Abbot (DD 628) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 28 text:

Un I8 -Iuly we were briefed about a possible iiiovt-tiit-iit ol an ampliih. lorce to the Beirut area. But then we were ortlered to tliree days ol ops in the Virginia Capes area with the Benham and the Antietam. The latest news we reteived informed us that the tension had eased in the niiddle east. ,-Xt l730 on 22 July, orders arrived which sent us to Vieques in the Carribbean as an eseort lor 'TRQXNSPHIBRON 8. This was lor :i practice landing alter which the entire unit might be sent to the Med. Twerity-four hours later we rendez- voused with the Benhzim and the Antietam and headed south. mi Qkss, C.

Page 27 text:

WHS Th ' was 0045 on 15 july. The Captain was in his sea cabin, Mr. Simonton e time the OOD, Dazey had the Quartermaster watch, DCl'1l1S was at the helm. Stubblefield was watching the steam pressure in Nam Control. Everything was running quietly and well. And then a messa e was flashed to us from COMDESRON 10-we had been ordered to proceed 3 back to Norfolk. At the moment, no one was sure why. But the Chiefs picked up a news broad- ' ' ' c ' Ad S cast on TV before breakfast. It talked about a revolt in Iraq and the fact that the Unite tates had landed troops in Lebanon. It all htted together when we arrived in Norfolk and read the press. The prospects were not good and we all knew it. Our squadron was put on our l e ulated that we were hour alert and much scuttlebutt naturally ensued. The Norfo k papers sp c to escort an amphibious force to the eastern lNI ed.: there was talk ol disembarking the midship- ' ' ' ' A d water- Nleanwhile we loaded to l00U capacity of ammunition, fuel, food, stores, an men. . . L U we were ready to go at any moment. Liberty was granted on the base in Norfolk. but even this went by the boards when there was ammo to be loaded on l7 july. r f f ' ,: ,, . ..,. ,V .f . .,,., t H W , sl 51: 5: ,awre-W f f.lvfg,E,1y.--'-': ' Y- . -'.,1f :j' 4- lg A f r f' . ' 'ilff i s .. . '.'t' . ' .a i ,,.., I I ...,- 1 l :.k if 'h ' iw if ,'.' ft 1 if ' ' lf T. ..,. - ,.. xl- T A , V AA-. .llb ,W t f- 5 l 'Q 20 1

Page 29 text:

55 Www l . ,W it .. 'Xl f' -- L I DESRON I0 anchored at Vieques early in the afternoon of 26 July. It was extremely hot and we would all have preferred to be on our way to the Med. The 28th found us participating in an air shoot oll' Culebra and we spent the night anchored off the small hamlet of San Ildelonso. lVe conducted a sur- face shoot on the 29th and returned to Vieques. We departed Vieques at 0930 on the 30th and proceeded to Roosevelt Roads for refueling, then cranked our speed up to 27 knots and arrived along- side the Sherman in San -Iuan at 20f4U. That we enjoyed San juan is an under- statement-it was our first real port on the cruise and it was pleasant to get ashore after our prolonged delay at Norfolk. l punvlvrvw ,ww-...Q ,,,,.,ww-W' ,.-vw'