My time with the 5th. Division.

For a while, before I was assigned the First Lt's billet, I was the Assistant Division Officer under a very irreverent Lt. Jg.  Referred the name of Jim Fitzgerald, Who referred to himself as an Irish Mick, a Red Hat, Mackerel Snapper, and a few other connotations you would have to be from Brooklyn to understand. He was an enlisted man in an officer's uniform, who broke all the rules, but his boys would do anything for him.

My GQ assignment was the 5" director, which controlled the 2 forward mounts, and my gun crews were the best! I had one of the guys make me up a set of split sound powered phones, with two microphones, and each ear piece was separate so that I could hear Sky Forward on the right side, and the 2 gun-captains on the left side. This made for some real fast communications, which as you will see saved our lives.

I can remember one time, when an orange painted Grumman fighter was brought out to us as an expendable target, radio controlled. We were at GQ for AA practice, with BL&T 5" ammo. The control of the aircraft was shifted to a pilot stationed up in Sky Forward, high above me. After running it through a few familiarity runs, the plane was stationed several miles off the bow, and brought in, in a step dive at the ship. We were cleared to open fire, and the first round apparently hit the small antenna atop the rudder of the Grumman. I could hear the pilot yelling that he had lost control of the plane, and it was boring right at us like a Kamikaze coming. I yelled into the phones, All Guns, Commence Firing! And both mounts opened up with both barrels. The plane was coming right at us! And we were not firing AA. All we had was BL&T! We were about to be hit, and that plane was loaded with fuel. It was a flying bomb. This exercise was to train the crews in manual control, so the pointer's and the trainer's now were the only thing that could stop it. And stop it they did.

Suddenly, we were lucky, one of the projectiles hit the spinner dead center, and there was a huge explosion. The plane was a ball of flame, but it had been really slowed down by the impact of that 5" projectile! The recharge crashed into the sea just feet from the ship, close enough for us all to feel the tremendous heat. We had escaped injury. That plane had been headed for the wardroom door on the main deck, and we had brought it down with a non-explosive 5" projectile.

With the target gone, the exercise was over, and we secured from GQ. I reported to the bridge to resume my watch as OOD, that had been interrupted by GQ. By the time I got there, the Captain handed me a message from CNO, to CO USS Wisconsin, BB-64, Bravo Zulu! on your outstanding shooting, Signed, Arleigh Burke, CNO. Later, when I was assigned to the Pentagon, in OP-03, I had a chance to tell him first hand about that day.

The other incident was after a refresher training stay at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, we were assigned a training exercise at Vieques, Puerto Rico, on the way back to Norfolk. The boat came out to meet us, with the observers, and the Exercise Director on board. Prior to the start, all officers were called to a meeting in the wardroom, to go over the conduct of the exercise. During this meeting, it was stressed that the target for the 5" would be designated by a mortar round fired by the observers on the beach. Be sure to fire at the smoke! Remember, fire at the smoke.

We then went to GQ for shore bombardment and waited for the mortar to be fired. We were in counter-battery mode, set to respond to simulated incoming fire. My mounts were the first to fire.

We were given the all clear to shoot, and the first mortar shell was fired, emitting a small amount of white smoke. I designated the forward mount to return counter battery fire, again shooting BL&T projectiles, and watched as my gun mount bounced the mortar round up the gully it had landed in once, twice, three times, when the observer yelled cease fire! Secure from GQ. All officers report to the wardroom immediately. When we got there, the Head Observer started in at us, as to how he was going to flunk the ship, send us back to GITMO, for more training, because we had completely failed to come anywhere near the designated target, a big pile of white painted tires.

Well, that got our dander up! Several of us stood up and all of complained, you told us to shoot at the smoke, no one said anything about shooting at the target nearest to the mortar round! Play your recording of the briefing! Which finally the inspector did, and there in his own words, "fire at the smoke"

The Captain interrupted the meeting by announcing that he was damned proud of his crews shooting, by actually hitting a mortar round with repeated shots, and bouncing it up the gully some 50 yards with BL&T!

That was the end of it. The inspectors left with downcast eyes, while the ships company cheered, and we left for home. No one could outshoot us, that was for sure.