USS MULLINNIX DD-944
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La Guara, Venezuela 1959
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Excerpt from "The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944"
A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood
General visiting was again the order of the day. Venezuelans were not bashful to come and experience one of America's newest fighting ships. On 25 April alone, 650 visitors crossed the quarterdeck and were warmly welcomed by the officers and crew.
What's the first thing a sailor does when they steam into a new liberty port? Catch some rest? Maybe sightsee? Nope. They head straight for a bar. A port at night, sailors on liberty, a cold beer, is a match made on the high seas. Unbeknownst to the Muxmen this particular match had not been stable for that long.
After being awarded the Legion of Merit in 1954 from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Venezuelan President Pérez's insatiable greed for wealth and power made him a growing object of scorn among his countrymen. In mid-1957 the united civilian opposition organized an underground movement called the Patriotic Junta dedicated to overthrowing the dictatorship. Opposition to Pérez also flourished within the military, especially among junior officers tired of the corruption and monopoly on power of the ruling generals. Pérez's favoritism to the army alienated air force and naval officers.
A shameless electoral farce in 1957 was the beginning of the end for the president. Air force planes dropped bombs on the capital on January 1, 1958, to signal the start of a military insurrection. The anticipated coup failed to materialize, however, because of the lack of coordination among the conspirators. Nonetheless, the bombing did give heart to the civilian opposition to Pérez by signaling that they were not without allies within the military. On January 10, the Patriotic Junta evoked a massive demonstration of civilian opposition in downtown Caracas; on the twenty-first, it called for a general strike that proved immediately effective. Street demonstrations as well as fighting erupted and quickly spread outside Caracas. When the navy revolted on January 22, a group of army officers, fearful for their own lives, forced Perez to resign. The following day, Venezuela's last dictator fled the country, carrying most of what remained of the national treasury. In addition, his ouster cost the nation some 300 dead and more than 1,000 wounded.
The Port of La Guiara was Venezuelan first commercial and most important port due to its proximity to the city of Caracas. Most Venezuelan towns and cities' colonial architecture show an unmistakable Spanish influence. Like many of the hundreds of sun-baked, working-class towns in Venezuela's vast interior, the central square was dominated by a statue of liberator Simon Bolivar. La Guiara, a coastal town, had a wide harbor and foothills of the Andes Mountains surrounding it.
The so called night district was filled with nightclubs, cafes, bars, live music acts - a great all around party atmosphere. The essence of balmy summer nights, the old section became one of the hottest liberty ports in South America with blocks and blocks of bars, girls, great food - an endless party-scene.
The neon-scrolled sign read 'The Blue Parrot'. Striding through the door they were met with occasional shafts of light, gloom, spider webs, reminding them of Dickens' Miss Havisham's hangout. The place was dark-beamed, English-pub like. It smelled like books – leather, wax, dark woodwork with a wisp of blended alcohol. A bluish aromatic smoke from a variety of Cuban cigars floated chest high.
The bar wasn't too crowded, and a quick look around showed that either local preference or marketing appeal dictated a decided preference for German beer, notably Beck's. Not a bad option, but the crew was in a more exploratory mood, so they asked the bartender what kind of local hooch he had back there. "Polar," the guy said in strained English, pulling out a little baby-sized 20cl bottle of a beer that no Muxman had seen before.
Even if you didn't drink beer, it was hard not to notice Polar while in this Venezuelan city. The company's distinctive polar-bear logo, polar bear looking across a body of blue water, whizzed by on passing delivery trucks, looked down from huge billboards and, at night, lit up the skyline with neon from atop many office buildings.
The crew passed a critical eye over the label revealed that it was a light pilsner style beer that delivered a punch of 5.0 percent alcohol by volume. The beer was proudly brewed and bottled in Venezuela by the Cerveceria Polar del Centro, Carretera Pan Americana, San Joaquin, Estado Carabobo. The result of a very small brewery in 1941 growing up, by the name of Empersas Polar. The logo looked like it belonged on a Klondike ice cream bar not a bottle of beer.
The beer poured to a very light, straw-like yellow color with aggressive carbonation that quickly formed a well-rounded head. So far so good. Next was witness to a brilliant clarity and a steady column of coarse bubbles trail their way upwards through the ambrosiatic elixir. Better. A quick sniff shows no obvious faults. Better still. The ultimate test will be the taste test. It's an extremely light-bodied beer, very poundable, exactly what most locals are looking for, Mullinnix sailors as well. Excellent. Price? Extremely affordable. All agreed, it passed Mux-muster with flying colors.
The night life pasted muster as well, proved by the next morning's muster. Most sailors had just enough energy to walk to their muster areas. A.R. Alterio's blight was not self-induced. At midnight on 27 April Alterio was found unconscious in passageway 1-143-O-L by shipmate H.J. Horton. He was taken to Centro Adiestramiento Naval Hospital, Catia La Mar, District of La Guaira. The doctors there gave him coramine and returned him to the ship thinking, rightly so, he would be fine. At 0151 Alterio was administered spariue and pentholine by LT A. J. Smoller and subsequently removed from the ship back to the naval hospital after suffering from aggressive delirium.
To be continued...
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