Westpac Diary USS HARRY E. HUBBARD (DD-748) WESTPAC DIARY March 28, 1967 - September 20, 1967 R.J. McConaughy RM3 Mar 28 (Tue) Departed Long Beach at 1000 hours with mixed feelings about leaving, anxious to go, wish it were over. Many tearful 'Good- byes' on the pier just before we left. Hit rough weather first night out. Most of crew was sick. Mar 29 (Wed) - Apr 6 (Thu) Enroute to Pearl Harbor. Weather rough all the way, but most are used to it by now. Pearl is a welcome sight. Weather in Pearl is windy and warm with the smell of flowers in the air. Apr 7 (Fri) Duty in Pearl (day-watch and mid-watch.) Spent evening at EM Club. Very nice. Long mid-watch followed. Apr 8 (Sat) Took bus through Honolulu to Waikiki Beach. Too late and too expensive to do anything. Walked around 'International Market Place' and the white sands of the beach with Diamond Head in the distance. Apr 9 (Sun) Duty all day, weather beautiful. Apr 10 (Mon) - Apr 15 (Sat) Enroute Yokosuka, Japan. Stopped at Midway Is. for fuel. Weather is rough all the way to Yoko. Apr 16 (Sun) Arrived Yokosuka. Weather cold and wet. Spent afternoon in Exchange on base looking at stereo gear and photographic equipment. Looked around town that night. Watched floor show at EM Club. Apr 17 (Mon) Spent afternoon walking backroads of Yoko and modern part too. Two completely different worlds. Bought 200mm lens ($65) at Exchange. Went bar-hopping that night. The girls were dragging us off the streets into the bars. Apr 18 (Tue) Duty all day, weather is good. Apr 19 (Wed) Apr. 24 (Mon) Enroute Subic Bay, Phillipine Is. Made fuel stop at Okinawa. Received new orders, now heading for Operation Sea Dragon in the Gulf of Tonkin off the Coast of Viet Nam. Apr 25 (Tue) Entered 'Combat Zone', conducted one refueling, six highline transfers, and our first two missions with the USS Boston. The Boston fired on Hon Me Is. with 8" guns. No counter battery. Apr 26 (Wed) Conducted two more missions. Boston and Hubbard both fired upon by two counter batteries. Boston and Hubbard received no direct hits but Hubbard did receive a piece of shrapnel on board. Hubbard was straddled six times! Shells hit within 100 yards. Apr 27 (Thu) Conducted two missions, second of which we fired and were fired upon. No hits from counter battery, but one radar and two KW7's were inoperable from shock of our own guns. Apr 28 (Fri) More missions, no action, weather hot. Apr 29 (Sat) More missions, two highline transfers with USS Boston. Apr 30 (Sun) Went after WBLC's (Water Born Longistic Craft) twice. No firing by Hubbard, some by USS Stoddert. May 1 (Mon) Went after WBLC's four times. No firing by Hubbard. Refueling twice. MAIL CALL! May 2 (Tue) In company with USS St. Paul and USS Stoddert. St. Paul did extensive damage to shore station. No firing by Hubbard. May 3 (Wed) In company with St. Paul and Stodert. St. Paul damaged seven WBLC's. Hubbard and St. Paul fired on two shore gun emplacements. May 4 (Thu) Conducted WBLC search all day with no results. Replenished with USS Mispillion. PAYDAY! May 5 (Fri) Conducted WBLC sweep again today. No results. May 6 (Sat) St. Paul, Stoddert, and Hubbard fire on SAM sites. No counter fire. May 7 (Sun) In company with USS Strauss, Collett, Kennebec, Moore, Bainbridge, Stoddert, St. Paul. UNREP (underway replenishment) with Kennebec. One mission riding shotgun. No action. May 8 (Mon) Conducted WBLC sweeps. No contacts. May 9 (Tue) Sighted four contacts with piles of 'red dirt' (??) on them. While moving in, sighted 30 more WBLC's one half mile from the beach. Commenced fire on them until shore battery counter fire. Aircraft and Hubbard sunk two WBLC's and destroyed two CD sites, damaged another. May 10 (Wed) Refueled, took on stores, two highline transfers. May 11 (Thu) Rendezvous with Uss Kittyhawk instead of with Uss Enterprize as previously scheduled. Two highline transfers, one helo drop. May 12 (Fri) Plane guarding for Kittyhawk. CO made trip to 'Hawk' via helo. May 13 (Sat) Still with Kittyhawk. One of our main engines went out. Should be on our way to Subic for repairs shortly. Refuled from Kittyhawk. Several helo drops. May 14 (Sun) - May 16 (Tue) Enroute and arrived Subic Bay. Duty in the 100 degree sun! May 17 (Wed) Worked until noon, went to the Exchange. May 18 (Thu) Went on tour of NAVCOMSTA Phil. WOW! (World's largest message center, handles one third of the world's message traffic.) Interesting bus ride through back country. Went to Olongapo City afterward. Olongapo leaves little to the imagination. May 19 (Fri) Worked like a dog in the 95 degree sun. Whew! May 20 (Sat) Worked all day. Went to EM Club for a couple of hours by myself. May 21 (Sun) Went to the Exchange, played a game of miniature golf, went to the EM Club. May 22 (Mon) Duty on my birthday again, Happy Birthday to me. May 23 (Tue) Went to Olongapo, Clover Club, Paulines, and Joes. Paulines is nice but expensive. May 24 (Wed) - May 26 (Fri) Underway to rendezvous with USS Hancock. May 27 (Sat) - May 29 (Mon) Plane guarding. Schedule change. Return to Sea Dragon Operations tomorrow morning. May 30 (Tue) Commenced Sea Dragon Operations, no action. May 31 (Wed) The Boston and Stoddert fired on Hon me Is. No further action. Jun. 1 (Thu) - Jun 17 (Sat) Rendezvous with USS Enterprise for plane guarding. Jun. 18 (Sun) Special Operations. NGFS (Naval Gunfire Support) for amphibious landing. Went to GQ. No firing. (Operation Beacon Torch) Jun 19 (Mon) Special Operations. Went to GQ. Spent remainder on time at 'Condition Three'. Fired all night. Jun 20 (Tue) Special Operations. Went to GQ three times. Fired a total of 600 rounds of 5" ammo since we began. Jun 21 (Wed) Fired another 90 rounds for a total of 690, the first 600 being in eighteen hours. Total damage so far: 87 VC verified KIA, over 200 KIA or wounded, 80 structures destroyed. (Later confirmed 134 VC KIA.) Jun 22 (Thu) - Jun 25 (Sun) Enroute Sasebo, Japan. !!Cruise half over!! Jun 26 (Mon) Arrive Sasebo. Duty in morning, onload ammo all afternoon. Mid- watch coming up, never left ship. Jun 27 (Tue) Depart Sasebo 0730 hours. Arrive Ching-hi, Korea 1630 hours. Depart Ching-hi at 2315 hours. Jun 28 (Wed) - Jul 3 (Mon) Enroute and arrive surveillance area in Yellow Sea. (Never knew why we were there.) Jul 4 (Tue) Arrive Sasebo, Japan at 1930 hours. Jul 5 (Wed) Went to the Exchange. Jul 6 (Thu) Bought Airequipt slide projector. ($58.95) Jul 7 (Fri) Duty in Sasebo. Jul 8 (Sat) Rained all day. Stayed aboard. Jul 9 (Sun) Rained like Hell. Worst rain in Japan in 18 years! Downtown area flooded by more than two feet of water. What a mess. It had rained 5" in a two hour period. Jul 10 (Mon) Duty in Sasebo. Fresh water contaminated by rain. (Salt-water showers.) Jul 11 (Tue) Ship's party; free booze, 50 hostesses (some were at least 35-40), cold cuts, floor show, VERY strong drinks. Whew! Jul 12 (Wed) Spent day recovering from party. Jul 13 (Thu) Duty in Sasebo. Jul 14 (Fri) Stayed aboard. No clean whites because of water shortage. Jul 15 (Sat) Began tour of Nagasaki, Japan at 0930 hours. Ate lunch at the Grand Hotel, visited the A-Bomb site, museum and Peace Statue. Spent the night at the Hotel Akase. Jul 16 (Sun) Visited a tortoise shell shop, took a cable car ride, saw an aquarium, Grover Mansion. Returned to Sasebo at 1800 hours. Outstanding weekend! Jul 17 (Mon) - Jul 18 (Tue) Stayed aboard. Jul 19 (Wed) Duty in Sasebo. Jul 20 (Thu) Went to town. Went bar hopping. Talked to Umi and Emi in the 'Kittycat Bar' and 'Club Mount Rocky.' Jul 21 (Fri) Had eve-watch so stayed aboard. Jul 22 (Sat) - Jul 25 (Tue) Underway for Hong Kong. Jul 25 (Tue) Arrive Hong Kong at 1200 hours. Very surprised at the number and size of buildings. Liberty call at 1430 hours but had 12 hour night watch so stayed aboard. Jul 26 (Wed) Took taxi to 'Tigre Balm Gardens', went to Crazy Horse Saloon, took a ride up Victoria Peak on the tram. Got a bite to eat, went to the Suzi Wong Bar. Talked to Virginia Fong, a real 'China Doll.' Jul 27 (Thu) Had duty until 1800 hours. Spent some time chatting with Virginia again. Spent too much money on drinks. Jul 28 (Fri) Depart Hong Kong (with regret). Enroute NGFS just south of DMZ. Jul 29 (Sat) Enroute I Core for NGFS. USS Forrestal has bad fire with bombs exploding on flight deck. So far 34 dead, 127 missing. We were 80 miles distant at the time so weren't asked to help. (Later number of fatalities was confirmed at 134.) Jul 30 (Sun) - Aug 2 (Wed) NGFS; quite a bit of shooting, mostly at GQ. Getting very little sleep. Aug 3 (Thu) More firing missions. Ninety eight VC confirmed KIA Aug. 1-3. Aug 4 (Fri) Destroyed VC UDT school among other things. Possibly bent ship's screw on fishing net or at least fouled up. It gave us no further problems, however. Aug 5 (Sat) Our 5" guns started a fire which burned for 4 hours. We destroyed eleven enemy emplacements, damaged ten others. Aug 6 (Sun) Destroyed 16 structures, 2 vehicles, 3 junks causing 5 secondary explosions. Aug 7 (Mon) - Aug 12 (Sat) NGFS. Still doing all kinds of damage. Aug 13 (Sun) Fired upon for the fifth time this cruise by the battery at Cape Lay. One air burst and one surface burst seen, each about 100 yards distant. We took them under fire. Damage unknown. Aug 14 (Mon) - Aug 23 (Wed) NGFS. Things kind of slow and boring. Aug 24 (Thu) Went to GQ for the last time of cruise at 0840 -0940 hours. Headed for Subic Bay. Aug 25 (Fri) - Aug 26 (Sat) Enroute and arrive Subic Bay. Rained all day. Went to the Exchange. Went downtown to the 'Clover Club' and 'Club Jolo'. Aug 27 (Sun) Went downtown to 'Joe's' and 'East End Club'. Never forget that place. The Shore Patrol made us leave because of typhoon Marge. Hated to leave as usual but . . . . Aug 28 (Mon) Depart Subic at 25 kts. to outrun Marge. Tropical Storm Nora moved into our path so we returned to Subic. USS Dupont hit by guns at Cape Lay. One killed, nine wounded. Aug 29 (Tue) Arrive Subic to wait out storm. Leave same evening for Yokosuka. Aug 30 (Wed) - Sep 2 (Sat) Enroute and arrive Yokosuka. Seas had been 9-10 ft. Unload ammo all afternoon. Hit beach about 1800 hours. Went to the 'Black Rose' with a shipmate. A girl he met there was the most beautiful Japanese girl I had ever seen. And he had an overnight pass! Sep 3 (Sun) Duty all day. Went to town later. Nothing exciting. Last night in WestPac. Sep 4 (Mon) Spent day trying to recover from night before. Had some work to do up on the mast. Ow, my head. Duty that night. Sep 5 (Tue) Slept all day first day underway. Seas still rough. Sep 6 (Wed) Hit roughest seas I have ever seen. Swells were at least 20 ft. for awhile. They eased off to 12-15 ft. for the rest of the day. Sep 7 (Thu) - Sep 9 (Sat) Enroute Midway Is. Very low on fuel. Sep 10 (Sun) Arrive Midway. Took on fuel. Left at 1530 hours. Sep 11 (Mon) - Sep 13 (Wed) Enroute and arrive Pearl Harbor. Went to EM Club for a while. Had the eve-watch. Sep 14 (Thu) - Sep 19 (Tue) Depart Pearl bound for Long Beach. Can hardly wait! Sep 20 (Wed) Arrive CONUS at 1000 hours. IT'S GOOD TO BE HOME!! R.J. McConaughy RM3 598-09-56