Does anyone else remember when, in broad daylight, we were bracketed by artillery rounds while just making headway waiting for our slot alongside an oiler or supply ship? 

      We were south of the DMZ and close enough to the coast that the water was “baby crap” brown.   It was a bright, nearly cloudless day and I was in the Engineers Head, just forward of the aft athwartships passage, when I heard the “clicks” of rounds detonating near the ship.  I stepped out onto the starboard outboard Main Deck and was surprised to feel a light rain falling…….on a cloudless day.

     It was then that I saw two or three circular splashes in our wake and 30 or 40 yards off our starboard side.  At the same time I heard SN Noel Aube, who was the phone talker in the After 5” Mount, screaming into his phones, “someone is shooting at us.  Just turn around and look you stupid SOB”.  At that point I’m not sure he needed the phones to get the attention of the Bridge.

     In just a few seconds you could feel the stern drop and the ship surge forward.  Just in time, I might add, as the next round hit just a short distance from our fantail and in all likelyhood right where we would have been if not for the extra turns.

 MM1 Curt Bailey <curt.bailey@earl-ind.com>
M-Division
June ’72 – Dec ‘73