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The Middle Years
(provided by Matt Brunwell 1st LT & CA Div-0, 1988-1991)
Hi Mike,
...Much of that time I was the public affairs officer also. Here's stab at what we did - many brain cells have since given their lives for my short term gratification. I'll fill in the ones I know about for sure and mention the other places we went as I can remember.
When I got there, stories were told of a fairly recent port call in Halifax as the ship participated in something like a UNITAS cruise up there. That was probably early in 1988 or late 1987.
I think just prior to my arrival the ship was in GITMO. Seems to me that the XO at the time was trying to get myself and the other ensign coming on board to join the ship there post haste. We had made the 'mistake' of visiting the ship while we were still in Newport RI and she pulled in for some reason - perhaps the end of the same cruise mentioned above.
Can't remember exactly what happened prior to January 1989 but here's a shot. There was a 7 week cruise to the north Atlantic for some big NATO exercise in the late summer, early fall of '88. The ship got three days in Narvik Norway as the only port of call. We crossed the arctic circle and became Blue Noses. Somewhere I have pictures of the Moose and two other US ships in Narvik, taken from the top of the fjord. If I ever recaptured my navy photos from my ex-wife I'll scan them in and send them to you.
After our return I think there was some gunnery exercises off of Vieques during a cruise to the Caribbean. In October 1988 there was a change of command and Commander Frank B. Guest III assumed duties as CO. I think the outgoing CO was Cmdr. Sparr, but I'm not positive about that.
The ship deployed in January 1989 for the med and spent 6 months with the 6th fleet, primarily conducting anti-submarine operations. I distinctly remember at one point cruising along Libya's "line of death", worrying if our Sea Sparrows could actually fend off an air attack. The ports of call included: Malaga Spain, Palma Mallorca (twice), Toulon France (twice), Bizerte Tunisia, Monte Carlo, Trieste Italy. We returned just before July 4th 1989. 'Wipe Out' was the break away song and the line handling crews had a big old dance routine they'd go through as we sped off after refueling (assuming we weren't in contact at the time.) I did the cruise book from this Med trip so I'm confident details are well documented.
Here my memory is foggy again, but I know the ship was in NYC August 17, 1989. I think we had been doing an exercise off the NC coast trying to protect a carrier from attack boats - played by the hydrofoil guys with Harpoons (very awesome little vessels - kicked our butts).
Between deployments we went to Gitmo again and amazingly escaped in the minimum amount of time. We hit the 'Gitmo Gang' with fire hoses as we dropped them in their shuttle boat and we rang up flank speed in the winding channel - yee ha.
We went back to Newport RI for a brief stay sometime in here, I think as engineering ship for the Surface Warfare School.
On August 2nd 1990 the ship was preparing for another north Atlantic exercise. This is the day Iraq invaded Kuwait. Because we were very ready for a long exercise, we left in the second battle group responding to the invasion. The first group was leaving for a normal med deployment. Once we got to the sixth fleet we spent awhile in the med identifying civilian ships. The ship spent some time in the Straights of Gibraltar because of the natural choke point. We slowly worked our way across the med, through the Suez and into the Red Sea where the ships stationed there patrolled 10 mile diameter circles and stopped and searched all commercial shipping going in or out of the Gulf of Aqaba (east of the Sinai Peninsula). The mission was to stop goods from making it through Jordan to Iraq, either incoming aid or outgoing stolen goods. Ships found with stolen Kuwait property were sent to Saudi Arabia to be discharged. The Moose's crew was supplemented with a couple Coast Guard sailors who were familiar with searching vessels and a unit of Navy Seals.
This mission continued throughout the buildup and war. During the buildup we lost one of the Allison engines for a generator and went to Haifa Israel for repairs for about 20 days in December 1990. Spent Christmas of 1990 in Israel. The ship also would pull into Hurghada Egypt on occasion for brief R & R and we spent some time in Jeddah Saudi Arabia along side the tender. This is where Cmdr. Craig Sackett came aboard as CO, replacing Cmdr. Frank B. Guest. When the war finally began the ship was moved south in the Red Sea to be out of range of retaliatory Iraqi strikes that never came and then moved back up to the north end of the Red Sea after a few days. All in all I think the final number of boarded ships was 68. Only one other deployed ship had a higher number. Our fun ended a little earlier than everyone else's when one of the control oil pipes for the controllable pitch propellers broke and oil got into the Prairie Air system. That shaft was locked in place and we sailed back through the Suez with the battle group. Once we got to the med, the group took off and left us behind to await our fate. We went to Crete for a few days while the upper powers tried to decide whether or not to dry dock in the med somewhere or risk crossing the Atlantic alone and with one shaft. After a few days in Crete the CO decided to move the ship west to Gibraltar where we got a few more days in port. Finally the decision was made to let us cross the pond alone. We limped across, nearly running out of fuel near Bermuda when we finally had an oilier meet us out from Norfolk. We ended up arriving in Charleston in early April 1991, about 2 weeks later than the rest of the battle group to a major outpouring of public support in Charleston. Crowds lined the shore, the deck of the USS Yorktown was packed, people were in small boats, fire boats were shooting water cannons and banners hung from every where. It really made us feel good that the town recognized the effort that was made by everyone in the armed forces.
The ship ended up going into dry dock to have the shaft removed and repaired. When I left in August 1991 it was still in dry dock in Charleston.
I can't remember all the places we traveled to, but I do know we had a few trips to the Caribbean in addition to what I mentioned. When I left the ship I calculated how much of my time had been away from Charleston during my tenure and it worked out to close to 75% time away. Haze gray and underway should have been her motto!
If I remember any more as I look through my stuff I'll let you know.
Matt Brumwell
Added by Matt:
I just noticed the exact schedule for the Med 89 deployment:
30 Dec 1987 Depart Charleston SC
3-16 Feb Palma Mallorca
23 Feb Augusta Bay Sicily (non-liberty)
1-3 Mar Augusta Bay Sicily (non-liberty)
6-10 Mar Toulon France
13-17 Mar Malaga Spain
1-3 Apr Bizerte Tunisia
12-17 Apr Monte Carlo
26 Apr- 1 May Trieste Italy
19-24 Apr Naples Italy (forgot about this one earlier)
2 May Brindisi Italy (non-liberty)
6 May Augusta Bay Sicily (non-liberty)
15-24 May Palma Mallorca
31 May - 12 Jun Toulon France
30 Jun Arrive Charleston SC
The battle group was:
USS Theodore Roosevelt
Moose
USS William V Pratt
USS Leyte Gulf
USS South Carolina
USS Faragut
USS Conyngham
USS Charles F. Adams
USS Sellers
Cruise Trivia
43,511 miles steamed
123 days underway
60 days in port
3,427,824 gallon of fuel burned
1,317,324 gallons of water used
30 unreps
Helo Recoveries:
491 for our Helicopter (SH-60B)
20 CH-46 recoveries
6 SH-3
6 SH-2
6 SH-60B
3 H-53 vertreps
8 British Sea Lynx
1 Italian AB 212
787 hours of sonar contact time
(OK, ladies and gents. This is a great start! It's only taken a year. Are there more cruise books out there? Michael)
Updated September 20, 2005