By Bruce Ames

1969 – I was a freshly minted mat-crank Third Class just graduated from KY-8/28 & KW-7 “C” schools at Portsmouth, Virginia Naval Shipyard with orders to proceed to California and then on to Saigon to await transportation to the USS JAMESTOWN (AGTR-3).

I took advantage of some of the travel time to explore San Francisco before I headed up to Travis AFB for my chartered flight. 1969 was the end of the “Summer of Love” time; I felt that I should have drawn combat pay for being a serviceman while transiting the City By The Bay.

I caught a bus from San Francisco going to Travis AFB, the main point of embarkation for Vietnam and any illusions of a non-stop flight went out the window. I was scheduled on a Pan Am Boeing 707-321 and before we would touch down in Saigon, the flight would make refueling stops in Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, Philippines and then on into Saigon. Flying into Tan Son Nhut AFB Saigon, we make what would charitably be called a high-speed sweeping dive onto the field. Exiting the aircraft, I asked the flight deck crew about the approach. They said that was normal and was done to present a minimal target to the enemy that sporadically would take up position trying to shoot down American aircraft. I would hear this several times during my tour in and around Vietnam.

The adventure really begins when I get off the plane after some thirty hours of air travel since leaving the Land of the Big PX. My orders stated Group B Billet USS JAMESTOWN (AGTR-3). As soon as my feet hit the ground, a big burly Army sergeant bellows out, “everyone with Group B on their orders fall in over there. You will remain overnight here at Tan Son Nhut and tomorrow you will be issued your weapons and be transported by helicopter up to the DMZ to join your recon units.” I may be slow but certainly not stupid. I mosey up to the sergeant and tell him there is a big mistake; I am here to pick up a ship, not to join a recon platoon. Heck, at the time, the only weapon I was qualified on was a .45 caliber M1911. At which time he says, “look Sailor, we don’t make mistakes; your orders say Group B and Group B is going to the DMZ tomorrow. And get the hell out of that white uniform, you make an inviting target.” After a good deal of arguing, he finally says that he will cut me orders to stay in a downtown Saigon hotel until I can meet with the Navy liaison officer. I have to cool my heels in Saigon for a couple of days as this liaison guy is out in the field. To call the place a hotel would be kind. It was a run down flea trap and I instinctively knew this was not going to be the safest place when I notice all of the armed personnel and sandbags rimming the place. I learned several years later this hotel was pretty much destroyed by a surprise Viet Cong attack.

I finally meet with the Navy liaison and Army reps and they sort it out that I really belong to the Navy and that I should be heading further south to pick up the USS JAMESTOWN (Jimmy-T). The adventure continues as my transportation is an Air Force C-130 that will be making several stops. This was no passenger plane, just a transport configured to carry freight and an occasional passenger. The occasional passenger on this trip (me) firmly wedges into a web mesh contraption they call a seat. The pilot says to buckle in as tight as possible as we’ll be making fast steep approaches. Gee, where did I hear that before?

The last stop I had to get off and take a UH-1 (Huey helicopter) to Anthoi, Phu Quoc Island where I waited several days for the Jimmy T. Accommodations were on a barracks barge at Anthoi. Finally the Jimmy-T comes over the horizon and anchors off Anthoi where I get to take a whaleboat out to the ship.

The JAMESTOWN was a World War II Liberty ship laid down in 1945 as the “J. Howland Gardner,” hull number 3126 by the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine ,and placed in the Reserve Fleet in 1948. The Jimmy-T was redesignated as an AGTR in 1964. In the 60s, there were five AGTRs in the fleet; the USS OXFORD, USS GEORGETOWN, USS JAMESTOWN, USS BELMONT, and the USS LIBERTY. Our mission was to “conduct technical research operations, which include electromagnetic propagation studies and advanced systems such as satellite communications.” Awards, citations and campaign ribbons awarded to the JAMESTOWN were the Meritorious Unit Commendation, National Defense Service medal, Vietnam Service medal, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation and Republic of Vietnam Campaign medal.

We shared our mission duties with the USS OXFORD (AGTR-1). Normally, one of us would be on the line while the other was in some port for liberty, or more likely, repairs to the 1920’s-era steam powered triple expansion engine. These old ships were built for wartime expediency, not speed. That is an understatement. While we were underway off the coast of Vietnam we would typically run at 3 knots or just enough for steerage. Flank speed was a shade south of 10 knots and emergency speed was in the area of 11 knots. The joke at the time was the JAMESTOWN was the only ship that could tie up at a pier going full speed. I served under LT Sid Sneidar in Morocco in 1970 and he was on the Jamestown a year before I was. The following was attributed to him:

“The JAMESTOWN was attempting to come up on an oiler for an underway refueling. The oiler was making a standard 18-22 knots.

Oiler Captain – “Suggest you increase speed to 18 knots to come alongside.”

Jamestown Captain -“We are unable to attain 18 knots.”

Oiler Captain – “Roger, we will decrease speed to 12 knots.”

Jamestown Captain -” We are unable to achieve 12 knots.”

Oiler Captain – “Suggest you increase to flank speed and come alongside.”

Jamestown Captain – (speeding along at 8 knots)” We are going FLANK speed.”

Little did I know that the speed of the ship would play a part of my South China Sea adventure later on that year. In October, the government determined that the AGTR fleet was obsolete and too expensive to operate. We received orders to proceed from the Gulf of Tonkin to Yokosuka, Japan for decommissioning. As we were transiting the South China Sea, we ran full tilt into a raging typhoon. Being a young naïve man with no experience in deep water, I just had to go up to the Flying Bridge (highest exposed weather deck) and watch the storm. Talk about dangerous. I’m watching waves going by the ship that are higher than I was, estimated to be 75 feet or so. Shortly after that, the 1MC made an announcement that “all exposed weather decks are secured for all personnel.” We alternated in that storm being a porpoise and suffering gigantic rolls for over two days. We had a home brew inclinometer in the crypto shop that was showing us routinely exceeding the maximum designed 32-degree roll of the ship. As a research ship, we were top heavy with antennas and any roll over 32 degrees could make the ship turn turtle. I mentioned speed earlier. During the height of the storm, alternating between flank and emergency speed, we made MINUS 5 miles. My hats are off to the ship’s crew for making the passage relatively safe. A couple of guys suffered bangs and bruises.

Three things stand out in my mind of my time on the Jamestown besides our normal Security Group activities. The first was our TRSCOMM (Technical Research Ship Communication) system. This worked by bouncing encrypted signals off the moon. If two AGTR’s could see the same spot on the moon at the same time, then communications were possible. We were the first AGTR that established comms with all of the other AGTRs on a single day. Considering the AGTR fleet was all over the world, bobbing and rolling; staying synchronized with the same spot on the moon was no small event. The second event was when we were anchored overnight one night in Cam

Rahn Bay. Around 2300 the claxon goes off, internal lights come on, and the 1MC is bellowing “General Quarters – General Quarters – All hands man your battle stations. This is not a drill.” Seems the V.C. had put a couple of swimmers in the water and were trying to attach limpet mines to our hull. Thank goodness for good deck sentries. The Swift Boat guys sent out a couple of their boats and promptly sent the V.C. off to meet their ancestors.

Good thing we never got into any real shooting as the heaviest armament (read only) we had were several .50 cal. machine guns and a few .45s. Needless to say we would have been at a serious disadvantage in a shoot out. The third event was going through the shellback initiation, which we did off Singapore. I’ll never forget the running down of the U.S. flag and running up a huge pirate Jolly Roger flag. I think I’m one of the few former CTMs in my career that became a shellback, Arctic Blue Nose, Golden Dragon, and Order of the Rock.

As I have previously mentioned, October saw us heading for Japan. Many of the crew left in November but the majority of the mat men, including myself, stayed until the end getting the ship ready for the scrap yard. During my time on the JAMESTOWN in 1969, LCDR Stuart Huntington was the SecGru operations officer, CWO2 Art Walker was the EMO and CTMC Wally Brown was the OE Division Chief.

In Yokosuka, outside of Yokohama, we were tied up to the tender USS AJAX (AR-6). Earlier I mentioned the engines on the JAMESTOWN and OXFORD were temperamental. We were already in Yokosuka and awaiting the OXFORD. As luck would have it, their engine died in the middle of the channel going into Yokosuka and they had to have a couple of tugs dispatched to tow her into the pier. The end of the JAMESTOWN Vietnam adventure was 22-23 December 1969 when we formally decommissioned the ship and turned it over to the shipyard for scrapping.

During the year, the ship made calls at Bangkok; Subic Bay, P.I.; Singapore; Sasebo, Japan and finally Yokosuka. After the ceremony, it is hurry up and wait; I fly non-stop back to the

States out of Tachikawa AFB to Travis AFB on a chartered Saturn Airways DC-8-63.

During the cruise I was able to do many things and go many places that most CTs have never done or seen. I am proud to be a Vietnam veteran and a member of a ship of the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club. Would I change anything? Not on your life. For those of you that would like to see a roster of all of the ships that were members of the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, [www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1397/tgyc.html?20059] Also, many of us in-country or off shore spent many hours listening to AFVN. Chuck Kinney SFC (U.S. Army ret.) used to work for AFVN and has over eighty hours of AFVN shows spread over the war years including rare recordings of “A Date With Chris.” You remember Chris Noel don’t you? Not only was she on AFVN but was also syndicated on AFRTS. I have many of the AFVN and Chris Noel CD’s and Chuck’s prices are only $6.00 per CD. [ http://vietnam_war_sounds.tripod.com ]. I have no financial interest in Chuck’s business but I can state he has a top quality product and always goes out of his way for veterans.

Source:  CRYPTOLOG, Summer 2005