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Subject:
Re: FORMER FLAG PUKE
Date:
Mon, 24 Jul 2000 10:15:47 -0400
From:
APilger <apilger@erols.com>
Organization:
MORE THAN SOME LESS THAN OTHERS

Sam, I know that at times there were hard feelings between Flag and ships company, but I don't think that ships company realized the hours put in by staff personnel. I know from my side of it, I stood 12 hr shifts (7p-7a) then tracked a weather balloon for 2-4 hrs after my watch. This was our routine at sea and in port even our home port. We were at the beck and call of Adm Hyland and Adm Bringle 24 hrs a day and had to be ready for providing forecasts from the Int'l date line to the
Indian Ocean and Bering Sea to the Equator. We had "open" gangway when not on duty and I think that is where the rub came in. When the Pueblo was snatch by NKorea in 4/68, I stood 70+ watches plus assisted the missleers in the computer rooms.
This is just another bit of info for your records. Bye the Bye the YN's that worked in the "War Room" and S. O. C. (Strike Ops Center) had it worse. One YN1 spent 80 hrs typing and retyping a TS message for this one commander because he had "dia...." of the pencil. The chief of staff finally nailed his "a.." to the bulkhead and "re...." the CDR for wasting manhours and keeping the man from being with his family. Just some thoughts to fill in the blanks. Al

samvilla wrote:
> Al
> Appreciate your info.
> So far you have given me the best insight into Flag.
> By the way, how is the weather in MD?
> Shipmate
> Sam

Subject:
Re: new
Date:
Thu, 6 Apr 2000 18:14:47 -0400 (EDT)
From:
Michael Matteson <MichaelM@lmssi.com>
To:
samvilla <samvilla@home.com>, "Victor L'heureux" <VLHEUREUX@BIGFOOT.COM>,
Florian Osredkar <fosredkar@mrcoffee.com>, Sam Villa <samvilla@home.com>

Sam,
I was checking my email at 0450 this morning before I hit the rain locker
and left for work and--blink-- here comes a message from Sam. I figured your
rack must have caught on fire to get you up that early (3 hour timezone
difference) or you were up long past taps. Maybe coming in drunk from liberty:-)

I have some photo's from the pig killing weekend and will scan some and send
them now that my scanner is back in battery. We use Legg's 'Old Plantation'
sausage seasoning and add some sage and crushed red pepper and if I do say
so it makes some damn good sausage!!

I can't sing either which is what makes me keep my day job!!

There were two "Snatchers" in San Diego when I was stationed on Prov. They
were Passenger ferries between S.D. and North Island. One was called a
'nickle snatcher' and was a SCHEDULED ferry (it actually cost a dime) and
ran between a pier just south of Fleet Landing over to the Island. The other
was a 'Quarter Snatcher' (actually cost a quarter) and would ferry you to
North Island on demand. (They usually made you wait a few minutes to see if
they could get a few more passengers) It left from a pier right across from
Berne's right there at the foot of Broadway.

I'll check out the web site later. I just finished mowing the lawn and need
to get cleaned up a bit before Cookie gets home.

Mike

At 10:39 AM 04/06/2000 -0700, samvilla wrote:
>Mike
>Don't tell my wife.
>Just updating all the stuff.
>Hey, went crazy on the Menu/Links section.
>Put in the entire Jolly Roger Newsletters.
>It really takes you back to the 40's on Prov.
>Updated the Captain McWethy Profile.
>Put in a voluntary donation section.
>
>How is your sausage holding up, the pig you butchered?
>Do you have a secret recipe for spicing the sausage?
>Might put it a cooking recipe section by Prov crew (LOL);
>I could put in my favorite chili bean recipe... LOL...
>Got me thinking...hmmmmm
>A webmaster has got to put in LIMITS...on oneself..
>But always open to new ideas.
>
>Suggested a KAROKE NIGHT to Jack Reighley for the reunion.
>I can't sing but I enjoy listening to people trying to sing.
>Hope to see you, Vic and Ozzie at the next reunion.
>
>The USS Abraham Lincoln was in port for a few days.
>Constellation is getting some work done on her superstructure.
>My wife and I went sailing in the bay last week and saw all this.
>Later, I could actually see our sailboat on the San Diego CAM.
>The winds were steady and strong. Five Canadian ships and 4 US ships
>entered the harbor. We following close and crossed their wakes and
>waved to the crew. Probably doing some war games at sea.
>
>I saw pier Juliet where Prov used to tie up and the area where we bought
>snacks on the pier. I remember Vic L'heureux and I used to leave the
>ship when it was tied up at Pier Juliet and make our way to the gym for
>a 2 hour healthy work out and then after, stopping at the petty officer
>club for healthy power meal (4 pitchers of draft beer, burgers and fries
>and juke box music, and sharing sea stories).
>My memory recalls the term "nickle snatcher" but can't place it. (cost
>of boat taxi?)
>
>Sam
>
>
>
>
>Michael Matteson wrote:
>>
>> Up early or staying up past your bed time?
>
>--
>
>
>ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ABOUT PROVIDENCE
>Sam Villa
>P.O. Box 161182
>San Diego, CA 92176
>Phone: (619) 692-0478
>http://members.home.net/providence/
>ALWAYS LOOKING FOR PHOTOS OF PROVIDENCE
>

Hi Guys!
Mike I didn't know you were a butcher and sausage maker on top of all your
other skills. Where'd you pick that up?
My mother, who spent the first half of her life on a farm, also made
sausages (although by the time I arrived in her life we lived in the city
where slaughtering pigs was a no-no) and always mixed in plenty of garlic.
This made the product not only tasty but very fragrant. She also smoked the
sausages until they were as hard as pine cones. So Sam, if you're looking
for an addition to the secret ingredient list you may want to add a liberal
amount of garlic to it.
At the end of this week I'll be leaving my employer, Mr. Coffee. They are
closing the plant here in Ohio, moving production to Mexico and not taking
me along. So until I get established with my new employer I'll be
temporarily without a mailbox since I'm not hooked into the web at home.
I'll let you guys know soon as I can what my new e-mail address is.
So, until we speak again- may the Lord keep you in His care.
- Ozzie

-----Original Message-----
From: samvilla [mailto:samvilla@home.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2000 1:39 PM
To: Michael Matteson; Victor L'heureux; Florian Osredkar; Sam Villa
Subject: Re: new

Mike
Don't tell my wife.
Just updating all the stuff.
Hey, went crazy on the Menu/Links section.
Put in the entire Jolly Roger Newsletters.
It really takes you back to the 40's on Prov.
Updated the Captain McWethy Profile.
Put in a voluntary donation section.

How is your sausage holding up, the pig you butchered?
Do you have a secret recipe for spicing the sausage?
Might put it a cooking recipe section by Prov crew (LOL);
I could put in my favorite chili bean recipe... LOL...
Got me thinking...hmmmmm
A webmaster has got to put in LIMITS...on oneself..
But always open to new ideas.

Suggested a KAROKE NIGHT to Jack Reighley for the reunion.
I can't sing but I enjoy listening to people trying to sing.
Hope to see you, Vic and Ozzie at the next reunion.

The USS Abraham Lincoln was in port for a few days.
Constellation is getting some work done on her superstructure.
My wife and I went sailing in the bay last week and saw all this.
Later, I could actually see our sailboat on the San Diego CAM.
The winds were steady and strong. Five Canadian ships and 4 US ships
entered the harbor. We following close and crossed their wakes and
waved to the crew. Probably doing some war games at sea.

I saw pier Juliet where Prov used to tie up and the area where we bought
snacks on the pier. I remember Vic L'heureux and I used to leave the
ship when it was tied up at Pier Juliet and make our way to the gym for
a 2 hour healthy work out and then after, stopping at the petty officer
club for healthy power meal (4 pitchers of draft beer, burgers and fries
and juke box music, and sharing sea stories).
My memory recalls the term "nickle snatcher" but can't place it. (cost
of boat taxi?)

Sam

Michael Matteson wrote:
>
> Up early or staying up past your bed time?

Name is John Aubuchon ';QM-3 U.S. S. Providence served 1959-1962. Don!t
know how to use computor yet. Sorry to say Louis James Dhemby a good friend
passed away a few years ago. He served on the ship as a Quartermaster also if
their are any quartermasters from the ship out their. Will send profile as
soon as I figure things out how to do it.

To All Hands, USS PROVIDENCE (CL 82/CLG 6) Association.

I am passing on some words from one of our former commanding Officers
RADM Paul C. Gibbons, Jr., USN(Ret).

We now have four former skippers on board with us and if you would like to
e-mail them, you will find their e-mail addresses at PROVIDENCE's web site
which as you all know is run by our very talented Sam Villa. Admiral
Gibbons' words were recently posted at PROVIDENCE's web site.

(Note: I sincerely hope I have the skippers' ranks and dates on board
correct)

Former skippers, including RADM Gibbons now on board are:

RADM Charles H. Tisdale, Jr., USN(Ret) CO 10-15-65 through 2-13-67
RADM Robert D. McWethy, USN(Ret) CO 10-28-69 through 2-3-71
RADM Kenneth G. Haynes, USN(Ret) CO 6-22-71 through 6-17-72
RADM Paul C. Gibbons, Jr., USN(Ret) CO 6-17-72 through 6-15-73

YNCS Don Harribine, USN(Ret)
Former Crewman CL 82/CLG 6
Editor, "The Jolly Roger"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------

http://members.home.net/ussprov/CaptainGibbons.htm

Subject:
Sea Story
Date:
Tue, 11 Apr 2000 19:57:53 EDT
From:
PAULVALGIB@aol.com
To:
samvilla@home.com

There are so many anecdotes that I remember that deal with my days in
PROVIDENCE. I have been unequivocal in insisting that the best job I ever
held, and the best command I ever had, was Commanding Officer PROVIDENCE.
But time, illness, and aging have mixed up my memory to the extent that I
can't remember names of many of the wonderful shipmates that I had in
1972-73. Herb Nelson was the Exec, and he relieved me in command as we
prepared the ship for decommissioning after our return from Viet Nam.

One anecdote that comes to mind involved George Gaines, who had the
unenviable assignment of Gunnery Officer and JA Talker on the bridge with me
on all the raids that we made north of the DMZ. We got to know each other
pretty well, but two nights after I had relieved Ken Haynes as skipper, I had
my first venture north of the DMZ. It was about one or two o'clock in
the morning, and we were at General Quarters with all four boilers on the
line. I stepped out on the starboard wing of the bridge, and there was
George hanging in there as we came under what proved to be very intense shore
fire. My first comment to George was, "What are these buzzing sounds going
over our heads?" George answered, "Those are bullets, Captain."

Our task that night was to take the military barracks and artillery positions
along the coast of Thanh Hoa under fire. Because of mines that had been
dropped by our Air Force friends in the middle of Thanh Hoa harbor, there
weren't very many evasive courses that we could use getting in and out of
firing position. You had to make a high speed run toward the coast, then at
the appropriate point slow to 16 knots and move along the shore firing at the
assigned targets as you went. This was a very exciting, challenging, and
scary mission! I ducked inside the pilot house and looked at the bright
flashes directly ahead of us. I asked the wonderful young officer who was
the OOD what those were, and he said they were coming from the little island
in the center of Thanh Hoa harbor. I cut through the pilot house to get on
the port wing of the bridge and thought I saw Bud Reagan, who was my
Chaplain, standing there. I said, "Get out of the way, Bud, I'm coming
through," and clapped him on the shoulder as I went by. I was later somewhat
chagrined to find that the "Bud" I had pushed asid was in fact Admiral John
Kern who was the embarked Flag. I confirmed that what the OOD had said was
correct and ordered our triple 6-inch gun turret to take the island under
fire. The results were stupendous and dramatic. The entire top of the
mountain on this little island seemed to explode. We had hit munitions and
fuel with incredible results--three towering bursts of flame about one minute
apart. There were no further shots fired by the enemy.

Later, as we were preparing the after action report, Admiral Kern joined us,
and I immediately apologized for having called him "Bud" while pushing him
aside. He answered by saying, "Paul, I've been called 'Bud' by my friends
all my life, and that was a magnificent display of surface gunnery." I
thanked him profusely and finished up the report which I found to be limited
to reporting three secondaries on Thanh Hoa island and that I could embellish
the report no further.

PAUL C. GIBBONS, JR. RADM USN (RET)

Dear Sam,
Sorry to be getting back to you after so long a time, I'm
impressed with the progress of Providence web site.
As I mentioned before, I was on the helm when we went into HaiPhong
Harbor the second time. Lt Shi has pretty much confirmed what I
remember that night although I remember more surface craft being reported
on the com link. Anyway, I just wanted to say that when we were
decommisioning Prov in 1973 I found a newspaper clipping of her being
hit in the mast during her deployment in 1968. If I can find this I
will send you a copy, I have other clippings of her as well. Other
than that, keep up the good work and hello to all who served on the
Prov, they just don't make them like her any more.
former
QM3 Harry Sutton

Comments from shipmate Wayne Wilkeson (Wilky):

In a message dated 3/19/00 5:12:15 PM Pacific Standard Time, wayne@cboss.com
writes:

<< Subj: Re: feedback
Date: 3/19/00 5:12:15 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: wayne@cboss.com (wayne)
To: WASP188@aol.com

Don
Just a quick note to say that I've enjoyed the stories especially about the
SPS 8. Having been an ET and serving aboard 60 to 62. I had occassion to
work on it a couple of times. Once when someone decided to remove the
obstruction(checkball) in the Hanson quickconnect for the Power
tube(Magnatron?) coolling. I had decided not to reup (probably because of
the Electronics Officer at time) and got transfered to tincans just before
she went into Drydock in early 62. Some one said she was getting sonar but
that did not make a lot of sense. Keep up the good work

Wilky ETR2

HEY SAM, I WAS ON THE PROV FROM MAY 72 TO FEB 73 ON HER LAST WEST -PAC CRUISE
MY NAME IS EARL J. SANTILLANES, I WAS IN THIRD DIVISION( DECK APE) MY I STILL
LOOK BACK ON MY TIME ON BOARD AND RECALL ALOT OF GOOD MEMORIES. I FIRST GOT
ON BOARD BY WAY OF HIGH CHAIR WHEN THE PROV WAS RE-FUELING I WAS SCARED TO
DEATH. THIS WAS RIGHT AFTER THE CHOPPER CRASHED ON THE FAN TAIL OF THE SHIP.
MAN I READ SOME OF THE STORIES OF OTHER GUYS ON THIS WEB SITE AND I REMEMBER
THE STORIES SO WELL I CALL MY KIDS AND WIFE AND TELL THEM SEE!! I TOLD YOU
THATS WHAT HAPPENED. HEY ONE THING I DON'T REMEMBER ANYONE WRITTING ABOUT IS
THE TIME WE PICKED UP A LADIES BODY, OUT AT SEA AND THE LOCAL VIETNAMESE WENT
OUT TO PICK HER UP FROM OUR SHIP. THE RUMOR WAS WE WERE GOING TO SAIGON TO
TURN HER OVER TO THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE, OTHER RUMOR WAS THAT SHE WAS A SPY AND
THE NORTH VIETNAMESE HAD KILLED HER AND DUMPED HER BODY AT SEA. I ALSO
REMEMBER THE TIME WHEN WE WENT INTO HAIPHONG HARBOR AND THE NEWPORT NEWS WENT
DEAD IN THE WATER, IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN DIDN'T WE HAVE TO TOW HER OUT OF THERE.
LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT ME, I'M FROM ALBUQUERQUE, NM
MARRIED, TWO KIDS,I WORK AT THE GOOD OLD POST OFFICE.
I TALK TO JOHN BUNN FROM LAS CRUCES VIA THE INTERNET ONE OF MY BIGGEST
REQUEST FROM ANYONE WHO CAN HELP IS TO GET MY HANDS ON A WEST-PAC CRUISE BOOK
'72. I HAD ORDERED TWO OF THEM BUT WAS DISCHARGED BEFORE THEY ARRIVED. OR IF
YOU KNOW OF ANY WAY I COULD GET ONE I WOULD FOREVER BE IN YOUR DEBT. WELL
THANKS FOR LETTING ME SCRIBBLE A FEW LINES HERE... EARL

Sam,

I don't recall the Monterey Regatta. I was looking at the pictures of the
Sailing Club & Drill Team last night with Penny and I don't think I was
there. Especially with the events that happened that trip.

I got an email from Ozzie yesterday, asking if I would be interested in a FT
Div. get-together next year in the Mid-West - maybe on the USS LITTLE ROCK
(CLG-4)now permanently moored in Buffalo NY. They have meeting facilities
onboard for small groups. I think Bob and Oz will check it out in the
coming months.

My vlheureux@bigfoot.com is the best address to use. I can get access from
home with this one. The others are only available to me at the office. No
need to send to both, I just delete one of them when they arrive.

Do you know were Capt. Mc Wethy is today?

Vic

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sam Villa [SMTP:samvilla@home.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 6:55 PM
> To: L'heureux, Victor; L'heureux, Victor
> Subject: The Sailing Photo
>
> Vic
> Do you remember that photo with the CO and other?
> You looked pretty young. I guess you were in your 20's.
> No hurry on ID of "other." It's in the cruise book.
> Please feel free to give me feedback on the web site; I am always trying
> to improve it and make it more accurate.
> Did you go with us to the regatta in Monterey? My memory of events is
> starting to overlap.
>
> Also, got Ozzie on the Roster.
> By the way, is it best for me to email you at both addresses?
> Sam

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