USS Oriskany- 1st Westpac Deployment

For this past Christmas (2021) my daughter sent me the book pictured here. I really enjoyed it and read it in a day. The cool part about it is that it talks in Chapter 5 about the Westpac Cruise that we took on it with VA 23 in 1969. One thing that really caught my interest is that the author was aboard the Oriskany at the same time as I was. It brought up a lot of memories and when I was thanking my daughter, Stacie, she mentioned how other than a few posts in other blogs I had done she knew nothing about my military service and she would like the kids to know more about it so I decided that I would attempt to share what I remembered or what pictures I had reminded me of in a blog and this blog is that result. 

Here’s another picture of us leaving. Can’t remember the details but Johnny Ramos probably took us to the bus station in LA so we could report back to our duty stations. This was probably around April 1969. 

When I got out of the Navy I didn't talk about it much with anyone including my wife and close friends. It just wasn't something I wanted to talk about. The Vietnam War was effed up from the start and even though I was and still am proud of my service it just wasn't something shared. I taught history for many years during my 29 year career and never once talked about the Vietnam War. I guess it was a conscious decision because I can think of no other reason. In 2018 I went to Tucson, Arizona to celebrate Smitty's 70th birthday. Joe Palmer and Willie Hall who served with us on this cruise were there as well and we shared a lot of funny stories as well as how we each dealt with our feelings about that time in our life. It was pretty cathartic actually and I began to feel like I could open up more. 

In 2016 I had finally been diagnosed with PTSD from the fear and threat of fire while serving on three different ships. My house had burned down in the middle of the night when I was 10 years old and that continued to affect me anytime there was a threat of fire. Even after years of counseling I still struggle with it. This was another big part of why I didn't talk about my time in the Navy. 

The Oriskany had a major deadly fire in 1966, the USS Forrestal had one in 1967 and the USS Enterprise had one in 1968 just three months before we shipped out on the Oriskany. So this wasn't a figment of my imagination. (Clarence was flown to the Philippines to join his squadron on the Enterprise after she was repaired in Hawaii. 

Here are a few things that I highlighted from the book that helped get me started down this rabbit hole of memories.

"At approximately 10:15 a.m., Wednesday, April 16th, lines were cast off, colors shifted and The Mighty O was underway for still another tour of duty in Southeast Asia."

"After brief stops at Hawaii and Subic Bay, the Oriskany took up position on Yankee Station on May 16. Although Oriskany was on the gun-line for 116 days , her losses were relatively light compared to her previous deployment." One of the losses was a pilot from our squadron, Stanley Smiley.

"R&R periods, whether in Subic Bay, Hong Kong or Sasebo, Japan were highly cherished but all too brief. Still ,the brief interludes allowed Oriskanymen a momentarily (sic) escape from the rigors of war,"

"After seven months of combat operations, Oriskany returned to Alameda on November 10, 1969."

The next time I was at the no longer used Alameda Naval Air Station September 16th and 17th 2017 when I raced a 5K on Saturday followed by a 10K on Sunday. I didn’t even remember when I was there that that’s where I left and returned on the Oriskany 48 years earlier. 

I kept a scrapbook during this cruise so I've been able to refresh some memories from the time on the Oriskany. Remember what I said about my anxiety about fire? We had our first shipboard fire before we were even much beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. We were below deck somewhere lined up to have our pictures taken for the cruise book when there was a fire announcement in a storage room somewhere. We could smell the smoke but it wasn't thick so we carried on with pictures. Between the smoke and the ships movement I was feeling sick to my stomach. I knew I was going to get sick and before I could get out of line and get to a head I pulled my white hat off and threw up in it. I'm amazed that it didn't set off a chain reaction. Anyway, while that was the first fire it was far from the last and we averaged at least one fire every other day. It was crazy.

We deployed on April 16th and exactly a month later we were on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf. We began flying combat missions the day we arrived. On the way yo the line we stopped in Hawaii after 9 days at sea where we went through final readiness operations. 

I don't remember much of Hawaii that trip and have only found a couple pictures of the Arizona Memorial when we were pulling in. When we left Hawaii we were scheduled to go to Yokosuka, Japan but the ship got a message to go to Subic Bay in the Philippines  instead where we only stayed 2 days then onto the line.

We returned to Subic on July 2nd. We had been at sea 49 of 53 days. While there Smitty, Joe and I took a bus to Manila for an overnight stay to see the capitol. I don’t have a lot of great pictures here because so many of the pictures I took were slides and movies. 

When we returned to the ship we had a squadron change of command on July 9th before departing back to the line. 

Life aboard ship

There were about 4500 men aboard the Oriskany between the ship's crew and the air wing. And there are probably 4500 different stories about what it was like to serve aboard the Oriskany in 1969. This is just some of what I remember about shipboard life.

Smitty, Joe and I were fortunate in that we were already promoted to 3rd class petty officers (E4) as soon as we deployed aboard ship. Because of that we never had to do a lot of the crap duties that E3 and below served. Don't get me wrong we still had a lot of crap duty but if we did have to report for on loading supplies, including bombs, we were only in supervision roles. Most of the duties we were assigned outside of our "normal" work load were standing watches. They had us standing watches for everything and we were reminded constantly that standing watch was not just going through the motions while fighting to stay awake. 

As far as our day to day jobs, Joe and I were both assigned to intermediate maintenance which meant that we were responsible for repairing electronics gear before it was put back into the plane. While the work was tedious it wasn't something we could take for granted. You wouldn't want to be the tech who repaired a radar or radio or navigation unit that went into a plane going into combat and have it fail. So even though we were young, still only 20 when we left on the cruise and we were not excited about the Navy we always took our jobs seriously. When we lost a pilot we all had second thoughts about could it have had anything to do with faulty equipment that we had worked on.

You can see from the pictures that we had fun in the shop and we often spent time just hanging out there because it was cooler than our sleeping quarters. Our time on the line was always hot and humid. And as you might imagine the sleeping areas stunk They didn't call our mattress covers "fart sacks" for nothing plus every sailor had his dirty laundry bag hanging from the end of his rack (bunk).

Whenever we weren't launching or landing aircraft (Flight Ops) we would often go up on the flight deck for fresh air. 


These pictures show just how confined our sleeping quarters were. Because I was assigned to IM I had a different berthing area than I normally would have with my squadron and it sucked. I bunked below decks with ship's company. Man if you thought aviation guys stunk those guys that lived and worked below decks were rank. I doubt if some of them ever saw sunlight. The middle set of pictures are of me sleeping on the floor in the shop because it was better than sleeping in my assigned berthing area. Hated it!

Sasebo, Japan - We never did make that stop in Yokosaka, Japan but we did spend some time in Sasebo, Japan. 

Hong Kong - One of the best places where we went was Hong Kong it was like a cross between the western and eastern cultures. It was amazing how many people actually lived aboard small boats in the harbor. We took a ferry across to Aberdeen and ate at a famous floating restaurant. The food? Okay I guess if you like seafood and I like very little of it. The most gross thing I still remember was shark fin soup.  

Subic Bay was considered our home port when we were in Southeast Asia. There was a large Navy base and a town called Olongapo outside the gates The nice thing about the base is that it provided opportunities for recreation. I was able to get in some running on something other than a flight deck. Smitty, Joe and I played miniature golf on a very minimalist course, No windmills or clown mouths here but it was nice to be able to do something different away  from the ship. There was also a beach called Dungaree Beach where we could go to and from in our dungarees instead of our regular uniforms. I remember Joe and I taking a launch to Corregador where we saw a lot of World War II history. Sometimes there was a squadron party while we were in port. 

Overview of Westpac 1969 

Departed from Alameda Naval Air Station  -    April 16, 1969

Line Periods on the Tonkin Gulf -    May 16th - June 3rd; June 15th - June 30th; July 12th - July 30th; (I turned 21 at sea the day after leaving the line); August 16th - September 12th; From here we went to the waters off Korea in a "show of force"; October 8th - October 31st.

Returned to Alameda - November 10, 1969

Awards Received -

Vietnam Service Medal; Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Service Medal; Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Korea; Meritorious Unit Citation for 1969  Deployment (May 5th - November 3rd)

Final Thoughts: For all these years I believed that I was lucky enough to fly in a helicopter from the Oriskany to the Hancock when we were both on the line. What a shock to realize that it's not possible. While doing my research to try to be accurate with dates for this blog I read a book called, Vietnam 1967 - 1971 by John Lund. It appealed to me because our time in the Navy overlapped so much and because he spent all of his time aboard the Hancock. From that book I compared the Hancock's deployments to the Oriskany's deployments and The only times we were on the line together were September 1st to the 12th and from October 8th to the 24th. From his book I read that sailors from the Oriskany flew on to the Hancock on October 17th for a boxing match between the ships. So I thought maybe that was when I went over. 

Why it doesn't make sense! While going through my own memorabilia I found a picture of Ted at his division party in August 1969 and he was in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Then looking through more stuff I found a postcard Ted had sent on September 1, 1969 and his ship had pulled in to St, Thomas in the Caribbean. Needless to say I'm confused about that whole situation. Did I just dream it and then replay it in my head enough until I believed it was true? I guess it'll always be a mystery. 

Just for grins here is what my performance evaluation said for April 17 - October 16, 1969:

"Performs duties as an intermediate level maintenance technician on the AN/APG-53 terrain clearance radar.

Petty Officer ANSTEY is an interested and cooperative worker. Although he is hindered by a lack of experience on his assigned equipment, he maintains good performance by studying and constantly improving his knowledge of the system. He cooperates fully with is supervisors, but is sometimes slow to act on orders. His uniforms are maintained in a satisfactory condition, but he needs to pay more attention to detail to look sharp. His good natured acceptance of his assignments and sense of humor contribute to the shop's morale."