USS MULLINNIX DD-944

16 May 1972
DATELINE: Vietnam Gunline

Counter Battery! Counter Battery!
Return Fire! Return Fire!

She had finally arrived. Arrived to the fresh-air mental asylum of Indochina. Let the fun begin…

The crew had been cocooned in continuous training – general quarters, man-overboard and abandon ship drills, lulled into a false sense of security. When the dim outlined of the coast of Vietnam begin to take shape, with it lurked very real danger.

Upon arrival, Mullinnix flashed a light to inform the other ships that "the top gun of the Atlantic Fleet had arrived". Each tin-can sent out a return light.

The sudden electricity of “Counter Battery! Counter Battery!”, followed by the hurried clamor of running feet on ladders and the resounding thump of watertight doors as the ship transforms herself in a few brief seconds from a peaceful workplace to a weapon of war - ready for anything.

"MUX" and her crew didn't have to wait long for their first fire mission, for only 38 minutes after reporting off the coast of Vietnam, Mullinnix was firing the first of the 171 Gunfire Support Missions she would fire in her eighty-eight days of combat action. During this first 30 day gunline period, Mullinnix provided 7,821 rounds of Naval Gunfire Support in support of South Vietnamese operations and in particular Operation Thanh-Song 6-72 (amphibious assault). Mullinnix, in company with the cruiser USS Newport News CA-148 provided Naval Gunfire Support in support of this coordinated amphibious invasion.

With me pulling the trigger on the first 60 rounds, Mullinnix fired 325 rounds in her first 24 hours on the gunline. With highly accurate precision and an experienced crew, Mullinnix was able to provide successful gunfire support for South Vietnamese ground troops. This performance was later recognized in a formal presentation of the Gunnery E for excellence to the Weapons Department.

It’s a great thing about a photograph, it stops time, just for that second
It’s like everything will always be the same. Course, it isn’t...


Enemy shell burst 50 Yards Off Mullinnix's Stern!

Radioman 3rd Class Steve Haight also remembers that first day on the gun line. He was on the torpedo deck ‘sightseeing’ when the shell hit next to the Mullinnix. Being the macho man he was, he beat feet to the nearest hatch, and didn’t venture outside for the next 3 days.

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That first night, and many more afterwards, I could see heat-lighting to the North. I thought it strange when a slow low rumble drifted across the Mullinnix seconds later. Typically lighting that far away won’t yield sound. Arc-light raids of B-52s on enemy positions will however. Flash, flash, rumble, flash, flash, rumble, flash, Hitchcock-like in Rear Window’s final scene.

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And then there was something like this...

...It was quiet, that dead of night quiet, when the blood pounding through your veins sounds like a rushing river. Suddenly, the sound power phone crackled to life; the shock nearly knocked him over. It was Woody (FTGSN Frank Wood) in Main Battery Plot. “Hang on boys, were loading a fire mission into the computer.” In a flash, once the solution was validated in the computer, the aft director and all three 5-in mounts sprang to life, in synchronous harmony, all swinging to starboard. “Standby”, Woody announced. “Wait for it!” The tension was obscene. With no spotting round ordered, somebody was fixin’ to be in deep shit. “Fire for effect. Fire fore effect!”, yelled Woody. With the mount triggers on automatic, all 3 guns belched as fast as Woody could pull his trigger in Main Battery Plot.
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From National Archives "Combat Naval Gunfire Support Files (CONGA)



On 16 May, 2/15 Battalion air assaulted into Bau Nat village, 1,500 meters east of Tan Khai, then linked up with the 1/15. Afterward, TF-15 headquarters, plus one combined 105mm and 155mm battery, were heliborne into Tan Khai to establish FSB Long Phi. The situation in An Loc began to look much brighter. Despite the continued shelling, the defenders had beaten back yet another desperate attack by the NVA. The aerial resupply effort had hit its stride. An effot was made to reestablish artillery support in the area.

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16 May, Tuesday, 1972 (Arrived off coast of South Vietnam - Gunline)
Dear Mom, Dad, and Sue:

Today was our 1st day on the gunline. They got us up at 3:30AM in the morning to load 1400 rounds of powder. That took about 3 hours. Then we had to refuel.

I had the noon to 6 o’clock watch. I just got off of it. We fired 89 rounds on 2 separate missions (Deck Log says 120 rounds total). I pulled the trigger the 1st time to start the war for the Mullinnix. All together I fired about 60 rounds (Deck Log confirms this is correct).

On our first mission they shot back at us one time. It landed about 300 feet away (Deck Log says 50 yards); we got the hell out of there fast. About a half-hour later there were 2 radars locked on to us. But no missiles came. About an hour later we spotted a gunboat, but it turned out to be a South Vietnamese boat.

We have 4 marines on board to operate missiles we got on board. They fire them from their shoulder like a bazooka. They’re hard to miss with. We’ll use them against MiGs. They are heat seeking, they’ll go up the exhaust system. We are supposed to leave 4 June. But more than likely we’ll be here at least a month and a half. That’s just the 1st line period. We’ll probably get about 4 or 5 line periods. Well, I’ve got the midnight to six in the morning watch. So I’d better go to bed. Were standing six on/six off. Write Soon. Love, Frank
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After a long and intense day of gunfire support, I will never forget the first night. Keep in mind the crew had never been asleep before when one of the gun mounts was fired. With shear exhaustion, I'd closed my eyes and temporarily shut out the world. Except that barrier was imaginary - it would all be waiting tomorrow, and six hours was a short time

The FTGs, GMs, and Radiomen slept below MT 52’s carrier room. I was sound asleep and the Mullinnix had a mission call in that required MT 51 and then MT 52 to fire off the port side – the same side I was sleeping on. When that 1st shell was fired, I jumped out of my rack thinking, “they’d got us – we’d been hit!”. I was terrified, I had my glasses on, my pants on, and was looking for my shoes, thinking I was either going to Main Battery Plot for GQ or heading to my abandon-ship life raft, when I heard a sharp metallic sound that I’d heard many many times before. The sound of MT 52’s carrier system cycling another shell from the magazine below up through my sleeping compartment into the carrier room. Then, and only then, did I realize it was the Mighty Mux that was firing, not the enemy. I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.

Believe it or not, after many nights of being awaken by firing missions, most of the crew finally learned to sleep through them. We didn't have much choice - non-stop exhaustion and fatique will do that to you. Fitful sleep with precious little rest.
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On Her First FULL Day, 239 Rounds Fired by Mullinnix on 17 May

Next to the heavy cruiser USS Newport News (8” guns) and light cruiser USS Oklahoma City (6” guns), the Mullinnix was one of the most powerful gunships off the coast of Vietnam in 1972.

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When a ship is steaming in open water the self-made wind carries most ship-generated odors are swept off the fantail with a schnook-like force. On the gun line, patrolling at less than 3 knots, it was hot and breathless and the air smelled of stagnant water, burnt cordite, and occasionally decaying vegetation. To say the gunline was hot was like saying hell was slightly warm. Steaming at 2-3 knots with no breeze, standing on dark gray metal decking to hot to touch with an ungloved hand. The heat climbing through the souls of your boondockers like a kitchen stove set on high through a cast iron skillet.

After this first line period the tired crew found itself back in Subic Bay, Philippines, not so much for liberty, but rather to make the necessary repairs to Engineering, Gunnery, and Operation spaces in preparation for the second of three gunline periods. Would the crew even survive this many liberty nights in Po City?


Go to Subic Bay ("Po City") Liberty Call to find out



Go To 18 May "Reporters on Board Mullinnix"

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