Striking Eight Bells: A Vietnam Memoir

Striking Eight Bells: A Vietnam Memoir
“An Uneasy Time For America”
By: George Trowbridge
3/3/2018 Striking Eight Bells: A Vietnam Memoir 1
ISBN-10: 1945812338
ISBN-13: 978-1945812330
George Trowbridge recounts his journey from the Midwest to a warship
in the Gulf of Tonkin during the closing months of the Vietnam War.
Choosing to enlist in the Navy at 19, versus being drafted into the
military, Trowbridge left a wife and newborn son in the States as he
traversed the oceans of the globe to fight in America’s most unpopular
war.
George shares the details of the living conditions on board a naval
destroyer during this era, what it was like going through training, the
grind for his ship’s crew in supporting ground forces with naval gunfire
as well as the strike attacks his ship made on enemy coastal defenses,
and finally coming home at the end of the war.
This emotional story is not only historically focused, but it also is
informative about life in the military, all filtered through the personal
lens of a first-hand perspective.

In “Striking Eight Bells”
The timeframe of my story, the years 1968 to 1973, was also a time
where America turned many different corners in assessing our values
as a society and as a country. The always present underlying factor
throughout these years was our country’s continued involvement of
fighting the war in Vietnam.
Year-by-year the death toll of young American’s in Vietnam rose
meanwhile our U.S. government communicated constant optimism of
our ability to succeed in winning the war.
• But as it turned out they were and had been lying to us for many years.

Prologue:
In 1972, I found myself on board a Navy destroyer off the coast of
Vietnam. Young men of my age got there motivated by the Vietnam
draft lottery, while describing how me and others of my generation
were products of the turmoil and emerging cultural changes of the late
1960s.
The emphasis is on how forces in life change our life plans, but if
embraced, they may turn out to be our new found passion and can
lead to personal fulfillment.

Chapter 1: What happened to my
world?
The story opens with a recounting of my
ship a World War II era, Gearing class
destroyer, first kinetic combat operation in
bombarding the infamous “Tiger Island,” off
the coast of North Vietnam and receiving
heavy counterbattery gunfire from the
North Vietnamese gunners on the island.
The changing circumstances in both South
and North Vietnam were occurring in
December 1972, and many “hot areas” now
existed, including the Navy’s missions to
attack and destroy these new “hot areas,”
by destroyers from the sea.

Chapter 1: What happened to my world?
The times were different for males as they faced the Vietnam draft
lottery and conscript military service. Many avoided the draft by
pursuing higher education and taking advantage of the draft
deferments.
With no other way to avoid it, the older portion of my generation, the
“Baby Boomers,” ended up in the various branches of the Armed
Forces and some bore the brunt of serving and fighting in the Vietnam
War.

Chapter 2: Evolving.
The events occurring through the mid to later years of the 1960s were
creating many changes in the U.S. society as the result of not only the
Vietnam War, but also from the assassination of our President in 1963,
with the now openly exhibited unrest resulting in the Civil Rights and
antiwar movements.
The thread throughout this decade was the point by point realization
by the U.S. Public that our Government and our elected and appointed
leaders had not been honest in the portrayal of military progress in
Vietnam.

Chapter 2: Evolving.
The events of the Vietnam War during the years 1968 and 1969 are
beginning to impact even my small farming community with older
friends from previous high school years are now being killed or
wounded in Vietnam.
By the next year in 1970, I the leave the family farm for good in
accordance with a plan laid by my father and some family members.
Later that year I find the girl whom I will ultimately marry and in 1971, I
also learn that my draft lottery number is low and I’m in the first round
to be called for processing.

Chapter 3: The Next Step.
In September of 1971, I enlist in the U.S. Navy for six-years with a
guarantee for training as an engineer in the Nuclear Power program,
my report date is one month later in October. The motivation for
enlisting for six years in the Nuclear Power Program was because of
assurances that “Navy Nukes don’t get sent to Vietnam.”
But first came the nine weeks of recruit training (boot camp) which had
to be completed which also causes my first separation from my young
wife who is now expecting our baby with a due date for the birth when
I will still be in boot camp.

Chapter 3: The Next Step.
The nine weeks of Navy boot camp
at Naval Training Station in Great
Lakes, Illinois from late October 71
to January 72 are experienced and I
detail much of the recruit training
experience.
I learn the power and influence of
the recruit Company Commander,
which has a powerful and life
changing impact on me and my
fellow recruits.

Chapter 4: Crumbling Of The Deal.
With my wife and son moved into a tiny third-floor apartment, I start
Machinist Mate (MM) ‘A’ School at Great Lakes. All went well until
week seven of school where my class ranking fell below the threshold
for sustaining the status as a candidate for the extensive Nuclear Power
training. The Navy informs me that I am dropped from the Nuclear
Power program, now with an enlistment obligation reduced to four
years.

Chapter 4: Crumbling Of The
Deal.
Now as a conventional MM, I receive
orders to the USS Rich DD-820 home
ported in Norfolk, Virginia.
After graduation from MM ‘A’
School, with my wife and son we
depart from Great Lakes to Norfolk
Virginia. But first we visit family back
in Iowa, which isn’t without some
issues.
Picture my mother took, the
day before leaving Iowa for
Norfolk, Va.

Chapter 4: Crumbling Of The
Deal.
After reporting on board, the process
begins in learning how to become an
engineer working in the after engine
room.
Within several weeks medical issues
came to light with allergies and allergic
reactions in the form of severe skin
rashes. Navy doctors decided that for
medical reasons that I could not stay in
an engineering rating but would be
retained in the Navy by moving me to a
cleaner rating.
USS Rich DD-820

Chapter 5: A New Life.
Now with my original deal with the Navy and primary purposes for joining
gone and over. I was starting over in creating a new life for myself in Navy,
but now in the Quartermaster rating.
It was also a time of learning to live within the societal class levels in the
hierarchy of the ship, and coping as a junior enlisted sailor with the
nonexistent amenities in living and berthing arrangements.
Next to come were the crew and ship preparations for the deployment in
October to Western Pacific (WESTPAC) and Vietnam. Now my deal was really
over, since the purpose in joining the Navy was with the hope of not being
sent to Vietnam.

Chapter 5: A New Life.
I go to sea for the first time to the
Caribbean, with five weeks in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GITMO) for
pre-deployment refresher training in
preparation for the upcoming
deployment.
After GITMO, it was back to Norfolk.
Next to come were the crew and
ship preparations for the
deployment to WESTPAC and
ultimately on to Vietnam.

Chapter 6: The Passage And
Long Transition.
The news from Vietnam indicates the
war was heating up, not cooling down
as reported by the news media.
On October 17th, the ship departed
Norfolk. The passage would include
transiting the Panama Canal, then to
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After Hawaii it
was on to Midway Atoll and then to
Guam.
From Guam it would be to Subic Bay on
Luzon Island in the Philippines, arriving
on November 18th, 32 days after leaving
Norfolk.

Chapter 6: The Passage And
Long Transition.
The six day stop in Subic Bay was
to make the final preparations.
The ship was outfitted with
machine guns, sensor systems,
maintenance on the 5-inch gun
and fire control systems and
magazines fully loaded out with
ammunition.

Chapter 7: First Arrival.
It could be said, in its time Olongapo
City served as a sailor’s wonderland.
The odyssey began when crossing
the bridge over “Shit River,” which
leads directly onto the “main drag”
of the town, Magsaysay Drive. If one
couldn’t find what they were looking
for in Olongapo City, it probably
can’t be found anywhere.
The famous “Shit River,” Olongapo, Philippines.

The ship makes its first arrival at MR1, the
Vietnam “gun line.” The crew must quickly and
efficiently make the transition from normal
underway routines to the tasks demanded by
wartime combat operations.
The daily routine becomes a mixture of firing
hundreds of 5-inch projectiles, followed by fast
night runs out to “Yankee Station,” to
rendezvous with replenishments ships and
conducting alongside underway replenishment
(UNREP) operations to refuel and to on load
ammunition.

Our ship is directed to take part in
Special Operations. My ship along with
two other ships, now called Task Unit
(TU) 71.1.1, conducted day and night
raid attacks (strike missions) on North
Vietnamese troops, coastal gun
batteries, missile sites and radar sites.

After the Special Operations strike
missions the ship returns back to the
gun line at MR1 and resumes
providing gunfire support. The crew
is exhausted, many in the crew had
not slept for days.
So far, the crew’s experiences in
Vietnam had been one exhausting
day, leading into the next exhausting
day, with no breaks in sight.
Picture one of my shipmates
took of me in the chart room.

Relief to the crew comes when the ship evaporator distilling plants
break down, causing severe water shortages for both freshwater and
boiler feed water. The ship first attempts to repair the evaporators
while underway at sea with repair parts flown in by helicopters.
A late season Pacific typhoon complicates operations with the high
winds and seas the typhoon brought into the South China Sea and the
Gulf of Tonkin. When the underway repair attempts fail, the ship was
ordered to enter into Da Nang Harbor in South Vietnam to attempt
repairing the evaporators while dockside.

Ordered to leave Da Nang, the evaporators
actually get repaired while en route to
Subic Bay. The ship is ordered to return
back to Vietnam on gun line at MR1.
On December 16th, the ship’s crew gets
good news, the ship was to rendezvous
with the aircraft carrier USS Midway CVA
41. The ship was being assigned carrier
escort duties out at “Yankee Station.”
The other news, the Midway would be
going to Singapore for Christmas and our
ship would be one of her escort ships.

U.S. Navy Destroyers off Vietnam
• On the next slide, the video, captures much of what our ship and the crew
experienced on the Vietnam gun line and combat strike missions carried out by
U.S. Navy destroyers.
• YouTube Video: Made by USS Joseph P. Kennedy DD-850 Association.

Chapter 8: Respite And Second Arrival.
The routine is getting back to being somewhat normal while escorting the
USS Midway. The operations in Vietnam have taken their toll on the crew.
Five Navy aircraft carriers are in the Gulf of Tonkin to launch their aircraft to
participate in Linebacker II bombing operations.
On December 20th, the USS Midway leaves “Yankee Station” escorted by our
ship bound for Singapore. We arrive in Singapore on Christmas Eve day, at
the ANZUK Naval Basin, a former British Sembawang Naval Base.
The six days in Singapore provided the crew an opportunity to relax and at
the same time to take stock of our accumulated combat experiences from
just weeks earlier.

Chapter 8: Respite And Second Arrival.
The New Year of 1973, would be brought in while back at sea bound for
Subic Bay to change the gun barrels on the 5-inch guns, before
proceeding back to Vietnam.
The ship does not return to the gun line at MR1, but instead is assigned
to stay with the USS Midway serving as the “plane guard” ship. The
crew is content with this assignment.

Chapter 8: Respite And Second
Arrival.
On January 20th, the ship is
ordered back to the gun line at
MR1.
The Cua Viet River, northward to
the DMZ, which was once again a
“hot area.”

Chapter 8: Respite And Second
Arrival.
On January 24th, word arrives that the
North Vietnamese had returned to the
peace talks in Paris and had agreed to
sign a cease-fire agreement. For us the
cease fire would begin at 0800 local
time, on January 28th.
Through the early morning hours of
January28th, our ship fired over 450 HE
rounds onto spotted targets from 0030
to 0745 on the morning of the “cease
fire,” which went into effect at 0800.

Chapter 9: Headed Toward Planet Earth.
Combat operations had ended, but the deployment has not. The ship
departed for a 10-day port visit in Hong Kong from an area east of
“Yankee Station” on February 1st.
On leaving Hong Kong, the ship arrives in Yokosuka, Japan on February
17th. The stop in Yokosuka was seen as necessary by the Navy because
they did not want to send ships home with visual battle damage or in
an obvious state of rundown condition for families of the crew and the
news media to see.

On February 25th, the ship got underway from Yokosuka.
The transit was to follow a modified Great Circle route taking our ship
into the higher latitudes of the northern Pacific Ocean bound for San
Diego, California. The ship would spend three days in San Diego before
departing for the Panama Canal where the ship arrived on March 18th,
the next day the ship made the passage northward through the
Panama Canal.

Late on March 20th, it was learned that a late winter storm a
Northeaster (called Nor’easter) was off the U.S. Atlantic coast. The ship
caught up to the Nor’easter on March 22nd. Ultimately, it became
necessary to reduce the ship’s speed, the slower speeds also began to
affect our ETA in Norfolk and continued to do so until the morning of
March 23rd, when conditions began to improve.

The ship finally docked in Norfolk at 1830, over nine hours later than
the original ETA. It was a homecoming for all and it was over. The ship
went into the post-deployment 30-day stand down period.
I was now back with the two people that mattered more to me than
anyone else in the world, my wife and son.
Late in May, the Commanding Officer conducted a personnel inspection
of the crew and held an awards ceremony. The awards ceremony
actually served to be a morale crusher for many of the crew.

Epilogue: Life Beyond USS Rich.
My first year of shipboard life on the USS Rich caused me to probably
mature beyond my years.
The intent of sharing my earlier teenage years was to help the reader
gain some insight into rural life in the 1960s. A time before all the
technologies that we either enjoy or despise today.
The Navy, which I wrote about is now much different in many respects,
accept for warfighting where the focus of leadership must always
remain on mission accomplishment. That can never change.

I stayed with the USS Rich until 1975, when I reenlisted for six more
years now as a Second Class Petty Officer (QM2). After a short tour in a
coastal-river division, at the Great Lakes Naval Station, I was assigned to
shore duty as a Navy Recruiter in Chicago.
My Post Vietnam experiences were all accumulated in Chicago as a U.S.
Navy recruiter, during a time when the U.S. Public’s anti-military
sentiments was at its Zenith.

The USS Rich met her end in 1977, when she had an at sea collision
while conducting an FAS with the USS Calossahatchee AO 98. The
damage to the ship was so extensive it was decided by the Navy the
cost to repair her could not be justified and decommissioned her in
December at Philadelphia.
The crew of the USS Rich were all young men who had taken on the
burden of military service. They transformed themselves into a ship’s
crew that was efficient, unified and helped to bring a long and
unpopular war to a close.

You can buy “Striking Eight Bells” from the
following book sellers:

About the author:
• After retiring from the U.S. Navy in 1992, I
sailed for several years as a Merchant
Marine Officer in the positions of Chief
Mate and Mate on board various
commercial vessels.
• My post-navy experiences working on
merchant vessels, prompted me to
become the founder of my own private
maritime training institutions.
• During the intervening years, I have
founded two private maritime training
institutions and have managed two other
major maritime training institutions in the
Gulf of Mexico region.
• “Striking Eight Bells,” is my first crossover
from technical writing style to just writing
in order to tell a story. A very different
writing experience.
• My story in “Striking Eight Bells” is one
that I have contemplated telling for a long
time.
• In recent years it somehow seemed to
become more important to me to tell of
the time when young people were raised
to be patriotic and to believe in our
country, at the same time a sense of
obligation to serve the country was
instilled into many of us.

Striking Eight Bells: A Vietnam Memoir

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Striking Eight Bells: A Vietnam Memoir