History of a fighting ship not to be forgotten

[Arnold]

From January 2, 1968, to shortly before its decommissioning in the
fall of 1970, I was privileged to serve as a Navy Radioman aboard the
Naval destroyer warship, USS Ernest G. Small (DD/DDR-838). The USS
Ernest G. Small was an American Gearing Class destroyer, named after a
Navy hero of World War II, Captain Ernest G. Small, who distinguished
himself as commanding officer of the Navy cruiser, USS Salt Lake City
(CA-25), in a 2-day sea battle on October 11 and 12, 1942, against
Japanese surface units of a superior number off Savo Island in the
Pacific, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary
heroism.
USS Ernest G. Small (DD-838) had a displacement of 2,400 tons and was
originally launched out of Bath, Maine, in 1945. Powered by four
boilers providing a top speed of 35 knots, USS Ernest G. Small carried
a crew of 350 men and was armed with six 5-inch guns, twelve 40-mm
anti-aircraft guns, eleven 20-mm anti-aircraft guns and ten 21-inch
torpedo tubes arranged in two quintuplets.
The ship's shakedown cruise was in Guantanamo Bay and, in January,
1946, the Small sailed for Gibraltar and then began a series of
peacetime Mediterranean patrols until August, 1946, when the ship came
home for the first time. In September, 1947, USS Ernest G. Small had
the honor of serving as an escort ship for the American flagship USS
Missouri (BB-63) when President Harry S. Truman and his family were
being transported back to the States from an official visit to Rio de
Janeiro.
Thereafter, the destroyer USS Ernest G. Small made various Caribbean
and Mediterranean peacetime cruises and conducted training exercises
in the Atlantic before war broke out in Korea. Then, the Small was
sent to join the Seventh Fleet and on June 29, 1950, went through the
Panama Canal en route to action. In Korea, USS Ernest G. Small sailed
with aircraft carrier forces, fired shore bombardments, and
participated in the landings at Inchon in September, 1950, and at
Wonsan in October, 1950. In December, 1950, the Small helped evacuate
the Tenth Army Corps from Inchon.
In the first half of 1951, the ship was provided a brief overhaul in
San Diego, California, and then headed back to the Far East for a
second Korean War tour. In addition to escort duties for the aircraft
carrier USS Rendova (CVE-114), the Small participated in the naval
bombardment of Hungnam and was so occupied and under attack from shore
when she struck a mine seriously damaging her bow. Nine (9) were
killed and eighteen (18) wounded, and four days later heavy seas broke
off the ship's bow. Sealing off the forward portion utilizing water-
tight doors and hatches and flooding the after tanks to raise the
front of the ship up out of the water, the Skipper, officers and crew
successfully backed the vessel all the way to Japan, where the ship
was fitted with a makeshift bow and then, was sailed to Long Beach,
California. At Long Beach, USS Ernest G. Small was decommissioned but
saw life again when the bow of an unfinished destroyer was grafted to
her hull. The destroyer Small also then underwent a conversion to a
radar picket destroyer and, reclassified as USS Ernest G. Small
(DDR-838), the ship was recommissioned on December 2, 1952.
After another shakedown cruise and various training exercises off the
California coast, USS Ernest G. Small deployed for her first peacetime
Far East tour which lasted from July 11, 1953 through January 29,
1954. Attached to Task Force 77, the Small was a unit of the blockade
and escort force for Taiwan and participated heavily in Taiwan Patrol
duties. After an ensuing period of overhaul, the Small went back to
Taiwan Patrol and later assumed a defensive position to control part
of the Seventh Fleet air coverage during the Tachen Islands evacuation
in February, 1955. In March, 1955, USS Ernest G. Small participated
with Task Group 73 in Operation Wigwam involving the testing of an
underwater atomic bomb off the West Coast of the United States.
The Small continued to perform in the Pacific and Far East and, in
March, 1959, while on a Pacific cruise was assigned to the operational
control of the Air Force to aid in the Discover earth satellite
program. Thereafter, the Small routinely participated in nose cone
recoveries as space exploration advanced.
On June 7, 1964, USS Ernest G. Small's participation in the Vietnam
War began and, at various intervals through May 16, 1966, the ship
performed operations off the coast of Vietnam. Commencing in April,
1965, USS Ernest G. Small (DDR-838), along with USS Joseph Strauss
(DDG-16), was part of the first advance SAR/AAW picket team in the
Tonkin Gulf in support of air strike operations against North
Vietnam. The Small played a key role in the first sea-to-air
intercept of an enemy aircraft and is credited with firing the first
rounds in Vietnam in support of the Republic of Korea Marines. USS
Ernest G. Small went on to participate in three (3) more deployments
to Vietnam.
I was on board the USS Ernest G. Small for the entirety of its last
two (2) Vietnam deployments, the first as a Radioman Petty Officer
Third Class (RM3) and the second as a Radioman Petty Officer Second
Class (RM2). Particularly during my first Vietnam tour, many of my
shipmates had been on the immediately previous deployment when the
Small took heavy enemy fire off the coast of North Vietnam on August
27, 1967, and was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon.
During my first deployment in addition to carrier escort duties on
Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, USS Ernest G. Small operated on the
gunline up and down the entire coast of South Vietnam and went into Da
Nang Harbor. We performed call-for-fire missions in support of our
troops ashore and harassment and interdiction fire missions at night
to keep the enemy pinned down and out of mischief. It is unclear how
many of the enemy we killed but, in addition to our shore bombardment
operations, we participated in stopping, searching, and sometimes
sinking, countless junks and sampans and sent a good number of their
occupants on to eternity. During the 1968-1969 Vietnam deployment (my
first), USS Ernest G. Small (DDR-838) earned the Navy Meritorious Unit
Commendation for action against the enemy.
On April 15, 1969, just as USS Ernest G. Small was finishing its
mission in Vietnam, a North Korean aircraft shot down an unarmed
American EC-121 reconnaissance airplane over international waters in
the Sea of Japan. The entire 31-man aircrew was killed. The United
States responded by activating Task Force 71 (TF-71) and an armada of
approximately 40 ships were deployed to the waters off of North Korea,
including the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise, USS Ticonderoga, USS
Ranger and USS Hornet. The USS Ernest G. Small was one of a screen of
22 destroyers escorting the carriers. In the course of executing a
contingency retaliation plan against North Korea, the USS Small was
one of the first ships sent into North Korean waters to clear the area
in advance of the main force. Fortunately, the crisis abated and the
task force was disbanded without shots being fired. Yet, it was an
extremely tense time which today is merely a footnote in history. The
men aboard the USS Small were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary
Medal for service with TF-71 from April 19 thru 27, 1969.
In between my two Vietnam deployments, USS Ernest G. Small, with me
aboard, was sent to the area of Adak, Alaska, to participate in a
nuclear test mission. Before the final Vietnam deployment, some of
our ship’s radar capabilities were removed and the ship was
reclassified back to USS Ernest G. Small (DD-838).
During its last Vietnam deployment, USS Ernest G. Small provided
gunfire support all along the coast of South Vietnam from the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to beyond the mouth of the Mekong River.
Among other missions and fighting alongside the HMAS Hobart (D-39),
USS Ernest G. Small provided gunfire support for elements of the
Australian Army who were helping in Vietnam.
USS Ernest G. Small earned four (4) battle stars for Korean War
service and nine (9) campaign stars for Vietnam service. The old
fighting ship fired its last rounds in anger on August 15, 1970, and
then sailed home to Pearl Harbor. There, the ship was decommissioned
and stricken from American service on November 13, 1970.
On April 13, 1971, the ship was transferred to the Republic of Taiwan
and became ROCS Fu Yang (DD-7). It performed Taiwan Patrol missions
just as it had done many times before as the USS Ernest G. Small and,
for a while, was the flagship of the Taiwan Navy. In December, 1999,
ROCS Fu Yang (DD-7) was decommissioned and on October 8, 2003, the
ship was sunk as a target in gunnery exercises.
Over the years, the destroyer USS Ernest G. Small became
affectionately known as “The Dirty Ernie” by the men who served aboard
the ship and by other sailors throughout the Seventh Fleet. Our
Skipper on the next to last Vietnam deployment, Commander Robert Mann,
recently spoke of the last time he saw the old ship in Guam, stripped
and being towed on her way to Taiwan. Skipper Mann, one of the last
two surviving commanding officers of USS Ernest G. Small, said, “It
was sad, and at the time I was sorry as I went down to bid her
goodbye. But the Ernie G. was not that hunk of rusted metal, Old
Dirty Ernie was the crew that had manned her all those years.”
The USS Ernest G. Small (DD/DDR-838) has a long and enviable record of
service to our country and our allies. None of it should be
forgotten.

Arnold Dyre, former RM2 (USN)

[pirat...@aol.com]

Arnold,

you wake up a lot of old memories writing about the history of the USS Small.  I have heard the name before because you see I was serving on an American Destroyer USS Cone DD866.  We joined the 6th fleet I believe in late 67.  I was in Nam the same time you were.  Without boring you with the history of the Cone we did perform carrier escort, gunline and firing missions in support of the marines.  We were also deployed to Korea when the American plane was shot down.  We operated with the Ranger.  After a short while we were sent back to the gun line because we lacked the radar capability to track the planes coming in on the Ranger. Maybe it was the Small that took our place?

 

I remember the 9 week shakedown cruise in Guantanamo Bay Cuba after the Cone received ASROC.

(anti submarine rockets) before heading to Viet Nam.  We had a former officer who was capt. of a patrol boat and while in Da Nang he came out to the ship and took some of us for a ride on his patrol boat.  I got to go because I was the ship store operator and I sold his men cigarettes.

 

Night duty was providing the marines with star shells and did they ever love that "willie peter." (white phosphorous) during the battle of Hue. 

 

 

Ralph Moore,  Former SH2 USNR

	From January 2, 1968, to shortly before its decommissioning in the
fall of 1970, I was privileged to serve as a Navy Radioman aboard the
Naval destroyer warship, USS Ernest G. Small (DD/DDR-838).  The USS
Ernest G. Small was an American Gearing Class destroyer, named after a
Navy hero of World War II, Captain Ernest G. Small, who distinguished
himself as commanding officer of the Navy cruiser, USS Salt Lake City
(CA-25), in a 2-day sea battle on October 11 and 12, 1942, against
Japanese surface units of a superior number off Savo Island in the
Pacific, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary
heroism.
	USS Ernest G. Small (DD-838) had a displacement of 2,400 tons and was
originally launched out of Bath, Maine, in 1945.  Powered by four
boilers providing a top speed of 35 knots, USS Ernest G. Small carried
a crew of 350 men and was armed with six 5-inch guns, twelve 40-mm
anti-aircraft guns, eleven 20-mm anti-aircraft guns and ten 21-inch
torpedo tubes arranged in two quintuplets.
The ship's shakedown cruise was in Guantanamo Bay and, in January,
1946, the Small sailed for Gibraltar and then began a series of
peacetime Mediterranean patrols until August, 1946, when the ship came
home for the first time.  In September, 1947, USS Ernest G. Small had
the honor of serving as an escort ship for the American flagship USS
Missouri (BB-63) when President Harry S. Truman and his family were
being transported back to the States from an official visit to Rio de
Janeiro.
	Thereafter, the destroyer USS Ernest G. Small made various Caribbean
and Mediterranean peacetime cruises and conducted training exercises
in the Atlantic before war broke out in Korea.  Then, the Small was
sent to join the Seventh Fleet and on June 29, 1950, went through the
Panama Canal en route to action.  In Korea, USS Ernest G. Small sailed
with aircraft carrier forces, fired shore bombardments, and
participated in the landings at Inchon in September, 1950, and at
Wonsan in October, 1950.  In December, 1950, the Small helped evacuate
the Tenth Army Corps from Inchon.
	In the first half of 1951, the ship was provided a brief overhaul in
San Diego, California, and then headed back to the Far East for a
second Korean War tour.  In addition to escort duties for the aircraft
carrier USS Rendova (CVE-114), the Small participated in the naval
bombardment of Hungnam and was so occupied and under attack from shore
when she struck a mine seriously damaging her bow.  Nine (9) were
killed and eighteen (18) wounded, and four days later heavy seas broke
off the ship's bow.  Sealing off the forward portion utilizing water-
tight doors and hatches and flooding the after tanks to raise the
front of the ship up out of the water, the Skipper, officers and crew
successfully backed the vessel all the way to Japan, where the ship
was fitted with a makeshift bow and then, was sailed to Long Beach,
California.  At Long Beach, USS Ernest G. Small was decommissioned but
saw life again when the bow of an unfinished destroyer was grafted to
her hull.  The destroyer Small also then underwent a conversion to a
radar picket destroyer and, reclassified as USS Ernest G. Small
(DDR-838), the ship was recommissioned on December 2, 1952.
	After another shakedown cruise and various training exercises off the
California coast, USS Ernest G. Small deployed for her first peacetime
Far East tour which lasted from July 11, 1953 through January 29,
1954.  Attached to Task Force 77, the Small was a unit of the blockade
and escort force for Taiwan and participated heavily in Taiwan Patrol
duties.  After an ensuing period of overhaul, the Small went back to
Taiwan Patrol and later assumed a defensive position to control part
of the Seventh Fleet air coverage during the Tachen Islands evacuation
in February, 1955.  In March, 1955, USS Ernest G. Small participated
with Task Group 73 in Operation Wigwam involving the testing of an
underwater atomic bomb off the West Coast of the United States.
	The Small continued to perform in the Pacific and Far East and, in
March, 1959, while on a Pacific cruise was assigned to the operational
control of the  Air Force to aid in the Discover earth satellite
program.  Thereafter, the Small routinely participated in nose cone
recoveries as space exploration advanced.
	On June 7, 1964, USS Ernest G. Small's participation in the Vietnam
War began and, at various intervals through May 16, 1966, the ship
performed operations off the coast of Vietnam.  Commencing in April,
1965, USS Ernest G. Small (DDR-838), along with USS Joseph Strauss
(DDG-16), was part of the first advance SAR/AAW picket team in the
Tonkin Gulf in support of air strike operations against North
Vietnam.  The Small played a key role in the first sea-to-air
intercept of an enemy aircraft and is credited with firing the first
rounds in Vietnam in support of the Republic of Korea Marines.  USS
Ernest G. Small went on to participate in three (3) more deployments
to Vietnam.
	I was on board the USS Ernest G. Small for the entirety of its last
two (2) Vietnam deployments, the first as a Radioman Petty Officer
Third Class (RM3) and the second as a Radioman Petty Officer Second
Class (RM2).  Particularly during my first Vietnam tour, many of my
shipmates had been on the immediately previous deployment when the
Small took heavy enemy fire off the coast of North Vietnam on August
27, 1967, and was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon.
During my first deployment in addition to carrier escort duties on
Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, USS Ernest G. Small operated on the
gunline up and down the entire coast of South Vietnam and went into Da
Nang Harbor.  We performed call-for-fire missions in support of our
troops ashore and harassment and interdiction fire missions at night
to keep the enemy pinned down and out of mischief.  It is unclear how
many of the enemy we killed but, in addition to our shore bombardment
operations, we participated in stopping, searching, and sometimes
sinking, countless junks and sampans and sent a good number of their
occupants on to eternity.  During the 1968-1969 Vietnam deployment (my
first), USS Ernest G. Small (DDR-838) earned the Navy Meritorious Unit
Commendation for action against the enemy.
On April 15, 1969, just as USS Ernest G. Small was finishing its
mission in Vietnam, a North Korean aircraft shot down an unarmed
American EC-121 reconnaissance airplane over international waters in
the Sea of Japan.  The entire 31-man aircrew was killed.  The United
States responded by activating Task Force 71 (TF-71) and an armada of
approximately 40 ships were deployed to the waters off of North Korea,
including the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise, USS Ticonderoga, USS
Ranger and USS Hornet.  The USS Ernest G. Small was one of a screen of
22 destroyers escorting the carriers.  In the course of executing a
contingency retaliation plan against North Korea, the USS Small was
one of the first ships sent into North Korean waters to clear the area
in advance of the main force.  Fortunately, the crisis abated and the
task force was disbanded without shots being fired.  Yet, it was an
extremely tense time which today is merely a footnote in history.  The
men aboard the USS Small were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary
Medal for service with TF-71 from April 19 thru 27, 1969.
In between my two Vietnam deployments, USS Ernest G. Small, with me
aboard, was sent to the area of Adak, Alaska, to participate in a
nuclear test mission.  Before the final Vietnam deployment, some of
our ship’s radar capabilities were removed and the ship was
reclassified back to USS Ernest G. Small (DD-838).
During its last Vietnam deployment, USS Ernest G. Small provided
gunfire support all along the coast of South Vietnam from the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to beyond the mouth of the Mekong River.
Among other missions and fighting alongside the HMAS Hobart (D-39),
USS Ernest G. Small provided gunfire support for elements of the
Australian Army who were helping in Vietnam.
USS Ernest G. Small earned four (4) battle stars for Korean War
service and nine (9) campaign stars for Vietnam service.  The old
fighting ship fired its last rounds in anger on August 15, 1970, and
then sailed home to Pearl Harbor.  There, the ship was decommissioned
and stricken from American service on November 13, 1970.
On April 13, 1971, the ship was transferred to the Republic of Taiwan
and became ROCS Fu Yang (DD-7).  It performed Taiwan Patrol missions
just as it had done many times before as the USS Ernest G. Small and,
for a while, was the flagship of the Taiwan Navy.  In December, 1999,
ROCS Fu Yang (DD-7) was decommissioned and on October 8, 2003, the
ship was sunk as a target in gunnery exercises.
Over the years, the destroyer USS Ernest G. Small became
affectionately known as “The Dirty Ernie” by the men who served aboard
the ship and by other sailors throughout the Seventh Fleet.  Our
Skipper on the next to last Vietnam deployment, Commander Robert Mann,
recently spoke of the last time he saw the old ship in Guam, stripped
and being towed on her way to Taiwan.  Skipper Mann, one of the last
two surviving commanding officers of USS Ernest G. Small, said, “It
was sad, and at the time I was sorry as I went down to bid her
goodbye.  But the Ernie G. was not that hunk of rusted metal, Old
Dirty Ernie was the crew that had manned her all those years.”
The USS Ernest G. Small (DD/DDR-838) has a long and enviable record of
service to our country and our allies.  None of it should be
forgotten.

Arnold Dyre, former RM2 (USN)


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