U.S.S. Floyd B. Parks (DD-884) was my first ship, 1949-1952 . I learned to be a sailor on the Floyd B. I reported aboard directly out of Boot Camp In January 1949. Boots are at the mercy of the crew, and I was no different. We had a Chief that delighted in harassing the boots by sending them for a bucket of steam, seeing the Arabian Sea Bat, etc. One morning he sent me after a sky hook--the Chief didn't know that I come from a Navy family--I went back the Boat Deck on the O-1 Level and spent all day with the Boatswain Mates and learned how to splice wire and rope.
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U.S.S. Willis A Lee (DL-4) 1953-1957. This is a special ship for me. I reported aboard in February 1953 as a member of Her pre-commissioning detail. She was a new type ship employing 1000 lbs of steam as opposed to 500 lbs in the older ships. Lee was accepted by the Navy and we put her in commission in October 1954. I spent the next three years becoming a sailor. I had reported aboard as a hash mark seaman after 4 years of service and advanced to First Class Radarman early 1957.
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U.S.S. Hull (DD-945) 1962-1963. This was a short tour. I only spent about 8 months aboard but what a great tour. I reported aboard after graduating from Radarman "B" School as a First Class Radarman. During the operation phase of the school, I took the test and was selected for Chief Radarman. There was a Chief already aboard and he let it be known that if orders came for a Radarman--he would not be the one leaving--therefore the short tour. We were at sea when I put on "the Hat". The crew asked me to leave the compartment at midnight and when I stepped into the Chief's Lounge there were six pair of shoes to be shined and orders to report for Captain's Mast at 1000 the next morning where I was convicted of impersonating a Chief Petty Officer. A few days later we pulled into San Francisco and there was an invitation to all new arrivals to report to the Chief's Club, Treasure Island, for proper initiation. I was handcuffed to a woman CPO and we were each given a gallon beer pitcher and we were supposed to drink all the contents. Needless to say in a very short time we were beginning to squirm. She asked, Chief, your place or mine?" Without hesitation I replied, "My place is the closest," and we departed hurriedly for the men's bathroom.
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U.S.S. Newman K. Perry (DD-883) was the first command in which I was Division Leading Petty Officer (LPO). I was a new First Class, and my way was different than what had happened in the past. It didn't take to long before my way was the Way. This was a tough assignment for the first couple of months, but I would not trade my duty on the Newman K. because it set my directions as the senior enlisted. I reported aboard on Friday and we deployed for the Mediterranean on the following Monday. We had a Captain that was something--don't know what that something was but he was something. I was standing on the Signal Bridge with the First Class Signalman when the Skipper came aboard. His Stewarts Mate brought an arm load of hats aboard. I question the Signalman, he laughed and said, "You'll understand before to long." Two days out we were at General Quarters and I stepped out to the bridge to observe a gunnery exercise. Something went wrong, the Skipper grabbed his hat, threw it on the deck, and stomped it to pieces. He turned to the Boatswain Mate of the Watch and said, "Get the Stewart up here to clean up this mess and to bring me a hat." When he got his new hat, he turned very calmly to me and said, "Glad to have you aboard, Parker. My door is open to my LPO's." He stomped another hat that same afternoon.
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U.S.S. Lynde McCormick (DDG-8) 1963-1967. Lynde McCormick was my first ship the Division Chief. She was a good ship from the start and I say that she was my favorite of many good ships. Our cruise of '65-'66 was the best I had experienced. We had a Skipper and XO who liked and respected each other. My Division Officer turned out to be my favorite. That cruise was a great experience. I took the test, passed, and was selected as a Senior Chief Radarman while aboard McCormick. That was toward the end of my tour and I was advanced after leaving Her. I had requested and received a retirement date in 1968. Then I received notice of the selection for E-8 which carried a requirement of two years additional duty. I told them that I was going out on 20 years. A couple of weeks later an advanced set of shore duty orders were received for me--requiring two years additional duty. I said--Well give me both and I will stay the extra two years--they did and I did.
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U.S.S. Joyce (DER-317)--1957-1959. Joyce was a radar picket ship and it was strange duty at first. We would go out for 24 days on picket station and 24 days in port. Sounds good--you bet--the 24 days in was filled with other destroyer duty such as duty ASW ship, harbor patrol, etc. I had some great experiences aboard Joyce. The word came out in the Atlantic that a squadron of DER's would change homeport to the West Coast--Seattle, Washington. I swapped with a RD1 and we left Newport, R.I. to transit the Panama Canal on the way for a stop in San Diego. We were expecting Seattle but before we got to the Canal orders had been changed for Pearl Harbor as homeport. We arrived Pearl in July 1957 after our families had struggled with the transit to Seattle and then to Oahu. We made the last Hydrogen bomb test at Aniwetok, and our duties were to track rockets that had been fired into mushroom cloud. We were on picket Christmas 1957, and we had been harassed all day Christmas Eve by the Russian--planes and ships. Everyone was nervous and homesick and no one was going to bed. I finally gave up at 2330 and hit the sack. I was just getting to sleep when word was passed from the bridge that an unidentified target was closing from the North. In my addled mind I figured it was Russian and went running for CIC. As I was going through a hatch the ship took a heavy roll and I went into an uncontrolled slid and wrecked an ankle on the hatch knife edge. I went limping into CIC and the watch was sitting around drinking coffee and shooting the breeze. Yep--they had picked up Santa Claus coming down from the North.
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U.S.S. Zelima (AF-49) 1959. I spent a short tour on Zelima, frozen stores ship, a reefer. I made underway training and then a WestPac cruise. This was a real Navy wakeup--on the underway training we were required to undergo the same training as combat ships. We had one radar and two Radarman--me as First Class and a young Third Class. Our CIC space was the after part of the Chart Room so most of the General Quarters (GQ) crew was located in an outside passageway. We made it through the final battle problem, I think, and then left for WestPac. My collateral duty included acting as the ship's postal clerk. I had to take care of our crew and all the ships alongside. As postal clerk there was a weekly audit of my funds and it was easier to explain a shortage then it was for an overage. The shortage could be taken care of with one form--the overage was three forms that were explained at least three times. I solved that problem by putting the overage in a coffee can and would take the shortage out of the same can. My audits always came out on the penny until a postal inspector asked me to explain the coffee can.