Greenwich Bay (AVP 41) - Naval Cruise Book

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i-1.1-in Now Meet The Crew DECK DIVISION Rear Row: Center Row: Front Row: 5 3 fLeft to righty Vaughan, SN, Lenz, SN, Hall, SN g Majors, SA, Bales, SN, Williams, SN. QLeft to rightj Bowles, SA, Davis, SNQ Lt. Smith, Blanken, BMC, Barrett, SN, Morris, SN. fLeft to rightj Steffey, BM2, King, SA, Bickford, BM2 O

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, J ,- f fe:-mwrv 1 - rem -was-1 F R-AWAY PL CES A History of the USS Greenwich Bay AVP-41 by LT tjgl V. E. Stenberg, CHC, USNR Built by the Lake Washington Shipyards. That's the way one of the history's of the USS Greenwich Bay starts. Reports that she was built to operate exclusively on the lake are untrue.. Proof that she in in fact sea- worthy are definitely shown by the hundreds of thousands of miles she has traveled since cornpletlon in March 1945. Not all of these have been comfortable miles, for either the ship or those who manned her, but she was de- signed to do a job and she was able to do it. Besides this, the country had been engaged ina mighty effort to win a war for three and a half years. The building of ships, tanks, planes, and the smaller weapons of war had been going on at a furious pace and who would have thought there were enough spare parts left over to slap together a small seaplane tender? Considering that the G. B. was the twenty-third of those small tenders, the spare parts department must have been working overtime. It was no fault of the Greenwich Bay that the war was over before it could be determined if those spare parts had been put in the proper spaces, if the tanks would hold both Aviation fuel and Diesel oil, and if the hull would hold out salt water. After a San Diego Shakedown, the young tender set out upon an illustrious career. Ignoring the fact that the war was over, our AVP set out for China where she operated as part of Fleet Air Wing ONE, U. S. SEVENTH Fleet. Her first mission involved tending the aircraft of various patrol and rescue squadrons of PBM's which speeded up essential courier and mail service. This was in the last three months of 1945, and thus began her habit of visiting far away places with strange sounding names . These included Taku, Tsingtao and Shanghai. Most of these strange sounding names were added in the first three months of 1946. Operating then in the waters off the Land of the Rising Sun , she was seen at Hiro-Wan, Honshu Island, and at Sasebo, Kyushu Island. She early showed signs of being a wanderer. 30 March found her at Mainla, Philippine Islands, from which she set out to take a look at Cavite, Luzon, Puerta Princessa, Palawan, and Tawi-Tawi. Her list of far-away places was growing. But then, listen to the cheers, our ship has won her first ribbons for her Pacific operations and she has been ordered to the states. It will be far from her home, however, for it isn't Washington, or even the West Coast. The strange-sounding name she is headed for is Norfolk, Virginia. On the way she adds the names of Hong Kong, Singaporeg Naples, Gibraltar, and Casablanca, arriving in Norfolk 1 July 1946. By November some of those spare parts were showing wear and the Green Witch was hustled off to the New York Naval Shipyard for some post-war replacements. Or, was it it prepare the Witch for a new phase in her career? It isn't every ship, you know, that is chosen as escort vessel to the Presidential Yacht, but that was her duty, escort to the USS WILLIAMSBURG. 1948, however, finds the Witch's wanderlust at work and she is again poking arolmd some exotic-sounding far-away places. Look at the list! Port Said, Aden, Bahrain, Ras Tanura, Kuwait, Sharja, Trincomalee and Colombo. It is rumored that there are men on the ship today who could add to that list names of places found in the same area. Ah, but what an odd thing fate is! The Green Witch caught someone's eye. It isn't within the memory of any man aboard when she took on her Persian Gulf pallor - a coat of white paint, but it was the Hrst of many such coats of paint. And what other strange thing is this, now that she has become someone's favorite? It'sair-condi- tioning. Well, now for a bit more comfort for those who make the ship their home, but why? It was 1949 and time to groom her for her new duty. It is a job she has done so well that she is still at it. Each year, the Greenwich Bay bids farewell to her adopted home port in Virginia and heads for points East of Suez . She had caught the eye of someone who made her one of the flagships for Commander of the U. S. Naval Forces, Middle East. She has added to her impressive list of places visited such new names as Basra, Abadan, Umm Said, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Hengam. Jazirat Al Kubr, Karachi, and Bombay. These are all in the Middle East or Southwest Asia. There are also the African ports of call now, including Massawa, Berbera, Mogasdicio, and Mombasa. It is reported that on one trip trouble was threatened in the Suez Canal when she wanted to go through. Not outvvitted, the Witch made a shift in routes and headed for far-away places beyond Mombasa after having been relieved as flagship. She took off for Capetown, buzzed on over to Recife in Brazil, made a stop in Trinidad and wheeled on into Norfolk, a little late, but with all hands safe. She's had her moments of glory, too. On 15 June 1950, personnel of the USS GREENWICH BAY rescued nine persons from the waters of the Persian Gulf near Bahrain Island following acrash of an Air France Constellation which carried 55 persons including members of the crew. Besides being a home for Admirals in the Persian Gulf, the Greenwich Bay has entertained many notables in that area including King Ibn Saud, the absolute ruler of Saudi Arabia, His Imperial Majesty Haille Selassie, Em- porer of Ethiopia, Sheik Abdulla A1 Sabal, Ruler of Kuwait freputedly the richest man in the worldjg Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran and a ruler recently in the news, Saiyid Said Bin Taimur, the sultor of Muscat and Oman. And now, for a look at the notables who live aboard, during the 1957 cruise to far-away places East of Suez , some of their activities, and ports visited en route, turn the pages of this outstanding cruise book.

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ii RWM 3 ui 23 all -F, I f f ,. .-A 1 -4 li ,,k, S ,Wi , 4 mf , W5 :T .-il, iii, ,, QQ 1- gg 'THX' K - , .,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,f4yqf:'wQwfa'w+wfn ev-rigs-my nannpuwwnnaruu . DECK DIVISION , I 741 -me T' I ,ff ,ff vw. , V Rear Row: fLeft to righty Brentley, SA, Murphy, SN, St. John, BM3, Brown, SN, Weaver, SN, Harnish, SN. Center Row, fLeft to right, Mendenhall, SN, Ratterree, SA, Keegan, SN Dobson, BM1, Sansavera, SN, Clark, SN. Front Row, fLeft to right, O'Keefe, BM3, Parks, SN, Fowler, SN, Bordner, SN, Wertman, SN, Green, SN.