Hepburn (DE 1055) - Naval Cruise Book

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A normal deployment had been scheduled for .)une 29. Instead in- structions to prepare for deployment were received on the evening of May 12. and on the morning of May 17 HEPBURN was underway to join Anti-Submarine Warfare Group THREK. The group consisted of the LSS TICONDEROGA.USS ROBISON. ISS EN(;i,AND and LSS MARVIN E. SHIELDS During the transit to the Western Pacific. ASWGRf THREE paused overnight at Pearl Harbor on CRUISE ' 72 .May 23. shifted to the operational control of Commander, .SEVF;NTH Fleet, on May .30. and spent several hours refueling in Guam on the first of .June. On June h the group arrived at Subic Bay and COMDESRON TWENTY-THREE. Capt. .I.M. Neeley. embarked in HEPBURN. The task group departed three days later for ASW operations in the South China Sea and returned to Subic Bay on July .3 for a brief up- keep period. While inport Subic Bay, HEPBURN was detached from ASWGRr THREE and on Julv 7 COMDESRON TWENTY-THREE shifted his pennant ashore. On the Hth of July HEPBURN departed .Subic to join the ships on the DMZ and provided gunfire support for •South Vietnamese forces. .She arriv- ed on the gunline July 9 and in the next nine days fired approximately . jUfi rounds of . J ' M ammunition. Damage assessments that were received included twenty structures

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Were Niagra but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousands of miles to see it? Why did the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach? Why is almost every robust boy with a robust healthy soul in him at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and make him own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper that meaning of the story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild im- age he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see it in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all. MOBY DICK by Herman Melville

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destroyed and two secondary ex- plosions. On July 27 the HEPBURN was detached from the gunline and assigned to the South TALOS Station. While there, she assisted in the rescue of a Navy pilot whose plane had been shot down over North Vietnam by refueling, under emergency conditions, the helicopter which eventually per- formed the recovery. While HEPBURN continued her Search and Rescue duties, on August 7 Commander William C. Manes relieved Commander John W. Sellers as Commanding Officer. On August 9 the ship was relieved on South TALOS and began her transit to Sasebo for upkeep. HEPBURN got underway for Mid- dle SAR Station on August 21. While there, she encountered ten tons of baled rice, evidently intend- ed for the North Vietnamese, and destroyed it with her gunfire. After five days on Mid SAR the HEPBURN was assigned as rescue destroyer working with the USS MIDWAY. The HEPBURN was again assigned to the Mid SAR Sta- tion on September 10 and seven days later was detached and proceeded to Subic Bay for upkeep. After departing Subic Bay in companv with USS SARATOGA on September 28, the HEPBURN was assigned gunline duty in the vicinity of Quang Ngai Province. Naval gunfire was the principal defensive weapon available to the South Vietnamese units ashore, and over a period of seven days the HEPBURN fired a variety of gun- fire support missions. For example, during the period of September 30 to October 1, the ship fired at several North Vietnamese staging areas and troop concentrations in the vicinity of Quang Ngai City. During this period approximately 540 rounds were fired and gun damage assess- ment included four enemy killed in action, two structures destroyed and four damaged, and two secondary explosions. HEPBURN left the area on October 1 to refuel and avoid typhoon Lorna. Four days later HEPBURN was detached from the gunline to join USS MIDWAY as mutual sup- port ship until October 12 when she left the Gulf of Tonkin with the USS MIDWAY enroute to Subic Bay. HEPBURN arrived in Subic Bay October 14 and remained inport un- til October 22 when she departed for Hong Kong. She arrived in Hong Kong two days later and assumed duty as SOFA (ADMIN) Hong Kong until the first of November. On November 2 HEPBURN was again underway. The ship arriv- ed on the North SAR Station November 4 and continued on this station until November 12 when she joined the USS SARATOGA as rescue destroyer. On the 20th of November the HEPBURN was relieved and tran- sited to Subic Bay, arriving the afternoon of the 23rd. After two days in port the ship was again un- derway, this time to rejoin the destroyers with which she had first journeved to WESTPAC — ROBISON, ENGLAND, MARVIN SHEILDS. She arrived in Yokosuka on the 29th of November, and the four ships departed for the transit home on the first of December. Dur- ing HEPBURN ' S transit home the ship stopped for a brief refueling at Midway Island on December 4, shifted to the operational control of Commander, FIRST Fleet, on the 6th of December, and again stopped in Pearl Harbor for fuel on December 9. On December 15 HEPBURN arrived at her home port of Long Beach after a deployment which had lasted two days short of seven months.