Excerpt from "The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944"
A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood
0844 18 September: Upon entering the waterways of Montevideo, Uruguay, ROU Uruguay DE-1 took the lead and commenced exchanging honors and fired a salute of 21 guns with Mullinnix. By 0844 Mullinnix was moored starboard side to Muelle De Escala, Montevideo.
The economic crisis and social unrest that had beset Uruguay from the mid 1950s continued, and the 1960s had opened with gloom and sadness for the country. At the time of the 1962 elections, inflation was running at a historically high 35 percent. The Colorado Party was defeated once again and the National Party had split.
Also in 1962, Raúl Antonaccio Sendic, head of the sugarcane workers from the north of the country, formed, together with other leftist leaders, the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros, a clandestine urban guerrilla movement.
In 1960 Uruguay had agreed to sign its first letter of intent with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The government devalued the currency and established a single, free monetary exchange market as well as the free import and export of goods and services. The reorientation of economic policy tended to favor the agro-exporting sector. However, the model could not be applied fully, nor in an orthodox manner. Inflation increased to more than 50 percent per.
Tupamaros were a group of urban guerrillas who operated in Uruguay (primarily Montevideo) from the early 1960's. The Tupamaros were created in the early 1960's by Raúl Sendic, a Marxist lawyer and activist who had sought to bring about social change peacefully by unionizing sugarcane workers. When the workers were continually repressed, Sendic knew that he would never meet his goals peacefully. On May 5, 1962 Sendic, along with a handful of sugarcane workers, attacked and burned the Uruguayan Union Confederation building in Montevideo. The lone casualty was Dora Isabel López de Oricchio, a nursing student who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Much to the delight of the crew, they were invited to a soccer match between Uruguay and Bolivia. For many, this was their first soccer experience ever. At 0233, 19 September, Seaman Evangelista was caught performing is best monkey imitation by boarding the ship via the lifelines. One wonders if he learned that at the soccer match?
20 September: While still alongside the pier in Montevideo, the BTs lit fires under 2A boiler. By 1152 they had brought 2A boiler on the line and let the fires die under 1A boiler. The machinist mates shifted the ship’s load to 3 and 4 service generators.
21 September: At 1016 Inspector General of the Uruguayan Navy arrived to pay an official call on COMSOLANT.
Morning, 23 September: Mullinnix left Montevideo headed for Puerto Belgrano, Argentina, home of the Argentine Navy.
