Boston (CAG 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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ptain m Archer R. pa on Commanding 29 March 1966 3 July 196 7 Captain Archer R. Gordon was born in New York City on January 15, 1921. He attended St. John ' s University in Brooklyn and was commissioned in the Navy in June 1941, following completion o( the Navy ' s V-12 program at Northwestern University. His (irst duty was in USS CHEMUNG (AO-30) and soon after he attended Navy Submarine School, graduating in 1943. His first submarine was USS SEADRAGON (SS-194) of which he became Executive Officer in 1945. He served as Executive Officer of USS SEA ROBIN ISS-407), assuming command of that submarine in 1950, and then became Force Ordnance Officer in Submarine Force Pacific. Captain Gordon assumed command of Submarine Divi- sion 91 when it became the Navy ' s first guided missile submarine unit in 1955, and later commanded the Pacific Fleet Submarine Training Facility at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In 1961. Captain Gordon took command of the Atlantic Fleet Oceanographic System, and his first deep-draft command was USS HASSAYAMPA (AO-145) in 1964. He took command of USS BOSTON in Boston. Massachusetts, on March 29, 1966. Captain Gordon is married to the former Virginia Utz of Port Washington, New York.

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Decommissioned to the mothball fleet in 1946, BOSTON came to life again in 1952 when she was towed to the New York Shipbuilding Company ' s yards in Camden. New Jersey, for conversion to a guided missile cruiser. This she became in 1955 - the world ' s first such ship - and joined the Fleet as an air defense platform unequaled in any Navy. Until 1967, USS BOSTON (CAG-1) sailed under the Second and Sixth Fleets, taking part in operations in all parts of the Atlantic and Mediterranean as a deterrent to aggression and as a commanding force on the seas. But when her country became involved again in a far-off war, BOSTON was ready to answer the call. On 4 March 1967, USS BOSTON steamed from her home port of Boston, Massachusetts, for the Western Pacific and Vietnam. From mid-April until September, BOSTON was an active unit of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, participating in operations designed to prevent the enemy from moving troops and supplies into South Vietnam. She steamed almost 60,000 miles during her deployment, fired more than 14,000 rounds of ammunition, and took part in some 750 missions. She visited ports in China, Japan and the Philippines, along with Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. And she carried 1,200 men into Harm ' s Way. This book is the story of that cruise and the men who fought BOSTON so majestically. It is not intended as a complete record, for to be so inclusive would require 1,200 men to put the thoughts of eight months into words. This cannot be done. But what can be done is show BOSTON in some of her finer moments, and in some lesser ones, too, with the hope that these pages will revive some memorable events for all hands. USS BOSTON (CAG-1), World ' s first guided missile cruiser.

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Leon I. Smith, Jr. C mmanding Officer Captain Leon I. Smith, Jr., Commanding Officer of USS BOSTON (CAG-1), was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on August 29, 1922. Upon graduation from tlie U.S. Naval Academy in June 1943. he reported to USS NEVADA(BB-36), participating in the Normandy landings, invasion of southern France, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and operations of the Third Fleet in the East China Sea. Captain Smith served in USS WINSLOW (EAG-127) (ex-DD-359) as Project, Gunnery and Executive Officer from 1947 to 1950. He attended the Naval Post Graduate School at Annapolis for a year, followed by duty on the Joint Planning Staff of Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic and Meifilerranean in Naples, Italy and London. England from 1951 to 1954. In 1955. Captain Smith became Executive Officer of USS BEARSS (DD-654). Duty as Commanding Officer of USS COATES (DE-685} followed from December 1956 to July 1958. His next assignment was as a student at the Armed Forces Staff College, and in 1959, he became head of the Fleet Unit, Personnel Plans Division and later Special As. ' iistant for JCS Personnel Matters in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. In October 1961, he assumed command of USS MANLEY (DD-940), the flagship of COMDESRON FOUR. After attending the Fleet Guided Missile School at Dam Neck, Virginia, Captain Smith took command of USS DAHLGREN (DLG-12), flagship of COMDESDIV 182. Upon being re- lieved in June 1964. he was assigned to the Bureau of Naval Personnel as Director Policy Division and later he became Deputy Assistant Chief for Plans and Pro- grams. In August 1966, he entered the National War College at Washington. D.C., graduating in June 1967. Captain Smith assumed command of BOSTON in Sasebo, Japan, on July 3, 1967. He is married to the former Sara Mathews of Norfolk, Virginia, and they have two children: Sara and Leon IV. ) m . ii ' '