This is the story of our DDG

Written by FTG1 Comes 1973

“to the tune of Snoopy and the Red Barron”

This is the story of our DDG

How we fight and sweat when we’re out at sea

We support our troops though the job is long

And we’re praying for peace in Viet Nam

The orders came down Load to the trays

Then we trained our guns and started firing away

Someone yelled “counter battery”

The Cong were shooting at our DDG

Verse:

Twenty, Thirty, Forty rounds came through the air

Some men trembled, some men started to swear

The ship turned around and we headed for sea

But we kept on firing at the enemy

For ten long minutes we continued to run

Saying our prayers to the mighty one

He must have been watching our ship that day

When the smoke was clear we had gotten away

Verse:

Twenty, Thirty, Forty rounds came through the air

Some men trembled, some men started to swear

The ship turned around and we headed for sea

But we kept on firing at the enemy

Now we can laugh and we can rest

That’s one more time we came out best

But we all know what the orders say

We will do it again another day

So That is the story of our DDG

How we fight and sweat when we’re out at sea

We support our troops though the job is long

And we’re praying for peace in Viet Nam

I like standing on the bridge wing at sunrise with salt spray in my face and clean ocean winds whipping in from the four quarters of the globe - the ship beneath me feeling like a living thing as her engines drive her through the sea.

I like the sounds of the Navy - the piercing trill of the boatswains pipe, the syncopated clangor of the ship's bell on the quarterdeck, the harsh squawk of the 1MC, and the strong language and laughter of sailors at work.

I like Navy vessels - nervous darting destroyers, plodding fleet auxiliaries, sleek submarines and steady solid carriers.

I like the proud names of Navy ships: Yorktown, Leyte Gulf, Port Royal--memorials of great battles won.

I like the lean angular names of Navy 'tin-cans': Stump, Stout, Carney -- mementos of heroes who went before us.

I like the tempo of a breakaway song blaring through the topside speakers as we pull away from the oiler after refueling at sea.

I like liberty call and the spicy scent of a foreign port, money in my pocket and friends at my side.

I even like all hands working parties as my ship fills herself with the multitude of supplies both mundane and exotic which she needs to cut her ties to the land and carry out her mission anywhere on the globe where there is water to float her.

I like sailors, men from all parts of the land, farms of the Midwest, small towns of New England, from the cities, the mountains and the prairies, from immigrant families, from all walks of life. I trust and depend on them as they trust and depend on me - for professional competence, for comradeship, for courage. In a word, they are "shipmates."

I like the surge of adventure in my heart, when the word is passed: "Now station the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarters for leaving port".

And I like the infectious thrill of sighting home again, with the waving hands of welcome from family and friends waiting pier side. The work is hard and dangerous; the going rough at times; the parting from loved ones painful, but the companionship of robust Navy laughter, the 'all for one and one for all' philosophy of the sea is ever present.

I like the serenity of the sea after a day of hard ship's work, as flying fish flit across the wave tops and sunset gives way to night.

I like the feel of the Navy in darkness - the masthead lights, the red and green navigation lights and stern light, the pulsating phosphorescence of radar repeaters - they cut through the dusk and join with the mirror of stars overhead. And I like drifting off to sleep lulled by the myriad noises large and small that tell me that my ship is alive and well, and that my shipmates on watch will keep me safe.

I like quiet midwatches with the aroma of strong coffee -- the lifeblood of the Navy -- permeating everywhere. And I like hectic watches when the exacting minuet of haze-gray shapes racing at flank speed keeps all hands on a razor edge of alertness.

I like the sudden electricity of "General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations". Followed by the hurried clamor of running feet on ladders and the resounding thump of watertight doors as the ship transforms herself in a few brief seconds from a peaceful workplace to a weapon of war--ready for anything.

And I like the sight of space-age equipment manned by youngsters clad in dungarees and sound-powered phones that their grandfathers would still recognize.

I like the traditions of the Navy and the men and women who made them.

I like the proud names of Navy heroes: Nimitz, Perry, John Paul Jones and Barry. A sailor can find much in the Navy: comrades-in-arms, pride in self and country, mastery of the seaman's trade. An adolescent can find adulthood. In years to come, when sailors are home from the sea, they will still remember with fondness and respect the ocean in all its moods - the impossible shimmering mirror calm and the storm-tossed green water surging over the bow. And then there will come again a faint whiff of stack gas, a faint echo of engine and rudder orders, a vision of the bright bunting of signal flags snapping at the yardarm, a refrain of hearty laughter in the wardroom and chief's quarters and messdecks.

Gone ashore for good they will grow wistful about their Navy days, when the seas belonged to them and a new port of call was ever over the horizon.

Remembering this, they will stand taller and say,

"I WAS A SAILOR ONCE. I WAS PART OF THE NAVY, AND THE NAVY WILL ALWAYS BE PART OF ME."

**Contributed by Tom Fleming**

Ode to a Navy Chef

A Navy chef is what I am, and very proud to be, we cook for you both day and night, in port and out at sea.

The night watch comes to wake me up, the ship then starts to rock, I take a look to see the time, Oh God it’s 3 o’clock.

Are hours are quite long you know, cause chip beef takes a while, some cream & toast drips onto the floor and starts to burn the tile.

Three squares a day we serve to you, the roast beef our main course, some sailor in the back complains this meat taste just like horse.

What kind of crap is this you ask, I’ve not seen that at home,  “your mother’s” recipe I say, she gave it on the phone.

OK it’s true, of what we do and how I learned to cook, not from a school or chef that’s cool, I learned it from a book.

I was a filthy snipe before, my hands burnt from hot goo, but now I am, a gourmet chef and fix you Navy stew.

Now roaches from the ceiling fall, into the dough I mix, the cookies that you ate last night, those weren’t chocolate chips.

The Captain checks the recipes that I read all the time, he tastes my soup and spits it back and said I must be blind.

Just fooling now the Captain said his hands placed on both hips, I like your stew your chip beef too but love your chocolate chips!!!

A Navy chef is just the guy you don’t want to offend, cause we have ways to make you heave over the side you’ll bend.

You bitch and moan to folk’s back home, our food’s not fit to eat.

I must be true and say to you “GO EAT ACROSS THE STREET”

The cooks motto:

“No matter how long it takes, our service is fast”

By Eric Hilton, CS-3   (1966-1970) USS Cochrane DDG 21, USS Taylor DD-468, USS Truxton DLGN-35, and USS Mullany DD-528
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