Subject: 
         Destroyers Online info
   Date: 
         Tue, 10 Aug 1999 15:40:46 -0400
   From: 
         Vincent Morgan 
     To: 
         "'estark@usit.net'" 




Eric:
Thanks so much for maintaining the outstanding website for USS Glover,
AGDE-1/FF-1098.
I think that I succeeded in sending in my crew listing info yesterday.
Could you please add the following recollections to my entry. If you need me
to put this into some other format, just let me know.
Thanks again.
Vin Morgan

I joined USS Glover, AGDE-1 in Newport, RI in August, 1969 as CIC officer,
fresh from a Westpac deployment aboard USS Waller, DD-466. Glover was unique
in her experimental ASW suite and in her complement of civilian engineers,
but the combination worked. She had a good crew and, compared to a 28 year
old Fletcher class, was in beautiful condition.

In the autumn of 1969 Glover made a cruise to the Caribbean where we made
passive recordings of submarine -launched torpedo attacks on us as we
steamed an endless racetrack on an instrumented test range near the Bahamas.


January of 1970. Glover passed through the Cape Cod Canal in the silence of
an early morning snowstorm. It was one of those moments of breathtaking
beauty when you wouldn't want to be anywhere else than on the bridge of a
destroyer. Glover went into drydock in Boston for scheduled repairs. After
refloating, our CO, Cdr. John Peterson, insisted that we be moored "bow-out"
so the SQS-26 could be tested. Good thing, because when the throttle was
cracked to "Test Main Engines" prior to sea trials, the incorrectly
reassembled throttle jammed in the "Ahead Full" position.  We shimmied and
shook, all of the mooring lines parted, the brow - complete with a panicked
yard-bird - fell into the drink and we shot out into Boston Harbor. A smart
turn down the fairway completed what has to be the all-time speed record for
a special sea detail in a tin can. Capt. Peterson looked up from his chair
when the main engine was finally under control and calmly reminded the
wide-eyed OD (Bill Inlow, OPS, I think) to "Shift colors, you are underway."


Refresher training at Gitmo followed in the spring. I think we did a bit
more Caribbean test-range work, then we prepared for Glover's first
deployment to the Med. I was appointed Operations Officer in May.  Glover
left Newport for the Azores in July, enjoyed a great crossing and started a
series of sonar experiments across the Mediterranean. We worked with a
research ship (RV Trident) from the University of Rhode Island. They took
samples of plankton; we pinged. Somebody, somewhere compared results. We
attracted a lot of attention from Soviet ships and aircraft. Ports of call
included Cadiz, Cartegena, Palma Majorca, Naples (often), Crete, and
Piraeus. A change of command ceremony took place in Naples at which Cdr.
Simonton became Glover's CO.
A crisis involving, I believe, Syria and Jordan put the Sixth Fleet on a
high level of readiness, and Glover was pulled off her ASW experiments to
join the fleet as an operational DE in the eastern Med. (What was that stuff
they taught us at Gitmo? How do you do formation steaming? What do all those
flags mean?)  Things blew over pretty quickly and we went back to our
preferred employment of ensonifying microscopic sea life.

By October, 1970 we were underway for Newport. We stopped in Ponta Delgada,
Azores for fuel and, upon departing, encountered Glover's one really nasty
characteristic. Her unique propulsion system was very weak when backing, but
what little force it delivered pushed the stern emphatically to port. We
were moored portside-to (what else?) with a brisk wind setting us onto the
quay (naturally!). The tug we had prudently requested was much delayed. The
port captain arrived with a snappy white uniform, an impressive sword, and
many excuses for the absent tug. It was decided that we would go to sea
without the tug. I essentially backed out of the harbor, scraping the corner
of the stone quay, then hogging and sagging as we drove ass-backwards into a
pretty good sea before I had room to turn around.  The aluminum deck above
CIC cracked in a star pattern, as I recall, and the rain freshened up the
RD's at their repeaters. It was not the finest moment for Glover as a ship
or for me as a shiphandler. I made my mark on the old girl, but not as I had
hoped to.

Fall of 1970 might have included another Caribbean run, I can't recall for
sure. It's what we did. Preparations were then made to mount a winch on the
"high hat" over the IVDS bay aft. This would be used for experiments with a
long towed array of hydrophones. In January, 1971 we left Newport for Fort
Lauderdale, where the new gear would be installed. No such luck. Off
Jacksonville the online boiler failed at the superheater interface, vented
to atmosphere and left us DIW at night. We fired up the remaining boiler and
steamed into Mayport, dodging mudbanks in the dark. It was my last special
sea detail. I left Glover in Mayport for a tour in Viet Nam, after which I
resigned my commission.

I remember my time aboard Glover in the warm glow of recollection. There
were moments of beauty and of accomplishment, there was the fun of visiting
far off ports, the exhilaration of the sea's enormous power, the moments of
real tension and fear, and the moments when the tension evaporated and a
laugh would go up that restored everyone.
She was a ship. It was the Navy. And it was the Viet Nam era that had put a
lot of people into the Navy as a better bet than the infantry, which made
for an interesting mix of personalities, motivations and goals. I am proud
to have served in her. I am proud to have been part of her crew. She did her
namesake proud. 

Look out sharp. 
Vin Morgan