Epperson (DD 719) - Naval Cruise Book

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supervising M the XO. . . The Perils of Command What oil - I don't see any oil!

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EXECUTIVE GFFICER Z .f K 7 - - r . 1 S 5 X f X W, N, fl X Z 2 X l 1 f ? Q Z f . 42, 7,..s,gq Z . 'SWL Qisfww ' 4 VY 14 '-' gif . f, ,,.. X f, wi-IaA4f'fS 5 ,, af 4 Lt. Commander D. P. Richardson LCDR RICHARDSON reports on 1 October 1975 as Commanding Officer, USS EPPERSON following a tour as Executive Officer. LCDR RICHARDSON enlisted in the Navy in March 1953, advancing through the ranks of Chief Aviation Electronics Technician. Chosen to attend college under the NESEP Program, LCDR RICHARDSON entered the University of Missouri in September 1959 and graduated in June 1963 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Math. LCDR RICHARDSON then attended Naval Officer Candidate School and was commissioned Ensign in November 1963. Following commissioning, he served in the Air and Weapons Departments in USS RANGER QCVA- 61y, attended U.S. Naval Destroyer School in New- port, Rhode Island, and served as Engineer Officer, USS BRONSTEIN IDE-10371. Following a tour as Commanding Officer of USS HAMPSHIRE COUNTY QLST-8191, LCDR RICHARDSON attended U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, where he was awarded the Master of Science Degree in Oceanography. He also plays a lousy game of golf.

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1 I-uP's Hlstonv Years of Naval Service ,L .Zigi EPPERSON QDD-719i is a Gearing Class destroyer whose missions are anti-submarine war- fare, anti-air warfare and shore bombardment. She measures 106 feet from waterline to mast tip, is 391 feet long, 40 feet wide at her beam and has a speed in excess of 30 knots. She has a regular crew of ap- proximately twelve officers and 180 enlisted men who are augmented by a selected reserve crew of 9 of- ficers and 112 enlisted men. The construction of EPPERSON was originally approved during World War ll. Her keel was laid in June 1945 at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Kearney, New Jersey. Construction was stopped at the end of World War ll and the un- completed hull was towed to Boston Naval Shipyard where it remained until she was completed by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, and Commissioned on 19 March 1949. The ship is named after Private First Class Harold Glenn EPPERSON, USMC, who won with his valorand his life the nation's highest decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Extensive sea trials of her then radically new in- stallations were conducted in the Key West, Florida area until Spetember 1950 at which time the EPPERSON was transferred to Pearl Harbor. ln 1951 and 1952 she saw service with the United Nations Forces in Korea and in 1954 with the U.S. Seventh Fleet's Formosa Straits Patrol. Floutine deployment to the Western Pacific with anti-submarine warfare groups have been made by EPPERSON since 1955. She participated in the 1958 high altitude Nuclear Tests at Johnson Island, and in 1962 she was stationed in Mid-Pacific as a recovery vessel for Colonel John Glenn's historic flight. In October of the same year she was part of the recovery force for Astronaut Walter Schirra's successful six orbit flight, and later in 1963 for the recovery of Astronaut Gordon Cooper. During her last seven deployments to the Western Pacific, EPPERSON conducted operations for up to 45 consecutive days off the coast of Vietnam. As part of her duties she has rescued downed pilots and their air crews and has saved several outposts from Viet Cong attack through Gunfire Support. The ship was thoroughly overhauled and moder- nized in 1964 when the latest anti-submarine warfare weapons were added. We now have aboard ASROC, four conventional 5 !38 caliber guns, and anti- submarine torpedoes. l EPPERSON changed homeport to Seattle, Washington in August 1973 and became a part of the Naval Fleserve force. She is presently Flagship of Destroyer Squadron THIRTY-SEVEN. The next few pages are dedicated to the 26 years of blood and sweat that made EPPERSON the ship she is today.