Cotten (DD 669) - Naval Cruise Book

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alciion in flue gat Cad! On 29 June the ship in company with the U. S. S. DALY and U. S. S. SMALLEY, departed for the Korean operational area. Behind us we left the U. S- S. BRONSON which had developed boiler trouble and 'needed repairs. - Our nearness to the war started manyheads thinking and wondering why we, who live thousands of miles away should worry about a small. war in Korea. Actually the area it covered was small but it was a world wide affair. Ithas been concluded that our enemy has but one objective. That being to gain all the power and land possible. This may be clearly seen in both Europe and Asia where the Russian government either politically or by measures of force, has overtaken many countries. The reason for the United Nations in Korea is to stop aggressions such as this before they enlarge themselves. We must realize that our men would much rather fight here than on our own native soil. Perhaps at this time, before we go back to the U. S. S. COTTEN it might be well to describe the type of war we were about to Cflgagff in- UPOH OUI aff1VHl 111 the Korean theatre the fighting had slackened and the front line had remained fairlyfstable for a con- siderable period of time. Of course the patrolling activities were carried on and occasional skirmishes were to be seen. These were the only moves made by either side. It was known that our enemy was building up his forces. To remedy this the air and sea war was quite active. His supply lines were continually harassed from both air and sea. Our enemy's coast was blockaded by the U. N. naval forces, which consisted of ships from several coun- tries. These always achieved complete harmony of work in all of their operations. Another fact that should not go unmentioned, was that we were up against an enemy who showed herself only in the form of guns, planes, and shells. We were not fighting Russia, but the Russian backed puppets of Red China and North Korea. As we entered the operational area the ship joined forces with the mighty and well known Task Force 77. We were immediately given a screening position to afford protec- tion to our fast carriers. We then settled down to the many tasks and new jobs which lay ahead. For several days we cruised north and south on the Sea of japan with little or no excitement. Only an occasional battle-beaten plane going to a final resting place in the cruel sea broke the monotony. When this did happen a helicopter or an ever' ready destroyer was on hand to rescue the crew of the downed plane. This soon became a fairly common occurence as we did lose several planes in the time spent in Korea. With this exception nothing else occurred other than the usual tasks the Navyis all purpose ships, the destroyers, encounter while operating in a war zone. It seemed odd that we were operating in a combat zone, yet not seeing any action. All queries to this were soon answered when on 6 July the following message was received from COMDESDIV 302: Your prospective duty will probably make you the first Thunder- bolter to engage the enemy X The DIVCOM expects that your performance will be far superior to the best so far produced X To COTTEN and her men I wish good luck, a hot fight and God speed BT . . . Yes, this meant that the COTTEN was assigned to a special task and would soon see some real action on tlrfe coast of North Korea. The COTTEN

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