A Sea Story

USS O’BRIEN (DD-725)

29 June 1968 – Saturday

Naval Gunfire Support – Gulf of Tonkin

The following message received from COMDESRON 2 (Capt. F.C. Dunham, Jr.):

Perhaps it is because war itself is such a cruel and harsh business, or maybe it’s because we’re a long way from home.  At any rate, when the guns are occasionally silent, conversations are different over here from those we used to hear back home.  They are mostly flavored with nostalgia, romance, and philosophy—or maybe just reminiscences.  In the Navy, it’s a great time for exchanging sea stories.

Just such a moment occurred the other day on board USS BLANDY, a Norfolk-based destroyer, a few thousand yards to seaward of the Vietnam demilitarized zone.  BLANDY had just silenced an enemy artillery site with her five-inch guns and was standing by for another mission.  Captain Frank C. Dunham, Jr. of Norfolk, Virginia, Commander of the Cruiser-Destroyer “Gun Line”, was talking to his flagship skipper, Commander Joel H. Berry, Jr. of Virginia Beach, Virginia, as he pointed to a nearby destroyer, USS O’BRIEN, which had just reported for duty as gunfire support ship in that area.  Dunham recalled how the O’BRIEN was the destroyer which might well have saved his life almost exactly 24-years ago, the 25^th of June 1944.  

As an Ensign on board the old battleship, ARKANSAS, he had been an anti-aircraft control officer at his battle station on the maintop when ARKANSAS, TEXAS, NEW YORK, NEVADA, and four destroyers entered the fortified harbor of Cherbourg, France, to knock out the heavy guns which had been taking a toll on the allied troops moving along the peninsula to recapture the city of Cherbourg after having fought their way ashore at Normandy.  “It was the worst pasting old battleship division FIVE took throughout the entire war,” Dunham recalled.  (Recon photo below taken 4-days before the battle described in Capt. Dunham's story.) 

“All the battleships had been hit at least once except the ARKANSAS within the first few minutes of our duel with the shore batteries.  The destroyers were ordered to lay a covering smoke screen for the battleships and they reversed course promptly and came back belching black from their stacks.  One of those destroyers was O’BRIEN,” Dunham went on.  “As she was passing down our port side doing about 25 knots and making a beautiful black curtain for us to maneuver behind, there were two tremendous explosions.  O’BRIEN had been hit and hit hard by two high-explosive projectiles targeted for the ARKANSAS.  Her entire superstructure had been blasted away.”  Thanks to O’BRIEN, ARKANSAS remained unscathed throughout the three hour battle.  With the enemy’s big guns finally silenced, O’BRIEN was towed out of harm’s way for repairs.

Many months later, when ARKANSAS was taking a breather between bombardment missions at Okinawa, Captain Dunham can recall “Attention to starboard” being sounded by the ship’s marine bugler.  Such protocol under battle conditions is most unusual and this occasion certainly was.  The battleship’s captain was honoring a destroyer passing down her starboard side—a very special destroyer—USS O’BRIEN, battle damage repaired and as scrappy as ever.

When Captain Dunham sent a greeting to O’BRIEN, 24-years later almost to the day, welcoming her to the gunline, it carried very special thoughts and recollections with it.  And this “Sea Story” is true.

     – This piece was printed aboard O’BRIEN, 29 June 1968 in the ship’s Plan of the Day.  O’BRIEN had just reported for duty on the gunline three days earlier and had been involved in a large combined services operation attacking an NVA battalion of about 300-men at the hamlet of Bin An, 9-miles NE of Quang Tri City.  O’BRIEN fired over 1500, 5-inch rounds during the 3-day battle and O’BRIEN with its crew were subsequently awarded a Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation.