Talk:USS Towers

USS Towers DDG-9 Sails Down A Vietnam River To Fire Its 5" 54 Guns In Support Of Ground Operations in July 1966

My name is August Robert DeFore. I was on board the USS Towers when the ship sailed down a Vietnamese river to fire its guns in support of ground operations. My rate was STG-2 (E5) at the time (Sonar Technician Second Class). My General Quarters duty station was below the forward 5"54 gun mount in the Sonar Room. We sailed so far down river that we had to back out for 30 minutes before we could turn around. My job was to ping the sonar at a high repetition rate to detect large objects as we were backing out. We had a spotter plane flying over head to direct our gun fire. Each shot rattled the sonar room. Two rounds were fired. Then the spotter plane pilot radioed a correction and two more rounds of 5"54 were fired. This procedure was repeated until the gun was on target. Then approximately 50 rounds were fired in less than 3 minutes. We did this all afternoon firing at different targets. While we were on station, the sonar equipment stayed active (pinging) to keep the enemy from entering the water and attacking the ship. We were down river firing our guns for approx eight (8) hours. The total time to get on station, fire our guns and sail back to the mouth of the river was approx 15 hours. So many rounds of 5"54 had been fired that both barrels were smooth bored. We sailed back to Subic Bay Philippines to replace both barrels. On the way back to Subic Bay, the ASW (Anti-Submarine Welfare) officer presented each Sonar-man and Torpedo-man with the Vietnam Service medal and Vietnam Service ribbon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:8000:1A41:2600:2536:7B54:5B89:E973 (talk) 23:56, 9 February 2021 (UTC)