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Murphy, Timothy

Navy

"They'd stop the ship and throw over a cargo net and we could go swim. … They'd have somebody up on the upper part of the bridge that had a ... machine gun in his hands, anti-shark detail."

Description of Interview:

Timothy Murphy grew up in North Cambridge, Massachusetts. He enlisted in the Navy in July 1969, completed basic training and A school (radar/operation specialist) at Great Lakes, was assigned to USS Southerland (DD-743), and sailed for Vietnam by the end of the year. He describes the ship “rocking and rolling” in scary weather in the Bering Sea, a plane crash off the starboard bow on Yankee Station, scrubbing the CIC from top to bottom at 10 o’clock at night so the new Chief Petty Officer could show them who was boss (“so that was enjoyable”), and a Thanksgiving food spread that was the best he had ever seen. He talks of FRAM, and UNREPS, and DASH ((Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter), which didn’t really work); he recalls barbecues on the rear deck, swim calls, and an anti-shark detail. He recalls Shellbacks, the Court of King Neptune, a $10,000 VRB check, and various other adventures during his four years in the Navy.

Key Words: Brookline, North Cambridge, Massachusetts, Great Lakes, colorblind, radar, operation specialists, OS, USS Southerland, DD-743, World War II Gearing-class destroyer, FRAM (Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization), dual 5-inch/38, rack, Baptist Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, brightwork, captain's mast, WestPac, electronic warfare shack, helicopter hangar, dual 5-inch/54 gun, ASROC, missile launching torpedo, anti-submarine warfare, ASW, DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter), barbecue, swim call, 50-caliber machine gun, anti-shark detail, NTDS, Naval Tactical Data System, surface search radar, air search radar, SQS-23 sonar, tender, repair ship, Seal Beach, naval ammunition base, DESRON, destroyer squadron, Yokosuka, Sasebo, Japan, Philippines, Subic Bay, Tonkin Gulf, carrier, plane guarding, maritime patrol, gunline, artillery fire, Adak, Alaska, Bering Sea, Pakistani-Indian War, Shellbacks, equator, Court of King Neptune, Australians, C-5E Vigilante, RA-5C, general quarters, CIC, Combat Information Center, USO, Thanksgiving, UNREP, at-sea replenishment, oiler, ammunition ship, EW, electronic warfare, VRB, variable reenlistment bonus, Tufts University, NROTC
 
Key Names: McDonald Shan, Eberline (XO), Senator Joe McCarthy
 
Interview Date:
June 16, 2022
 
Service Date:
1969-1973
 
Unit: 
USS Southerland (DD-743)
 
Specialty:
Operations specialist -- electronic warfare
 
Service Location:

Yankee Station, Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea

 
 

Read the Complete Transcript of this Interview.