Tuesday, 16 May 1972: At 0357 Mullinnix commenced maneuvering on various courses and speeds to affect rendezvous with USS Vesuvius AE-15. At 0512 she commenced to receive pallets of 5”/54 powder. Next, she commenced approach to USS Hassayampa AO-145 at 0638 to talk on fuel. At 0754 the ship secured the refueling detail and set the “Gold Team”. Until she’d leave the gunline, the ship’s company was broken into two teams – Gold Team and Blue Tam – 6 hours on watch, 6 hours off – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Mullinnix arrived at Point Allison at 0810.

Let the gunline be known, the “Mighty Mux” had arrived!

16 May 1972 1307: This picture was taken on her 1st day on the gunline off South Vietnam. The Mullinnix was ordered up north for plane-guard duty a few times but spent most of her tour off the coast of South Vietnam in gunfire support, pounding targets with her 4 gun mounts – 24/7.

She had been there just under 5 hours, hot as hell (about 115F), everyone out on the decks with their shirts off, drifting at .3-.5 knots less than 1 mile off shore.

Crew catching a few rays, taking pictures, etc. When WHAM, this shell hits just off the starboard side. FTG2 Thomas F. Hoddinott had just loaded his camera (he was the designated photographer for the cruise book) and snapped this picture.

As you can imagine it was pandemonium on the decks as GQ was sounded and the IMC screaming “counter battery, counter battery!!” Our Captain, “Boom Boom” Cannon, yelled, “Get us a course so we can get on a horse and get the hell out of here!” The Mighty Mux got her guns firing in a matter of seconds and the ‘counter battery’ went silent for the rest of the day. In a blink of an eye it went from ‘fun-and games’ to the real-deal.

Drink one for me,

Woody

Gibb passed away today cancer and intestinal surgery. He began to have major health problems in 2010 and confirmed he was battling colon cancer that had spread to his liver.

The British-born, Australia-raised brothers (Robin, twin Maurice and Barry) formed the Bee Gees in the late ‘60s. Their hits included How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” (1971), “Jive Talkin’” (1975), followed by the soundtrack to “Saturday Night Fever” in 1977, which included “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Night Fever,” “More Than a Woman,” and “If I Can’t Have You,”.

This is the 3^rd death in the Gibbs family. In 1988, the youngest brother, Andy died at age 30 of heart inflammation. Maurice’s death in 2003, at 53, came following surgery for an intestinal blockage.

Drink one for me,

Woody

Donna Summer died Thursday after a battle with cancer.

She was a 5-time Grammy winner with hits like “Last Dance,” “Bad Girls”, “Hot Stuff”, ”She Works Hard  for the Money” and“This Time I Know It’s for Real.”

She is survived by her husband, singer and producer Bruce Sudano, their  daughters, Brooklyn and Amanda and Summer’s daughter, Mimi, from a previous  marriage.

Drink one for me,

Woody

The song lasts 18 minutes and 34 seconds, occupying the entire A-side of Guthrie’s debut album. It is notable as a satirical, first-person account of 1960s counterculture, in addition to being a hit song in its own right. The final part of the song is an encouragement for the listeners to sing along, to resist the draft and end the war in Vietnam.

Alice’s Restaurant, the movie, was a 19 August 1969 release. It was an adaptation of the 1967 record by Arlo. The film stared Guthrie as himself, with Pat Quinn as Alice Brock and James Broderick as Ray Brock. It was released a few days after Guthrie appeared at Woodstock. A soundtrack album for the film was also released by United Artists Records. The soundtrack includes a studio version of the title song.

The film grossed $6,300,000 in the United States, and an additional $6,418,000 in rentals, making it the 15th highest grossing film of 1969. Note: the average cost of a movie ticket in 1969 was $1.42. It was a big it for me and my shipmates.

Drink one for me,

Woody

Marcus Dupree simply was a defense crusher. Size, speed, he had it all. There weren’t enough O’s in smoooooooooooooth to describe Marcus.

Simply an amazing runner. His freshman year at OU was one for the records books. Will there ever be another one like him? I doubt it…

Drink one for me,

Woody

First, it was multi-instrumentalist Greg Ham, known best for his work in the Australian pop band Men at Work. He was found dead in his home near Melbourne by two friends who grew concerned after not hearing from the artist for a week. Cause of death is unknown.

Ham played the well-known flute riff on “Down Under,” which reached No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts in 1982.

Then it was Dick Clark. The television host who helped bring rock `n’ roll into the mainstream on “American Bandstand,” died Wednesday (18 April) of a heart attack. He was 82.

And now, Levon Helm, who helped forge a deep-rooted American music as the drummer and singer for the Band, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71 and lived in Woodstock.

It always happens in threes.

Whose next?

Drink one for me,
Woody

The ONLY time that a bad thing happened to a good person was a little less that 2,000 years ago this past Friday. AND, he volunteered for it.

The correct question is, “Why Do Good Things Happen to Bad People?”

Blessings,

Woody

His legend is up there with Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. Scruggs died Wednesday morning at age 88 of natural causes. He helped build  his legend with bandleader Bill Monroe, guitarist Lester Flatt and the rest of the Blue Grass.

At the Opry, his first first performance scorched the earth and instantly changed country music. Tut Taylor, a friend of the Scruggs family, called it an unbelievably raucous moment “a lot like some of the rock ‘n’ roll things they had, you know. But this was a new sound. It was a pretty sound and a welcome sound.”

Country great Porter Wagoner summed up Scruggs’ importance: “…Earl was to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball. He is the best there ever was, and the best there ever will be.”

Actor and accomplished banjo player Steve Martin called Scruggs, with whom he collaborated in 2001 on “Earl Scruggs and Friends,” ”the most important banjo player who ever lived.” Hank Williams Jr. sent prayers to the Scruggs family and Charlie Daniels tweeted, “He meant a lot to me. Nobody will ever play a five string banjo like Earl.”

They were best known for their 1949 recording “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” played in the 1967 movie “Bonnie and Clyde,” and “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” from “The Beverly Hillbillies,” the popular TV.

After the breakup with Lester Flatt in 1969, Scruggs used three of his sons in The Earl Scruggs Revue. The group played on bills with rock acts such as Steppenwolf and James Taylor. Sometimes they played festivals before 40,000 people.

In 2005, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” was selected for the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry of works of unusual merit. The following year, the 1972 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” on which Scruggs was one of many famous guest performers, joined the list.

Drink one for me,

Woody

I experienced a Navy flashback today while eating lunch at Nissan’s Aguasclientes, Mexico manufacturing plant. They feed about 5,000 workers/day.

I started with grabbing a tray and (somewhat still silver) silverware. First up – soup! A meatless affair that had a bit of color with squares of potatoes, carrots, celery, and something else I didn’t recognize.

Next, a salad plate of lukewarm Mexican rice and a small bowl of watery-looking pinto beans that almost smelled good.

They were serving the main-course at about half the speed of smell. You could choose between chicken beaten flat to a 1/4” thick, “steak” (heavy on the parenthesis), or a mystery-meat affair. All served with sides of puréed refried beans and a small amount of shredded lettuce with one small tomato slice. I chose the chicken. Unfortunately it didn’t ‘taste like chicken’!

Then desert. I was told it was vanilla pudding. However, it was a shade off of lime-green with a ‘skin’ on top of it. It kind of sat there at vibrated every time I’d hit the table with my leg. This stuff should be kept away from small children.

Me and my tray sat at the nearest empty table. There to greet me was a big pitcher of room-temperature lemon-lime flavored bug-juice, no ice. I almost got misty eyed as I was missing my destroyer. However, I’d forgotten how bad this stuff was. I squeezed a fresh lime in it which made it even worse. Also on the table were cold corn tortillas in bags of four. As I opened it, the oil added fine fingerprints to the plastic wrapper.

It’s been four hours since lunch. My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my forehead and I can no longer focus my eyes.  I farted, and four people behind me needed paramedics. I need a cold beer…bad!!!

Drink one for me,

Woody

If this world had it, Whitney either owned it, had owned it and sold it, or didn’t want to buy it.

Can you really buy your way to happiness. Maybe – I don’t know. However, I do know one thing, you can’t buy joy — the simple joy of living, the joy of being alive, or the joy of being comfortable with one’s self and your station in life.

This good earth can’t give you joy – its impossible. Joy comes from above. In the belief in our saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don’t believe me? Ask Michael Jackson. Ask Jim Morrison. Janis. Jimi.

I’m living proof. In the last couple of years my ‘happiness’ has developed into pure unadulterated joy. How did I do it? Becoming closer to my Lord.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about religion. Religion can get between you and Jesus. I’m talking about Christianity – the belief in one God and his son who died for our sins.

Judging someone is ‘above my pay-grade’. Here’s hoping Whitney has found what she was so desperately looking for.

Blessings,

Woody