Rocky Mountain Navy Association
News The Rocky Mountain Navy Association (RMNA) is a not-for-profit, organization to promote the United States Navy and the Naval Reserve in the local community. Specific out reach efforts have been extended to civic organizations, educational institutions, and the business community. RMNA also provides mission support to the local recruiting command and offers a wide variety of professional development assistance programs to the naval reserve community. Newsletter Contact: James Garrett, CAPT, USNR (Ret.), garrettj3745@yahoo.com This is an interactive newsletter so Click on underlined inks or photos for websites for more information or zoom the page.
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Vol. 3 Issue 8
August 2018
Reminding you of next monthly RMNA Luncheon at the American Legion Post, 5400 East Yale, Denver (southeast corner of I-25 and Yale), on Wednesday, September 5th, gathering around 11:30 a.m.
See You There! This newsletter is posted online to our website at (www.navrescolorado.org) and Facebook page at (https://www.facebook.com/RockyMountainNavyAssociation/)
From Our RMNA President: As suggested/hinted at by several of you, we will have a backyard get together on Sunday, September 9. It will be in our backyard, 2345 Elm Street, starting at 5 p.m. Am asking all those coming to bring a plate of hors d’ oeuvres for passing. Wine, beer, soft drinks provided. Invitations will go out in about a week. We will have our regular first Wednesday of the month luncheon on Wednesday, September 5, 2018. Usual place and time. Right now, we have CAPT Rob Scofield handling speakers for our monthly luncheons, CAPT Ron Service handles our dues and money, CAPT Dick Wilson handles our arrangements with the American Legion Post #1, room set up and food; and CAPT Jim Garrett handles our monthly RMN newsletter and our website. What this means is that more have got to step forward and help keep the Rocky Mountain Navy going, if enough of us think it is worth keeping it going. And they should be thanked as it sure helps. All of this means that we need to have a good turnout for the September 9th Backyard Get Together. We seem to keep getting more Navy folk to join our group. But it also means a number of you have not yet paid your dues for 2018. As you know, the dues are very modest. That permits us to pay for our website, the great spread for our food and drink at last year’s get together, help to our Recruiters from time to time. limited support to the United Veterans Committee of Colorado (of which we are a member), and other Navy related things. Dick Young 1
A Short Vietnam War Story: USN KA-3B vs. Russian Trawler AGI The Russian "Trawlers" (NATO designation: AGI for Auxiliary General Intelligence) with what looked like one thousand "fishing" antennas plied the Gulf of Tonkin on a daily basis...needless to say, it was a cat-and-mouse game to see what havoc they could expend towards our two carriers operating there 24 hours a day. Since the U.S. government had proclaimed the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin three miles off the coast of North Vietnam and Hinan Island, People's Republic of China, to be international waters, American ships in the Gulf were bound to obey the international rules of the road for ocean navigation. This meant that if the Russian ship maneuvered herself into the path of an aircraft carrier where she had the right of way, the carrier had to give way even if she was engaged in launching or recovering aircraft. The navigation officer was constantly trying to maneuver the ship so that the trawler wouldn't be able to get in position to abuse the rules of the road and gain the right of way. Sometimes he was successful in sucking the trawler out of position, but the room available for the ship to maneuver was limited by our on-station requirements, and sometimes the trawler was successful interrupting our flight operations. The pilots of the air wing were strictly forbidden to take any action against the Russian ship, but one day CDR John Wunche, the commanding officer of the heavy tanker KA-3B detachment, had finally had enough of the Russians' antics. John Wunche was a big man with bright red hair and a flaming red handlebar mustache. He was a frustrated fighter pilot whom fate and the Bureau of Naval Personnel had put into the cockpit of a former heavy bomber now employed as a carrier-based tanker. CDR Wunche flew the tanker like a fighter and frequently delighted the tactical pilots by rolling the "Whale," as we all called the KA-3B tanker, on completion of a tanker mission. Consequently, John's nickname was "the Red Baron." On 21 July 1967 he proved just how appropriate that name was. The "Bonnie Dick" had nearly completed a recovery. The Russian trawler had been steaming at full speed to try to cut across our bow, and the bridge watch had been keeping a wary eye on the intruder. For a while it looked as if the Russian would be too late and we would finish the recovery before having to give way to the trawler. But a couple of untimely bolters extended the recovery and the Bon Homme Richard had to back down and change course to comply with the rules. The LSO hit the wave-off lights when the "Whale" was just a few yards from the ramp. John crammed on full power and sucked up the speed brakes for the go-around. he "Bonnie Dick" began a sharp right turn to pass behind the Russian, causing the ship to list steeply, and there, dead ahead of John, was the Russian trawler. He couldn't resist. He leveled the "Whale" about a hundred feet off the water and roared across the mast of the Trawler with all fuel dumps open like a crop duster spraying a field of boll weevils. The Russian disappeared in a heavy white cloud of jet fuel spray, then reemerged with JP-4 jet fuel glistening from her superstructure and running lip-full in the scuppers. The Russian trawler immediately lost power as the ship's crew frantically tried to shut down anything that might generate a spark and ignite the fuel. She was rolling dead in the water in the Bon Homme Richard's wake-- her crew breaking out fire hoses to wash down the fuel--as the Bon Homme Richard steamed out of sight completing the recovery of the Whale. The Red Baron was an instant hero to the entire ship's company. Story submitted by RMNA member Dick Life
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F-35: The World’s Biggest Weapons Program in One Graphic More than a decade in the making, F-35 L igh t n in g program is transforming air defense for the United States and its strategic partners.
If some graphics are unreadable in the current size, just zoom the pdf to increase the size. https://breakingdefense.com/?sponsored_content=f-35-infographic-thelatest-stats-as-the-joint-strike-fighter-program-
More than a decade in the making, F-35 Lightning program is transforming air defense for the United States and its strategic partners. These fifth-generation fighters are delivering the versatility and advanced technology to ensure air superiority for decades to come. Offering three variants — the F-35A (conventional takeoff and landing), F-35B (short takeoff and vertical landing), and F-35C (catapult-assisted takeoff arrested recovery) — the single-seat, single-engine aircraft are in demand across the globe. Thanks to its stealth, advanced sensors and its data fusion with network-enabled operations, the F-35 can establish air dominance through air-to-air, air-tosurface, electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Boasting production and maintenance across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, the F-35 program will deliver more than 3,000 aircraft to change the face of modern air defense. Learn more about these fighters in the infographic . 3
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After Years of Waiting, Blue Angels Set for ‘Super’ Upgrade By: Ben Werner
The Blue Angels’ Super Hornets will be retrofitted at Boeing’s St. Louis facility and is expected to be completed by December 2021, according to the Department of Defense contract announcement. This will be the 11th airframe change for the demonstration team since its founding in 1946. The team transitioned to the F/A-18A/B model on the Blue Angel’s 40th anniversary in 1986 from the Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II. Read More….. Additional Popular Mechanics article here…...
75 years later, Search Finds Ship’s Stern Ripped Away by Mine in WWII’s Aleutians Campaign Read More….. By: Gidget Fuentes August 16, 2018 7:13 AM • Updated: August 17, 2018 10:36 AM
Halfway through his midwatch, 19-year-old Seaman Daryl Weathers scanned the screens in the darkened radio shack as the USS Abner Read (DD-526) hunted Japanese submarines off the Aleutian island of Kiska on Aug. 18, 1943. At 1:50 a.m., an explosion rattled the Fletcher-class destroyer, bending the shafts and buckling interior spaces. Blast pressure even straightened aluminum bunk hooks, wounding and trapping some men as they slept. Unbeknownst to the crew, a floating Japanese mine had detonated portside aft of midship as the ship made a full right rudder turn, nearly slicing off the stern at frame 170. Weathers rushed through choking, blinding chemical smoke to join frantic rescue efforts at the stern, which just two minutes later would tear away in the oil-slicked waters. “There’s three sleeping compartments back there,” Weathers, now 94 and living in Seal Beach, Calif., told USNI News. Sailors used a net to grab a dying man before the sea swallowed the stern, taking 70 men with it into dark, frigid waters nearly 300 feet deep…. https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/15/us/uss-abner-read-stern-found/ index.html
For 75 years, Abner Read’s and the 70 men who perished with it remained undiscovered …..– But on July 17, a team of researchers and scientists searching four areas around Kiska to document the underwater battle that took place in the waters located Abner Read‘s 75-foot stern section in 290 feet of water
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The world-famous U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron — the Blue Angels — is set for a major change following a Monday $17 million contract award. Boeing was awarded the contract to retrofit nine Block 1 F/A-18E Super Hornets and two Block 1 F/A-18F Super Hornets for the team from the current crop of F/A-18C/D fighters. Typically the squadron has a total of 11 fighters, according to information from the Navy.......
THE OIL PATCH WARRIORS OF WORLD WAR II Seventy-five years ago this month, a Band of Roughnecks went abroad on a ‘top secret mission’ into Robin Hood's stomping grounds to punch oil wells to help fuel England's war machines. It's a story that should make any oil man or woman proud. The year was 1943 and England was mired in World War II. Uboats attacked supply vessels, choking off badly needed supplies to the island nation. But, oil was the commodity they needed the most as they warred with Germany. A book, "The Secret of Sherwood Forest: Oil Production in England During World War II", written by Guy Woodward and Grace Steele Woodward was published in 1973, and tells the obscure story of the American oil men who went to England to bore wells in a top secret mission in March 1943. England had but one oil field, in Sherwood Forest of all places. Its meager output of 300 barrels a day was literally a drop in the bucket of their requirement of 150,000 barrels a day to fuel their war machines. Then a top secret plan was devised: to send some Americans and their expertise to assist in developing the field. Oklahoma based Noble Drilling Company, along with Fain-Porter signed a one year contract to drill 100 wells for England, merely for costs and expenses. 42 drillers and roughnecks from Texas and Oklahoma, most in their teens and early twenties volunteered for the mission to go abroad. The hands embarked for England in March 1943 aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth. Four National 50 drilling rigs were loaded onto ships but only three of them made landfall; the Nazi U-boats sank one of the rigs enroute to the UK. The Brits' jaws dropped as the Yanks began punching the wells in a week, compared to five to eight weeks for their British counterparts. They worked 12 hour tours, 7 days a week and within a year, the Americans had drilled 106 wells and England oil production shot up from 300 barrels a day to over 300,000. The contract fulfilled, the American oil men departed England in late March 1944. But only 41 hands were on board the return voyage. Herman Douthit, a Texan derrick-hand was killed during the operation. He was laid to rest with full military honors, and remains the only civilian to be buried at The American Military Cemetery in Cambridge. "The Oil Patch Warrior," a seven foot bronze statue of a roughneck holding a four foot pipe wrench stands near Nottingham England to honor the American oil men's assistance and sacrifice in the war. A replica was placed in Ardmore Oklahoma in 2001. It is by no means a stretch to state that without the American mission, we might all be speaking German today. Special thanks to the American Oil and Gas Historical Society.
"There are no noble wars, just noble warriors." Story submitted by RMNA member Ron Servis
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Guy Woodward and Grace Steele Woodward published The Secret of Sherwood Forest – Oil production in England during World War II in 1973.
https://www.ptsd.va.gov/apps/AboutFace/videos/topics.html?topic=2 The Importance of Walking??? Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend and additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7,000 per month. My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60. Now he’s 97 years old and we don’t know where the hell he is. I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again. I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I’m doing. I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 buck. Haven’t lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there. Every time I hear the dirty word ‘exercise’ I wash out my mouth with chocolate. If you are going to try cross country skiing, start with a small country. I know I got a lot of exercise, I lie down and wait for the urge to pass. We all get heavier as we get older, because there’s a lot more information in our heads. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Every time I start thinking about how I look, I just find a Happy Hour and by the time I leave, I look just fine. You could run this over to your friends but just email it to them.
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USS Colorado (SSN 788) Commissioning Committee Newsletter # 36 August 2018 Commanding Officer Visits Colorado Submarine Model Presented to Governor
ace. Beth and Jerry Burroughs graciously hosted dinner on Wednesday evening for several members of the Commi ee and three Commissioning volunteers from Schwab.
Commander Reed Koepp, Commanding Officer of USS Colorado (SSN 788), and his wife Aimee, visited Colorado from July 17th through the 20th. The main purpose of their visit was to par cipate in the presenta on of the USS Colorado model on Wednesday. Arriving about noon on Tuesday the first event was a visit to Colorado Springs. Commi ee members Beth Burroughs, Florence and JJ Mackin joined them for a jeep tour of Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs. Thet had dinner with several addi onal Commi ee members at the Broadmoor in the evening.
On Thursday the Koepp’s visited the CU Boulder campus star ng at the University Memorial Center and viewed the ship’s bells that served on the first three Colorado’s and a replica of the bell currently in use on SSN 788. They also toured the new veteran’s services center and the NROTC spaces. The visit to CU was followed by lunch at the Capitol Grill in Golden and then a visit to Lookout Mountain and the Buffalo Bill Museum and grave. Traveling to Centennial, they joined Commi ee members in presen ng Colorado’s Adjutant General, Major General Michael Loh, with an Honorary USS Colorado Plankowner’s Plaque. On Wednesday morning, a three foot long model of the submarine was presented to Governor John Hickenlooper for permanent display at the State Capitol. It will join the replica of the Ship’s Crest which in mounted in the South Wing. The model was cra ed by re red Navy Master Chief Jon Sorensen. Jon is a professional model maker who has restored the Boe cher collec on of ship’s models that now reside at the Ship Tavern at the Brown Palace Hotel. He made the model several years ago and has had it on display at several of the Commi ee’s Events. CDR Koepp made remarks as part of the ceremony. A erwords he and Aimee along with members of the Commi ee were given a tour of the Capitol. The group then went for lunch at the Brown Pal-
In the evening several members of the Commi ee hosted them to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Denver. A limited
USS Colorado (SSN 788) Commissioning Commi ee usscoloradocommi ee.org
USS Colorado (SSN 788) Commissioning Commi ee usscoloradocommi ee.org number of these are for sale on our web site as well as from Hard Rock Cafe. It was great to have CDR Koepp and Aimee visit the state and to give them a feeling for the great state that they represent.
complete PSA in September and then do addi onal cer fica ons and beginning work up for an extended deployment early next year.
Please visit our web site for more details and addi onal pictures of the visit.
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Commi ee Reorganiza on Now that the boat is in Commission, out goal shi s to providing long term support for the crew and their families. This will require a reorganiza on, revision to our bylaws and new 501C3 authority. In the near future we will send out a survey to determine individual’s interest in serving on the reorganized commi ee. Subsequently we will have a meeting with those interested to help determine the new organiza on. We have consulted with two other state commi ees to solicit ideas on our future organiza on. Jacket Update We received informa on recently from Spyder that the jackets are ready to be shipped to the company doing the embroidery, which is located locally in Boulder, and that the embroidery will take about two weeks. When complete, the jackets will be returned to the Commi ee for mailing. Ship Status The ship is s ll in a Post Shake-down Availability (PSA) at Electric Boat where they are fixing guarantee items and preforming various system upgrades. It is expected they will
USS Colorado (SSN 788) Commissioning Commi ee P. O. Box 630463 Li leton, CO 80163-0463