Thacke leaned forward in his seat and looked at Hammond. “I am in charge of Battleship Division One. We are all joining up off Hawaii and heading to Korea. I figure you know some of the things we were trying to set up.”
Hammond nodded. “Some. I was getting a lot of the Navy and Marine Corps options set up. I know they put General Richardson in charge of the planning and then put her in First Marine. I also know they were getting everyone ready to shove off, but I don’t know the final plan or much on the details.”
“Well, we’re on the way now. Claire Richardson came up with some brilliant ideas of how to do this. She’s a sneaky gal. I like it. We are heading up to provide gunfire support and in general scare the shit out of the North Koreans. Our force is made up of seven battleships, two cruisers and a pot full of destroyers. We’re going to divide up to provide support in three separate landings and then patrol the shoreline providing gunfire support and denying the North access to everything between the beach and 20 miles. We’ll need to make our plans between here and Korea. In the mean time, I’m going to have the staff run a kind of mini refresher training. Lots of Zulu 13s and damage control drills. We’ll also do some formation maneuvers. The main thing is to make sure we can handle whatever is thrown at us,” Thacke said.
The telephone rang interrupting the conversation. Hammond answered, listened for a moment, and then hung up. “We’re making our approach. I need to head up to the bridge,” he said.
Thacke smiled. “No problem. I just wanted to kind of fill you in. We’re going to be working really closely for the next few months. I don’t want anything to stand between us,” he said as he stood. “You run your ship. Maybe we have dinner together tonight and talk a little more.”
“My pleasure, Admiral. I assume you will be taking this cabin,” Hammond said. Usually the Admiral took the best cabin on the ship.
Thacke shook his head. “I never liked that practice. I understand there is another VIP cabin, I’ll take that one and you keep yours.”
Hammond smiled at him. “Always knew I’d like working with you,” he chuckled. “Your stateroom is right next door then. We’ll share the galley.”
“Good enough. Now get up to the bridge, Captain,” Thacke said.
Hammond bid his goodbyes and hurried up the ladders to the bridge. A quick glance showed that all the people were in place. The Iowa was holding astern and to the port side of the Spica waiting for the signal to proceed. The bridge was quiet and orderly. Commander Davis, the XO, was on the starboard bridge wing along with Ensign Martinez, one of the junior officers. Hammond joined them just as the Romeo flag was hoisted to the top of the Spica’s halyard signaling the Iowa to make her approach.
Under the watchful eye of the XO and Hammond, Martinez issued the orders to bring the Iowa alongside the Spica. Hammond was impressed at the skill level Davis displayed as he explained the helpful rules in the maneuvers. He even gave the warnings of the suction effect of the other ship when making an approach. As a result, Hammond had merely to sit back and watch as the Iowa slid flawlessly into place alongside the Spica at a distance of only 150 feet and stayed there.
“USS Iowa, prepare to receive shot line fore and aft!” came an announcement from the loudspeakers on the Spica. Within seconds, three loud bangs were heard as weighted lines were shot across the 150-foot void between the ships. Immediately Iowa crewmen grabbed the shot lines and passed the ends through a pulley attached to the bulkhead and along to a line of men who began pulling it across.
Forward, the men pulled across a telephone and distance line that held a sound-powered telephone line and a small line with flags marking every 20 feet to help the ship’s conning officer maintain the distance between the ships. A second line came across for a high tension line to transfer cargo. Back aft, the end of the shot line was attached to a messenger line and finally a steel span wire. Once the span wire with its attachment shackle came across, it was attached to a pelican hook over a probe receiver for the fueling hose.
Once the wires were attached at both places, winches took tension on the lines and everything was pulled taught. Using the messenger lines, the men of the Iowa then pulled across the fueling probe and the standard underway replenishment fixture or SURF. Using brute strength, the Iowa crewmen pulled the probe across the span wire until it slammed into the fueling probe receiver on the ship and seated itself. When all was ready, thousands of gallons of DFM, or diesel fuel, marine, came pouring through the hoses and probe into the bunkers of the Iowa. At the same time, a trolley began shuttling back and forth along the highline between the ships carrying 5-inch and 16-inch ammunition to replenish what was expended in training. Once the transfers began, the helo also began shuttling back and forth between the ships carrying cargo nets full of food, equipment and materials and depositing them on the Iowa’s fantail. Using hand operated fork trucks sent over with the first loads, work crews immediately began moving the pallets of materials out of the way and then down the hatches into the ship. Ammunition was trucked to the loading hatches for the three turrets where the powder cans and projectiles were lowered into the magazines. The last of the projectiles and powder were lowered into the turret three magazines. The 5-inch ammunition was carried one at a time from the pallets to each 5-inch magazine by a separate working party.
In all, the Iowa took on 56 rounds of 16-inch ammunition, 340 rounds of 5-inch and 20 tons of food and other supplies. They also took on 380,000 gallons of fuel. The whole evolution took more than four hours. By the end of that time everyone was exhausted. Talking to the CO of the Spica through the sound-powered telephone, Hammond decided not to practice an emergency breakaway but take their time and do the evolution at a slightly slower pace so the new guys could learn. As the last of the pallets was being sent across, Hammond heard some disturbances behind the bridge. Looking aft, he saw several crewmen setting up the last of some musical instruments in a wide walkway. He turned to the XO. “I didn’t know we had a band,” he said with a smile.
The XO got a sheepish look on his face. “Sorry about that, Captain, these guys got together while we were rebuilding. I told them to be ready for all our unreps and special events.”
“No problem. This is one area I don’t mind surprises. I hope they’re good.”
“Not bad at all, Captain,” he said as he turned back to the evolution.
Over the next few minutes the fueling hose and other gear were released in the reverse order they had been sent over. The last sent back was the tension wire and messengers for cargo. As the tension line was unhooked, the band immediately began to play. It was a mix of older and younger crewmen playing music that was very familiar to Hammond. It took only a few seconds to recognize the old Doobie Brothers song “Rockin’ Down the Highway.” The XO was right. The guys were very good. As the Iowa sped up and began passing the Spica, Hammond looked back at the faces of the band members. They were actually having a lot of fun playing the music. Better yet, the guys still at their unrep stations were clapping and singing along. The tradition of playing music during a breakaway had been going on for many years, though it was usually some kind of recorded music being played over the ship’s public address system. To have a real band out there playing was a novelty. Even the crew of the Spica seemed to enjoy the show.
USS Iowa made her way to a new station to wait for other ships to replenish. The watch was set and the ship returned to a more routine operation. USS Alabama had taken Iowa’s place alongside Spica. That was when Hammond had the chance to look at all the ships in the force. While replenishing, several more ships had come into view. Several modern frigates and two Ticonderoga Class cruisers had been in the force along with five Charles F. Adams class Guided Missile Destroyers. Hammond remembered the old workhorses of the fleet. The Adams Class DDGs had a reputation of doing more than their share and were still able to get the job done. Although the electronics were older, they were very reliable and the missile magazines could carry up to forty Standard SM-1s.