,literally hun- dreds of jobs were completed by the Boston Naval Shipyard. Finally in early September the shipyard miracle ,took place. Out of the-steel scaffolding, the noise of chipping hammers, and the dirt of old paint and parts emerged POCONO, again a ship of the fleet. ' in the Spirit of maintaining good com- munity relations,POCONO men participated ln several local functions including the Flag Day and Fourth of July parades in Needham, Manchester, and Winthrop, Mass, 2 boat crews helped the city of 'Marble- head celebrate its 300th. year, Marble. head is considered the founding site of the U. S. Navy, for it was here that the first Navy vessel, the USS GLOVER, was presented to the Continental Congress. Later in the sum er boat crews provided transportation to underpriviliged school children in the Boston area to and from Gardner's Island, site of an amusement park in Boston Harbor. a '