I wish I had known the people on board. I was transferred from A-school in 1975, while building was still not complete. During the wait my dad got sick and I was transferred to Great Lakes to be closer to home. Finished my time working at the brig.
I don't know why but I guess the string of idiots in command just kept on going. It was a surprise because my experience prior to that was that most officers didn't get picked for command unless they were pretty good! As they say "shit happens".
Oh yeah, another example of sheer brilliance on the skippers part. We were heading back into the piers in Norfolk, and for some unknown reason, an idiot jumped overboard. Rumor had it that he thought that he could swim ashore. Anyways, we were already in the channel, past Hampton Roads, when this happened. The ever bright skipper turned the ship around in the channel........with another destroyer about 2 miles behind us............AND, the pilot boat was about 200 feet from the idiot swimmer. In fact, the pilot was the one to pick his sorry butt up. The "Spru" never got turned around in time to do anything but screw up the traffic in the channel. THEN, he turned it around, again, still....with the other tin can coming. What a whiz kid he was. I loved pissing him off, too. He absolutely hated being called "skipper" and of course, all airdales called their captains that. Poor fella.
You're very welcome, Jerry. From the timeframe that I was on the "Spru" , and after I left, it seemed like they sent the idiotic Captains to her. God only knows why. Ours ran aground down near Puerto Rico and claimed it was a huge rogue wave. Rogue waves don't put "Huge" smiley faces into sonar domes, I'm sorry. He also insisted on having Captain's Mast on the top of the hangar, regardless of the weather. Thanks to him, we had to reschedule flight quarters a couple of times. Go figure.
I was on Sprucan from 1990-1993 (retirement). Made high speed run across big pond with Wisconsin as we rushed to liberate Kuwait. Wisconsin went to PG, we stayed in Med showing the Flag. Endless port visits, I ran out of money and stamina early. We did finally get into the Red Sea and we were the only surface unit, that I know of, to fire Tomahawks from the Med. I remember the CO was a real idiot! He banned smoking on board, I didn't smoke, then sat in his chair on the bridge smoking cigars. I was very happy to retire when I did. Good people on board and I had a great time though. Thanks for the welcome Dutch!
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hello im admin for USS Spruance (DD-963) on navytogetherweserved.com any info you can give so i can add it will be helpfull
Persian Gulf 1983, Teamwork 1984
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