Watts (DD 567) - Naval Cruise Book

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Why The Cruise? To many on the Watts, and also to many others with friends or relatives on the Watts, the thought has undoubtedly occurred, what is accomplished by having the ship in the Far East for six months? The answer is two-toldg support of Amer- ican foreign policy in Asia and training. Even those who give only superficial attention to international news must be aware that the Far East, especially in and around Formosa, has been an area of vacillating war scares for the past year or more. When the Watts left Long Beach in April, many informed observers predicted the invasion ol the oi-shore islands and ultimately Formosa to be only a few weelrs away. Fortunately, these predictions were wrong but it became apparent that President Eisenhowefs 'get tough policy around Formosa necessitated the presence ot a large naval force. The Watts was part of that force. Although the ship was never actually assigned to patrol duty, she was often part of the famous Task Force 77 which hovered oft the eastern coast of Formosa, creating a keen deterrent to any would-be in- vader. The six month cruise was also a period of intensive training. During this time the Watts executed almost every conceivable function for which a destroyer- type vessel is designed. Many days were spent plane-guarding, that is occupying a station relative to a carrier whereby pilots of planes that might crash during landing or launching operations can be readily picked up. The Watts also had a good many gunnery exercises. Almost every time sleeve-towing services were available, the ship conducted an antiaircratt exercise designed to increase the accuracy and efficiency of gun mounts and fire control systems. Other gunnery exercises conducted on the cruise included worlt in surface fire, shore bombardment, and torpedo-tiring. The ship became expert at fueling and provisioning at sea, exercises seldom conducted in home waters. Especially valuable was the experience gained in taking on large quantities of ammunition and toodstutls while underway. Other training included divisional tactics, hunter-killer antisubmarine warfare operations, night surface tactics, CIC, and communication drills.. The .wt months were well spent, bringing the ship up to a high degree not etticiency rn all oper- ations and making up a small part of the floating big stick lfwhd FUNDR-

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