USS MULLINNIX DD-944

Vietnam 1972 - Page 13

Even in War, You Got to Just Laugh Sometimes

During one fire mission, One of the Mullinnix 5”/54 gun mounts lost sync, barrel dropped but fired anyway. Shell went between life lines, hit water, skipped over a sampan, hit water again, and bounced into the sandy beach, boring itself into the sand. Didn’t explode. Men in sampan jumped into water and started pushing it really really fast!

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Muxmen were damn proud of our ship's song, The Door's "Riders on the Storm". There was refueling ship Mullinnix used to meet up with on a number of occasions that had the unfortunate luck to have been stuck with the ship’s song, "Brand New Key". You know the lyrcis: "I got a brand new pair of roller skates. You got a brand new key..."

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While enroute to Vietnam, the rumors of ‘black syphilis’ gave one pause. Rumor had it that sailors that contracted it were sent to an Island south of Japan, never to be seen again. It went on to say that many MIA’s were not MIA at all and the military knows exactly what happened to them - they just couldn’t come home - ever! The Army viewed “black syphilis’ kind of like Vietnamitis, except specifically related to sex. It didn't matter if it was disease, war, or accident that left you grossly incapacitated, either way you were just as incapacitated.

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Tired of those sissy-ass "friendship" poems that always sound good, but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true shipmate friendship.

When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.

When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

When you smile -- I will know you finally got some.

When you are confused -- I will use little words.

When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

This is my oath - I pledge it to the end. "Why?" you may ask; "Because you are my shipmate"!

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From the fantail we’d watch the flattop's jets in the sky, like plants turning into the sun light. Believe it or not, war can become almost boring. On occasion, our CO “Boom Boom” Cannon would launch is Captain’s Gig on do a little fishing with a gunfire mission going on.

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Ho Chí Minh. Ho Chi Who?

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By the time Mullinnix tied up to the destroyer tender (an auxiliary ship designed to provide maintenance support to a flotilla of destroyers and other small warships) in Da Nang Harbor, reading material was as scarce as a round-eyed women. The crew knew that destroyer tenders had everything including a much larger ‘ship’s store’. As their job was to support us destroyers, they MUST have books and magazines to buy – they just HAD to, right?

For those not on duty, first stop was the tender’s ship store. ONLY books left that contained even a hint of sex, was a series of ‘Harlequin Romances’. Harlequin Enterprises Limited (known simply as Harlequin) was a Toronto-based company that published series romance and women's fiction. In 1971, Harlequin purchased Mills and Boon. At the time that Harlequin purchased Mills and Boon, the company published only one line of category romances. Six novels were released each month in this line, known as ‘Harlequin Romance’.

The crew bought every last one. They became as treasured as issues of Playboy Magazine.

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In Vietnam, the wind doesn’t blow it sucks!

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