The men standing near the antenna are ( left) ETR2 Hoerz and (right) ETR2 Sandusky.

We were shot at alot on Sea Dragon Operations. The North Vietnamese had accurate azimuth but lousy ranging capability. I was told but never saw that they would place stakes in the water off-shore as an aid in ranging their guns. Most often what would happen was their rounds would go over you, then under, and then you better be on your way. We just managed to run into one of the 'over' rounds with the tallest thing on the ship. My General Quarters assignment was at the vertical ploting (VP) board in the 'Air Picture'. (I spent alot of time standing in the dark writing backwards.) I remember the sound of the round exploding overhead and the shrapnel raining down on the Signal Bridge deck above me. The ship was already at flank speed, as was normal for a Sea Dragon run, and turned to get out of range as quickly as possible while the rear 5"-54 fired at it's maximum rate. It sounded like the gunners were going to empty the magazine at the shore line. I remember thinking that I had never heard so many rounds fired from that gun without it breaking down.

My least favorite job on ship was painting the mast; however, it did give me a good excuse to climb up and checkout the damage once we arrived in Subic. You can see the hole in the pictures I'm sending. The deck around the antenna was heavily perforated and was replaced. On the Signal Bridge I recall seeing a few gouges in the aluminum superstructure and in the railing around the deck. 'Someone' said that one crewman was cut on the hand by a piece of shrapnel. I never saw or heard who it was or, if it actually happened. Our taste of 'Combat Action' was, thankfully, not fatal to anyone. Later everyone on ship was presented with a Combat Action ribbon. (Oddly enough my DD-214 makes no mention of it.)

Steve Stronach RD3

My GQ Station was the radar counsel for missile radar #3. I can remember a lot of stuff about the day we took that hit just don't ask me what day it was). I have some real memories of listening to the TDT Operator yelling into the sound power phones about all the guns he could see shooting at us and yes the sound of the shrapnel bouncing off the roof of the radar room.
When we were doing the Navel Gun Fire Support thing I was in Mount 51. Great place to stick an FT inside a gun mount.

I have an FT friend on the USS Blue. The Blue was the DD that was with us. From his view point the Buchanan disappeared in a cloud of brown smoke. When we came out of the smoke he told me that seeing the bow come out with that big bow wake was a real pretty sight. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

Ken George FTM 1

In May of 1968 we were sent in to destroy a "WBLIC" repair facility in North Vietnam. "WBLIC" stood for Water Borne Logistic Craft (barges mostly) that carried supplies south and where powered by Tug's.

Before going in toward the target, They split the lookout crew in half. One half was put in the barbet below the Mk 68 Gun Fire Control Director. This was a precautionary measure, and this was the only mission they ever did that, so don't tell me we did not expect counter battery. The officers knew what was coming.

The layout in front of us was a coastal plain to the left with distant hills. Sand dunes at the edge of the coastal plain where it met the water. Just to the south of our position, was the entrance to a river which went north behind the sand dunes. North of us was a peninsula with a high hill on it. I can only assume that the river opened up into a basin where the repair facility was, behind the hills on that peninsula. We were told that we were going to use Super-Elevation mode to lob the shells up and over the hill to hit the boat yard.

I was the port TDT operator (on the side towards the beach). I could see everything that was going on and was involved in a lot of it. As we went in at about a 45 degree angle to the sandy plains on the left, the MK68 GFC director was given a reference point to keep on. This point was further out on the shore of the peninsula ahead of us. By referencing the range and bearing from the reference point to us, we knew where we were, Exactly to the foot. And since the target area was fixed in reference to the reference point, the fire control solution could be made. I believe MT51 fired 3 or 4 rounds in shore bombardment mode using super-elevation mode, not sure and really wasn't paying much attention to it.

What I was paying attention to was a shack located 2/3 of the way up the hillside. After just finishing some of the most intense school (32 weeks "A" school, 26 weeks "C" school). for radar and electromagnetic stuff like antennas and wave guide, I recognized this shack had a lot of antennas on it. My guess was a spotter shack. The only question was what was he spotting for, just an air raid warning, or gun fire control? I got Weapons control on the circuit and reported my findings about the shacks presence and the communications antennas brisling from it. Weapons Control (Lt. Feodor?) told me to assign MT 51, I flipped the switch on the MK79 Control Unit which connected MT51 to my TDT. Weapons Control asked if they saw the target and they respond positively. They were instructed to go into local and take the shack under fire. As this occurred, the ship turned about 45 degrees to put us parallel with the beach, head towards the land mass ahead of us at about 5 knots. This allowed MT52 to come around and fire toward the boat yard. I don't believe she got any rounds off that I can remember, before MT51 started firing. I was at my binoculars watching the fall of shot around the shack, never saw it get hit. About the time the 3rd or 4th round hit around the shack, all hell must have broken loose. I heard someone say counter-battery and took my eyes away from the TDT. Then I saw a splash off the Starboard bow (between us and open water). Then the mast above me was hit, and the shrapnel of the 3" projectile and the antenna came raining down on us. You could see the pieces bouncing off your helmet and flack jacket. About that time one of the lookouts broke out of MK68 Director barbet and got a cut across the palm of his hand from debris from the an/sps37 radar antenna (later the Doctor came up and said it was not "serious" enough to report for a Purple Heart).

About that time I got back on the TDT, swung it around toward the beach and started looking for the counter-battery flashes. At the same time the ship kicked it in the ass and turned away from the land to head out to open sea. The ship was zig-zagging allot. as we went out I heard people yelling my name and looked up from my binoculars. Everyone but me had taken cover behind the director barbet at the urging of ENS. Lund (think that was his name). When I realized I was the only one standing out in the open and I was being ordered to take cover, I started to move towards them. Never took my phones off, and when the cord snapped at me when I reached the end of it's length, it also snapped me back to reality. The drill for counter-battery was not to hide behind the barbet, but to find the flashes and kill the counter-battery. I called for FTM3 Stone to re-man his TDT and look on his side for the flashes, With the two of us on station, the Lookouts re-manned their station and they found the counter-battery. It was found by the Starboard side, not my side. MT52 where, Cage was the mount captain (called him that because he was from Louisiana), started firing in local at rapid continuous. He didn't stop firing until the shells were falling in the water off the beach as we had run out of gun range of the target.

As for FTM3/2 Ken George's report of TDT operator yelling about the guns shooting at us, that had to be Stone on the Starboard side. We were on different phone circuits and I never saw a flash. As the ship turned out to sea and did it's Zigzag routine, the superstructure was between me and the guns, I never saw them.

FTM3 Michael J. Heffernan Port TDT Operator May 1968