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USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (DD-850) after her FRAM* I modernization in 1962.
(Source) |
The eye and finger continue to heal, though, truth be told, both are a bit sore this Saturday eve as I type this. So I am (somewhat reluctantly) offering up a rerun from October of 2015. It was a weekend when my good buddy
Murphy came to town and we toured the ships at
Battleship Cove. Juvat's tales of the submarine he had toured, and the memory of an alarm klaxon going off in close proximity to my right ear, triggered memories of that trip. Yes, all of the ships remain afloat, neither Murphy nor myself were banned, so we have that going for us.
So call it "Tin Can Sunday," I have great respect for the men and women who go down to the sea in ships, two of the three progeny served on destroyers and I've walked the deckplates of a few
myself. (Not to mention currently wringing out the systems on a new one.)
So without further ado, the
Joey P -
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USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., DD-850
"The Joey P" |
As a young lad when JFK took office as the 35th President of the United States I, as a New Englander, already knew quite a bit about the Kennedy family. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. was the oldest son, the crown prince of the Kennedy family. His father had visions of his oldest boy and namesake Joe someday sitting in the White House, not Jack. But history will have her way and it was not to be.
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LT Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr., USNR
25 July 1915 - 12 August 1944 |
The young Naval Aviator was killed at the age of 29 on a special mission.
Operation Aphrodite (US Army Air Forces) & Operation Anvil (US Navy) made use of unmanned, explosive-laden Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator bombers, that were deliberately crashed into their targets under radio control. These aircraft could not take off safely on their own, so a crew of two would take off and fly to 2,000 feet (610 m) before activating the remote control system, arming the detonators and parachuting from the aircraft.
After U.S. Army Air Forces operation missions were drawn up on July 23, 1944, Kennedy and Lieutenant Wilford John Willy were designated as the first Navy flight crew. Willy had "pulled rank" over Ensign James Simpson (who was Kennedy's regular co-pilot) to be on the mission. They flew a BQ-8 "robot" aircraft (a converted B-24 Liberator) for the U.S. Navy's first Aphrodite mission. Two Lockheed Ventura mother planes and a Boeing B-17 navigation plane took off from RAF Fersfield at 1800 on 12 August 1944. Then the BQ-8 aircraft, loaded with 21,170 lb (9,600 kg) of Torpex, took off. It was to be used against the Fortress of Mimoyecques and its V-3 cannons in northern France.
Following behind them in a USAAF F-8 Mosquito to film the mission were pilot Lt. Robert A. Tunnel and combat camera man Lt. David J. McCarthy, who filmed the event from the perspex nose. As planned, Kennedy and Willy remained aboard as the BQ-8 completed its first remote-controlled turn at 2,000 feet near the North Sea coast. Kennedy and Willy removed the safety pin, arming the explosive package, and Kennedy radioed the agreed code Spade Flush, his last known words. Two minutes later (and well before the planned crew bailout, near RAF Manston), the Torpex explosive detonated prematurely and destroyed the Liberator, killing Kennedy and Willy instantly. Wreckage landed near the village of Blythburgh in Suffolk, England, causing widespread damage and small fires, but no injuries on the ground. According to one report, a total of 59 buildings were damaged in a nearby coastal town. W
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| B-24D, the aircraft type some of which the Army Air Forces converted to BQ-8 drones. |
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| PBY4-1, two of which the Navy converted to BQ-8 drones though some sources indicate that the Navy did not call them BQ-8s. It was in this type aircraft that Navy Lieutenants Kennedy and Willy lost their lives. |
In 1945 the Gearing-class destroyer DD-850 was laid down in the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Fore River Shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts. She was christened the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. She is "the last surviving Destroyer built in the State of Massachusetts, the only vessel to stop and board a Soviet chartered ship during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and the last US Navy configured Gearing class Destroyer in the world" (source).
A young Robert Kennedy served on her during her shakedown cruise in February 1946. JFK and Jackie Kennedy watched the America's Cup races from her decks in 1962, anchored off of Newport, here in Little Rhody. The old ship has strong ties to New England. I had the honor, and privilege, of visiting this proud ship just recently at her final mooring at Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA.
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| The Joey P's bridge. Yes, that hatch was locked. Yes, Murph and I tried to open it. |
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| The flight deck of the Joey P. Murph and I were surprised that she has a flight deck. We wondered what sort of helo could fly off such a small platform. We discovered that, as you shall, a bit further down. |
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| You can climb up to Joey P's flight deck, so of course, we did. |
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| Part of Joey P's enlisted berthing. No doubt Skip would consider this spacious. |
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| This machine shop can be seen in the previous photo. Can you imagine trying to catch some rack time with some machinist mate working in there? I can't. |
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| Looking towards Joey P's bow and her forward 5-inch gun mount. (Torpedo launcher in left foreground, see below.) |
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| Search radar (the box-spring looking thing) on the mast and a gun fire control radar dish forward of the mast. |
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| Aft end of the eight cell RUR-5 ASROC launcher. Manufactured by Honeywell, this launcher held 8 Anti-Submarine Rockets, essentially a torpedo with a rocket strapped to its butt. |
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| Business end of the ASROC launcher. |
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An exercise ASROC mounted on its loader.
(If it's blue it won't go boom. If it's gray, get out of it's way.) |
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| Joey P was originally equipped with two Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes (Mk 32 SVTT) with three tubes each, one of which you can see in the photo above looking towards the bow. These were designed to fire the Mk-44 torpedo. Those two examples in the photo are actually Mk-46s. (I know they're not blue but they're not war shots. At least I don't think they are... Nah, no way.) |
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| Port side Mk 32 SVTT (detail from the photo above looking towards the bow). |
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| Joey P's stack (think engine exhaust...) |
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| The hangar just forward of Joey P's flight deck. Home to two Gyrodyne QH-50 DASHs (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopters). They're not that big, which is how the flight deck can be so small. Manned helos need not apply! |
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| Placards detailing the drones. Not sure if you can read them. Need good eyes! |
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| Another placard showing a DASH lifting off. |
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On to the Lionfish, where I brained myself.
Farewell Joey P! |
* Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM)
** The original post is here.
Great minds think alike. Glad you're still on the mend.
ReplyDelete😊
DeleteThis post brings back memories because both of the cans I served on were Gearings just like the Kennedy.
ReplyDeleteIf you backed up to the after bulkhead of the berthing compartment when you took the photo looking forward into the machine shop, and put your right hand on the middle rack, you would have had your hand on the rack I slept in for most of my two years on the the William R. Rush (DD714) and my rack was a top rack in that area on the Hawkins (DD-873).
Berthing is missing the mattresses, thin, but it didn't matter when you are really tired, and also missing the rack curtains and small florescent reading lights.
Also there were sheets of perforated aluminum installed between the racks to allow some movement of air, but the sheet metal prevented you from bumping into your shipmates when you were in your rack.
I've never seen a DASH chopper, they were out of service when I was on my last can.
Minor nitpick. The rating title that runs the metal working tools is called a Machinery Repairman.
https://www.navycs.com/navy-jobs/machinery-repairman.html
And yes, I know that it makes no sense that my rating was Machinst's Mate, but I wasn't a Machinist.
https://www.navycs.com/navy-jobs/machinists-mate.html
Good post and lots of memories. Thank you!
Nice website, John. Helps explain the difference between the two rates.
DeleteI note that for the surface rates, US citizenship isn't required. Odd that.
Honorable service in the US military is a shortcut on the path to becoming an American citizen.
DeleteFrom the USCIS website.
https://www.uscis.gov/military/naturalization-through-military-service
I think Robert Heinlein would agree with this part of the INA. (Immigration and Nationality Act)
Indeed it is!
DeleteNope, not spacious... identical to the berthing spaces on my ship.
ReplyDeleteIn fact the ships were almost identical.
We had different air search radar that kept Lockheed tech reps fully employed.
Not to nitpick, much, but the bridge doesn’t have hatches.
Those are what is known as watertight doors.
Hatches go through the deck (aka floor), doors through a bulkhead (aka wall).
All that gear on the aft superstructure mast was run by the radar “gang”
It was just a little more passive.
My berthing space was directly below the mess decks.
DeleteWe had to enter and exit through a hatch.
The fun time was when someone from the compartment below wanted to use the showers, they had to go through the mass decks to the forward head, usually just wearing a towel.
BTW - Valory’s husband, John, was a shipmate.
DeleteI always screw up the door/hatch thing. I should write that down somewhere...
DeleteI recall that you and Valory's husband were shipmates, small world.
Just remember, "the door is not on the floor ".
DeleteNice mnemonic!
DeleteIt's a hatch, natch!
DeleteGood one!
DeleteI am always surprised at what the Kennedy's did, I didn't know about the oldest one.
ReplyDeleteThat expanded metal covers the lathe up effectively. I can tell it's got a steady rest at the far end where the tailstock belongs. But I don't recognize the manufacturer. Not sure if it's old eye-itus or just good camo. I can make out the taper attachment is missing the rod that connects to the bed ways.
As far as sleeping with running equipment, I used to nod off in repeater sites all the time. We used the exact technology used by police back in the 80's-90's. You've probably seen it on COPS. Big old terminal with green or yellow text. When the cards were adjusted right, and the data was flowing, it sounded like music. When it was playing, the boss was making money. I could doze to that in spite of the 50+ sets of high speed fans running, and ac noise. I knew an old dentist that served in WW2 on a destroyer. His bunk was under the 5 inch mount. He couldn't hear much, but he said he could sleep anywhere....
Good stuff....
Thanks STxAR, you know your machinery!
DeleteI was Weapons Officer on her sister ship (Charles H Roan (DD-853)) 1968-1970, in DESRON 10, Newport, RI. Needless to say, a ship named Kennedy then and there was suspected of being especially privileged by her squadron mates. She was derisively said to be "Made of paint", the implication being that she was being kept to look good no matter what proper maintenance said. Glad to see she is still afloat, and those pictures bring back many memories. BTW: The ASROC system did have Mk 44 (later Mk 46) torpedoes as the pay load; but usually two of the rounds had a RTDC instead. About 13 KT as I recall.
ReplyDeleteNice info on the ASROC, Cap'n.
Delete"Made of paint" doesn't sound like an accolade.
13 KT would make for one very dead submarine I would think.
Amazing to think we were running DASHs way back when and now are just getting the firescouts fully online.
ReplyDeleteI know. Sometimes we forget things that we learned the hard way.
DeleteWhy would you finally decide to get brains by touring a submarine? I don't understand....
ReplyDeleteAmazing the amount of firepower crammed into such a small space. 2 x 2 5" multi-purpose guns, ASROC, Torpedos, Little droneish helicopters carrying more torpedoes and depth charges, plus, in operation, .50 cal BMGs splattered here and there depending on whether brown or blue water running and all the sidearms of the crew.
One could take out all the LCSs in a pitched fight. All it would have to do is pick them off one by one as the Little carpy scraps came out of the repair docks over a period of a few weeks...
That machine shop... You could do a lot of serious work in such a small space. Many a hobbyist got their start by snapping up whole ship's machine shops, when the Navy allowed people to buy them rather than just scrapping it all...
Interesting that both the Nazis and Us tried using modified bombers as remote piloted drone bombs. They used JU-88s and some He-111s. We used -17s and 24s, skipping the medium bombers and going for a really big boom for the try. Then again, the Japanese tried using some Bettys as flying bombs, too. One hit from a fully loaded Betty-bomb should have been able to kill a carrier, even a big one (we had escort carries built on cargo hulls, light carriers built on cruiser hulls (not the battlecruiser hulls of the Lex and Saratoga, smaller heavy and light cruiser hulls, and then the big fleet ships...) Then again, the Japanese weren't remote piloted vehicles.
Speaking of... those little helos were a remarkable achievement for the time. Way ahead of everyone else. And then we decided, nah... who needs remote piloted vehicles... Fast forward 30 years or so and we're scrambling...
The only way an LCS could fight an old destroyer would be by ramming them, that 57mm popgun forward ain't gonna cut it.
DeleteMinor correction to Beans- The FRAM destroyers did not regularly carry any .50 BMGs, although some may have been temporarily added for a Vietnam cruise. Normal small arms allowance, was intended for outfitting a small landing party plus shipboard security, especially since ASROC included nuclear capability with all the attendant attention to security. Arms included 1 M2 carbine, 3 BARs, 4 Thompson M1A1 submachine guns, 3 or 4 12 GA riot guns (Remington Model 11 I think); 20 M1 Garand, 24 M1911A1 .45 pistols and a M1919A4 browning machine gun with tripod. (As gunnery officer I signed for custody of all those, but was not allowed to keep them when I left...)
DeleteJohn Blackshoe
I knew, much like in the wooden ship days, the reported armament of a ship may not actually reflect the extra hardware some carried. I know during 'peacetime' all weapons must meet specific number of items stored/available. And I understand that, like you said, some guns may be added for a Vietnam cruise.
DeleteAfter the USS Cole bombing, a number of .50BMG mounts suddenly sprouted throughout the US fleet on many of its vessels, especially those expected to stop off in foreign ports.
And a Gearing armed with just 6 pintle-mounted .50s would still be able to beat a LCS like a red-headed stepchild.
John - The urge to "lose" one or two items must have been a challenge at times.
DeleteThen again, I hear that the military prisons aren't nice to visit, ever.
Beans - TO & E doesn't always match reality. Of course in many instances the troops are short of what they're supposed to have.
DeleteMa Deuce is a very useful thing to have to keep evil at a distance!
The drones on board now are the later QH-50D without the tail "rudders", reaching the fleet circa 1967. (Directional control was provided by small vanes on the tips of the rotor blades which would briefly deploy to change heading. The "rudders were merely for directional stability but proved to be unnecessary and eliminated to cut weight and drag.)
ReplyDeleteThe port side of the fuel tank was painted red and the starboard was green, same as running lights on a ship, for visual confirmation of heading when you looked at them. Take off was done by one "DASH pilot/controller" from a small podium type location at the forward edge of the flight deck. Controls consisted of a joystick moved fore and aft for pitch, left/right for yaw, and twisted for heading. Pitch or altitude control was by a thumbwheel on the side of the controller box. After takeoff, control was passed to a second controller in CIC. CIC had a large glass topped "DRT" (Dead Reckoning Tracer) table with primitive electro-mechanical computer controlled markers pointed up and visible through the top of the table. They could input data from sonar to track a submarine contact, and also from the air search or usually the fire control radar to track the DASH, all relative to the ship's location. The CIC controller could then use a set of controls in CIC to direct the DASH to the target and drop one or both MK 44 (or later MK 46) torpedoes and then fly the DASH back to the ship. Control would be transferred to the deck controller for landing, refueling and rearming.
A small detachment of airdales, usually lead by a CPO or PO1, and maybe 2-3 Airmen/PO@/PO3 was assigned, and the ship's TM (Torpedoeman) or two worked with them. I think they had an ADJ- jet engine mechanic and AT avionics technician, since the system was not really that complex.
Skippers were reluctant to fly the DASH for fear of losing one due to mechanical or skill problems, so they got used less than optimum to keep them functioning and for controllers to remain proficient, which spiraled down from there. Flying DASH attacks was not as exciting and sexy as running close proximity dual ship attacks with torpedo tubes, and limited available SS submarine target time (not many nukes to play with back then) mandated that dual ship training was higher priority. Heck, they still practices Hedgehogs attacks then, which was totally absurd and useless. (I am proud to have initiated a shipalt to get the Hedgehogs removed from the FRAMs.)
The DASH concept was sound, the technology was adequate but tactically people were not ready to embrace it.
Oh, I had an equal number of DASH takeoffs and landings!
John Blackshoe
Good data on the DASH, John. Sounds like a useful weapons system, no doubt the bean-counters were very attentive to the loss of any of them. If you don't use it, you can't get good at it.
DeleteThanks John!
As I recall, the DASH was also intensely disliked by nearby carriers, besides the ATC issues, they (The DASHs) sometimes had a habit of homing on the CV Radars. Still: "When you're out of FRAMs you're out of cans" (well, except for 931s and DDGs :-))
DeleteI can see that being a problem!
DeleteLove reading the history you put up Sarge, and glad you are on the mend.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of PBY's Here's a bit of trivia I found interesting. AFAIK, all B-24's were built with turbosupercharged engines. However the PB4Y-2 Privateer was not. From Wiki--"The Privateer had non-turbosupercharged engines for weight savings and optimal performance at low to medium patrol altitudes,..."
In the warbird restoration game, it is still possible to find original bits a pieces stashed away, including B-24 engines. But non-turboed engines for a Privateer? Forget it. So, if one was to restore a Privateer, whatever to do? Well, turns out that the Wright R-2600-92 Twin Cyclone engines from a B-25 are nearly bolt on replacements, as you can see in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S20O2ERtxTA
Interesting bit of information there, RHT447. If I ever get the scratch to overhaul a Privateer, I now know where to get engines!
Delete