Epperson (DD 719) - Naval Cruise Book

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VIETNAM Perhaps the highlight of the cruise was our assignment as naval gunfire support ship along the coast ofl and II Corps in Vietnam. Our operations were bounded by the city of Nha Trang on the south and Da Nang to the north. In this area, the majority of the population lives on the narrow lowlands along the coast, which makes guerrilla Operations there particularly susceptible to naval weapons. In many places, the mountains come right to the sea and provides hiding and gathering areas for the Viet Congthat are almost inaccessible to shore based artillery, but not inaccessible to destroyers Tough and mobile, destroyerscan range quickly up and down the coast providing support and repelling attacks whenever they are needed--24 hours a' day. Land artillery requires many troops to protect it from attack, but the destroyer provides her own defense and can put a heavy concentration of accurate fire as far as 8 miles away. Epperson was assigned NGFS duties twice - from 25 October to 1 November and again from 10-16 Novemb er. We w ready and rarin' to go. The long hours of training - schools, drills, lectures, drills, practice firing and more drills - Egg given us confidnece in ourselves and the ship. The pace was fast, port and starboard shore bombardment sections, six hours on, six hours off, gave ta little rest, but not much, always ready to fire at a moments notice- not many ships could match us in that respect anch r' t , , 0 ing o fire a mission, then up anchor and 27 knots to the next task, the anchor looked like a damned yo-yo-the We Can Handle It men always did- zipping around and between rocks, islands and headlands at 25 knots all hours of the clock, a few toothmarks on the hearts o f 1 1 1 i 1 E 2 ' - b f.fVf H ..M....1w.U., ..,, , ...,,, ,.....,. mM--gmVwg- i K - V ., , , .Y Y - 11--Y-gh , V. J' . , - W 5 4 Q f'f.. 'V 'W' - ', Y-,gf-'-T-ffg:-:g:v v'Y- m- - ' ,' j ',1:1':hI'ff' .L'.,f