Lewis Puller (FFG 23) - Naval Cruise Book

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A WINNING TEAM A ship itself is nothing more than a complex collection of aluminum and steel, of pipes and wires; It Is only as good as the men who operate It In peacetime and who will fight It in time of war. It was the crew that gave the ship Its per- sonality and operated It effectively during the deployment, enabling It to fulfill every commit- ment It was tasked with. This commitment to ex- cellence is recognized in small part on these pages, where just a few of PULLER ' S many out- standing sailors are pictured. Above: (from left) OS2 (SW) Ste- vens, OS3 Kelley, BM3 LoGrow, EN1 (SW) Wroblewski. EM2 Schmitz. EN2 Gronstrom and STG1 VanAusdall receive letters of ap- preciation from the CO for per- formance during special opera- tions in the Philippines. Right: (from left) GSM1 (SW) Brenegon, FC1 Carreras, DK1 Galles, RM1 Nunn, ET1 (SW) Schreiner and OS1 (SW) Wright are frocked to First Class in Hawaii. WINNING NA VAL BA TTLES Naval battles are won by sinking enemy ships, shooting down enemy planes and missiles, destroying enemy submarines, and preventing the enemy from sinking our ships, shooting down our planes and mis- siles and destroying our submarines. To be able to do that, it is well to design, manu- facture and have afloat, ready to use, the best weap- ons systems, engineering systems, communications systems and any other systems you need in battle that you can get with the money allocated to the Navy. All that good equipment must be operated with skill the way it should be or it won ' t accomplish much. All that equipment has to work the way it ought to or it is simply excess baggage. Busted equipment won ' t help in battle. If your gear won ' t work, it ' s no good to anybody. If the systems operators know how to use their equipment, if they ha ve kept the equipment in operat- ing condition, there is a good chance we can win naval battles. Admiral Arleigh Burke

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Put ' ' JS Top left: LCDR Hammontree prac- tices to be an XO with fellow de- partment heads LT Guillory and LT Sommers standing by. Above: Tourist LTJG ' s Cunningham and Aifini. Below: LCDR Sweet is smiling, but it looks like this camera caught LT Guillory by surprise . . . CDR E. MOORE JR. LCDR L.J. CARTER LCDR J.D. HAMMONTREE LCDR W.J. SWEET LT V.G. GUILLORY LT H.L. SOMMERS LTJG R.R. ALFINI LTJG J.R. COLES ill LTJG T.W. CUNNINGHAM LTJG H.M, HENDRY ENS J.D. ALLEN ENS P.M. HELMER ENS M.J. ENGLEBERT CW03 PA. BARBER COMMANDING OFFICER EXECUTIVE OFFICER COMBAT SYSTEMS OFFICER CHIEF ENGINEER SHIP CONTROL OFFICER SUPPLY OFFICER DAMAGE CONTROL ASSISTANT MAIN PROPULSION ASSISTANT CIC OFFICER ASW OFFICER COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER DISBURSING OFFICER FIRST LIEUTENANT ELECTRONICS READINESS OFFICER Right: The CO awards LTJG Aifini a Navy Achievement Medal earned during Mr. Alfini ' s previous tour on USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70). Above: A portrait of General Puller watches over the Wardroom.

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Above: RM ' s Fruchey, McCormick and Stoffer receive letters of appreciation after the Philippines special ops. Far left: BM3 Allan earned a Navy Achievement Medal for courageously disconnecting the fueling rig during an UNREP emer- gency breakaway. Left: FC 1 (SW) Han- sen Is awarded his second Navy Achievement Medal. Above, GSM1 (SW) Shelling, FC1 Carreras and GMM2 Foulk are awarded Good Conduct Me- dals, while below, engineers EN1 (SW) Wroblews- ki, EM2 Schmitz and EN2 Granstrom are commen- ded by the CO for outstanding performance.