T H E BRIGHT PENNY

September 2002 A NEWSLETTER FOR MEMBERS OF THE USS BERKELEY (DDG -15) ASSOCIATION REUNION 2002 - BE THERE! The Berkeley Association’s reunion, October 17 -20, 2002, promises to be one SKIPPER IN THE SPOTLIGHT of the best we have had. To date a total of 78 former crew members have plans to Born in 1929, Rear Admiral attend. Scheduled events include the Smedberg graduated from the Naval Academy with the Class of 1951. Welcome Reception on During the following 31 years o n Friday and the Banquet active duty he followed the typical on Saturday . The pattern of a Surface Warfare Officer. Hospitality Suite will He had five at -sea commands: an LST be open on Thursday as a Lieutenant, a Frigate as a from 1600 to 2000, Lieutenant Commander, the guided missile destroyer USS BERKELEY from Friday from 1600 to January 1966 to July 1967 as a 2000 and Saturday Commander, a Destroyer Squadron as from 1400 to 1600. a Captain, and the Forrestal Carrier Battle Group as a Rear Admiral. Ray Bartlett There will be a memorabilia table set Between sea duty tours, he served five separate tours on the Chief of up in the hospitality room with the Naval Operations’ staff in the Pentagon. Association’s collection of cruise books. A As a Captain, he also served as videotape of the decommissioning Operations Officer on the SIXTH FLEET ceremony will also be available for in the Mediterranean and as the viewing. In addition, items from the ship’s Assistant Executive and Senior Aide to store will be available for purchase. SACEUR/USCINCEUR in Europe. After th e Battle Group command, RADM William R. Smedberg In your free time, South Carolina has RADM Smedberg returned to something to offer for everyone. Fort Washington for his final three years on Sumter and Patriots Point are ri ch with active duty as first the deputy and la ter future navy ships and aircraft. He was history; the many tours available include the Director of the Naval Warfare a consultant to Bell Helicopter Textron Charleston’s historic district, plantations, Directorate on the CNO’s staff. During from 1983 -95 primarily to assess the this tour he was responsible for gardens, and ghosts. Charleston boasts operational impact of tilt -rotor aircraft, assessing what adv anced technologies e.g. the V -22, for all the military three golf courses as well as some of the were applicable for and would be services. He was also a consultant for finest shopping areas and restaurants in the required by naval warfare forces for the twelve years to the pr emier company in Southeast. I am looking forward t o seeing future. industry assessing for the Navy the you there! After retirement from act ive duty in technological feasibility and operational USS Sellers (DDG -11) will holding their October 1982, RADM Smedberg utility of stealth ships. formed his own consulting company RADM Smedberg dissolved his reunion in Charleston during the same specializing in the operational Company in 1995 and moved to Ponte period as Berkeley. assessment of advanced technology for Vedra Beach, Florida with his wife, Ann. Ship’s Store West Coast Naval Bases New Skipper Merchandise in the ship’s store is Naval Station Long Beach and the adjacent CDR Dave “Max” Schnell will take growing. We now have available ball caps, Naval Shipyard are gone. There is not a single command of USS FORD (FFG -54) at building left on either facility. The area is polo shirts, coffee tumblers, pens, key Everett, Washington in December. CDR totally flat and barren. A trip out on the mole chains, pins and pictures. Shirts are on Schnell serv ed in Berkeley as Fire order and will be available at the reunion. where Berkeley used to moor at piers 15 & 16 found six metal buildings remaining where Control Officer and CIC Officer from Keep your Berkeley memories alive by the CruDesPacLogRep used to be. That’s it! 1985 -89. having one or more of these... The highway in front of the former bases is now a freeway between San Pedro and Long Beach. There has been a great amount of News from Greece landfill west of the bases and most of the On 29 July, 2002 the Hellenic Navy island is now the Port of Los Angeles for retired HS Ipiros (F -456), ex -USS container shipping and receiving. Connole (FF -1056) and HS Formion Seventy acres on the western end of the (D -220), ex -USS Joseph Strauss (DDG - former Na val Training Center in San Diego is 16). The ceremony took place in Souda Decomm Caps $5.00 Regular Cap $15.00 being used for new Navy enlisted housing and Bay, Crete, where the two vessels will named “The Village“. The plan calls for 500 remain in the decommissioned vessels ne w two and three bedroom town homes with area pending disposal plans. HS Ipiro s 86 ready for occupancy by the end of the year. They will have ceiling fans in each was the last of the trio of Knox Class room, washers and dryers, a garage, an frigates transferred to the HN from the enclosed backyard, carpeting and central air US in the early 90’s to remain in service. conditioning. HS F ormion is the second of the quartet The 812 1950’s units at Cab rillo Heights are of C.F. Adams Class DDG’s transferred Plankowner $20.00 Decomm Pin $ 3.00 to be torn down and replaced with 900 new from the US, also in the same period, to town homes. Occupants of the new units will be withdrawn from service following HS have to give up all of t heir basic allowance Themistokles (D -221), ex -USS Berkeley for housing, but that is far less than rental for this past February. Remaining in service Pen $5.00 equivalent housing off -base. A comparable two -bedroom hom e in San Diego would cost are HS Kimon (D -218), ex -USS Semmes $2,400 to $2,500 per month and a three - (DDG -18) and HS Nearchos (D -219), ex - bedroom would be $2,800 to $3,100. An E -5 USS Waddell (DDG -24). Tumbler $10.00 Key Chain $5.00 w/4 years service wo uld pay 557.40 per mo. The Bright Penny - September 2002 Page 2

USS BERKELEY ASSOCIATION Sea Tales (a submariner’s tale slightly modified to fit the destroyer navy) P.O. Box 267 Claremont, CA 91711-0267 The old salty chief at the recruiting station said, 909-981-7587 E Mail: [email protected] "Kid, the United States Navy will take you to faraway places with strange Website: www.USSBe rkeley.com sounding names… Exotic places they don't tell you about in high school Biennial Dues: $10.00 geography books… You'll see stuff and do things you never dreamed of… Association Manager: Ray Bartlett The 'keys' to this kin gdom will be your I.D. and liberty card."

Editor: CDR Jim Barrett (Ret) This was probably the only truthful thing that the sonuvabitch said all day. "Okay, listen up… Check your I.D. and liberty cards… Last boat will be BERKELEY HISTORY leaving the landing at 2400… Got that sweethearts? You ain't got your SEPTEMBER worthless butts parked in a launch by midnight… You better have money for a water taxi or be one gahdam Olympic swimmer… Y ou got that?… 30 Years Ago Now, the Captain wants a few words…" 01 -04, Typhoon evasion with 13 ships while "Stand at ease gentlemen… I will expect you older men to look out for your younger mates. enroute to the Gulf of Tonkin; 05 -13, Naval Show 'em the ropes and keep 'em off report. And for God's sake, don't let 'em pick up anything Gunfire Support (NGFS) – South Vietnam; Doc Walters can't cure." 14, typhoon evasion to the south; 15 -21, "Doc, you got any wisdom you wish to impart before these fine young bluejackets go ashore as inport Subic Bay for upkeep and gun repairs; ambassadors for the Land of Moderation and Proper Behavior?" 22 -23, enroute to Gulf of Tonkin; 24 -25, NGFS – South Vietnam; 26 -30, Linebacker "Gentlemen, they have girls over there with germs the size of Japanese Beetles… Little dark- Operations – North Vietnam. eyed darlings with stuff residing under those bright colored skirts that'll have you tying knots in urinal plumbing in three da ys. I'm not a licensed physician, but I've seen a lot of stuff that eats 20 Years Ago Blue Ointment for breakfast that you couldn't kill with a 45… The going rate for a cargo of h u- In Long Beach for lengthy major overhaul man misery is two hundred Pesos… Keep it in mind." and yard period April through December. The old recruiter never said anything about that stuff… 10 Years Ago "Okay gents, launc h will be laying alongside in ten… See you at morning chow… I wanna see 30, USS Berkeley decommissioned and every damn one of you Berkeley sailors take care of Berkeley sailors… You got that?" transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy of And over the side we went to peek into the world of exotic life, of strange custom and the oppo r- Greece in formal ceremonies at San Diego. tunity to get rolled by some of the most devious practitioners of the art that ever lived. Other transfers during the ceremony include d USS Waddell (DDG -24) and ex -Strauss It always started with a shipmate sa ying, (DDG -16) "Let's see if we can find a place to catch a couple of cold ones" Pacific Fleet Activity Five minutes in any bar in Olongopo was enough to tel l an eighteen -year old he'd come a long RIMPAC 2002 was conducted off the way since the Senior Prom. While your old buddies from high school were hitting the book s at State U. or chasing little pony -tailed darlings around the juke box at the corner pizza joint… Hawaiian Islands duri ng July 2002. Here you were, tossing down suds in a flea -infested gin joint where everyone talked funny and RIMPAC is the largest maritime exercise smiled at you through teeth with a lot of deferred dental work. But, it was good to be off the ship in the Asia -Pacific region and brings and have the opportunity to flush your kidneys with something other than coffee and bug ju ice. together military forces from Canada , "Hey sailor, you want to trade watch?" Chili, Peru, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the "No thanks Chico… My mom gave it to me." United States. More than 30 ships, 24 After six San Miguel beers, you can se ll damn near anything to an E -3 tin can sailor. aircraft a nd 11,000 sailors, airmen, Ask any old jeepney driver… A 'three sheets to the wind' BM striker will shell out his hard- Marines, soldiers and Coast Guard earned loot for anything from a fake shrunken head to an autographed picture of God. We all left participated in this year’s exercise. our brains in bee r glass rings… You could sell an after engine room alley snipe a nude photo of Three decommissioned U.S. Navy Eleanor Roosevelt. I once paid five bucks to see a couple of dogs' dance. Remember, that at the ship’s were sunk as targets. Ex -USS time, I wasn't the only Berkeley sailor in the place and I thought it was really neat. Harold E. Holt (FF - 1074) Later in life, I bought a boatload of shares of something called Petro-Lewis… My money ended decommissioned in 1992 after 21 years up in the same place and I didn't get to see dogs do the Mambo. The guy who said 'A fool and his of service; ex -USS Rathb urne (FF -1057) money are soon parted' must've been a staff guy in DESRON Thirteen. decommissioned in 1992 after 22 years Women who operated in the twilight zone of naughty behavior were 'painted ladies' and 'fallen of service; and USS White Plaines (AFS - angels' in the vernacul ar of back -home Sunday school teachers. Good lads didn't mingle with 4) decommissioned in 1995 after 27 hoochie -coochie gals. Good lads from East Tennessee rarely had the opportunity to traffic in years of service. hooch n' cooch in faraway locations beyond the jurisdictional limitations of good little boy b e- ha vior. Once the door to Pauline’s Cave had opened enough for us to squeeze in, we intended to sample all the delights on a 'full speed ahead and damn the consequences' basis. I saw dancing dogs, a chicken fight… A drunk chief ride a mad ox… A shipmate pee on the Shore Patrol from the top of a palm tree… I saw two guys from a tin can out of San Diego pull a fire alarm and fill up a bar with Filipino firemen… Saw a prostitute with 'VIVA MARCOS' ta t- tooed over her left nipple… Saw a live llama not in zoo… Iguanas… A man skin a snake and eat it raw… Saw a one -legged woman ridi ng a bike… And Gunner and I saw a grown woman do something with a ping pong ball that remains to this day the number one thing o n my list of weird stuff I've witnessed. Ex -USS White Plains being struck by a I have no idea what kind of liberty the guys pull today. I hope that they are still al lowed to nibble Harpoon anti -ship missile around the edges and sow the oats of young men's fantasies fulfilled… I hope that white hats can still be found on tables where for fifteen cents you can buy rum and alligator piss under a worn TAPS out ceiling fan while weird music blares from a beat-up juke box. Where girls who never owned IC2 Ronald A. Dotzenrod passed away a bra can slip a cigar band on your finger and marry you for two hours and make you forget bad on 6 June, 2002. Ron was a plankowner air, midwatches and Navy Regs in magic moments with high humidity. and served in Berkeley from And this old tin can sailor hopes you always make that 2400 launch… And your wife never finds commissioning to 1963. out half the stuff you did. Original author unknown Fantastic Web Site 100 YEARS Take a virtual tour of Australian Navy ships. http://www.navy.gov.au/vf/default.htm America’s Centennial Celebration of the Destroyers Click on Start Tour, then destroyers, then Greyhounds of the Fleet Perth. By moving your mo use pointer you can move about the spaces. Be patient. Because of 1902 – 2002. its features it takes time to load, but worth it. Www.surfacewarfare.navy.mil/d estroyercentennial