Tom... I was reading the history of the U.S.S. Schenectady from your website. On page 9 it states "For the rest of July, August and September, SCHENECTADY prepared for her third Westpac deployment. Then, on October 4, 1975 SCHENECTADY got underway with other units of Phibron 7, including USS JUNEAU (LPD 10), USS STERETT (DLG 31), USS ST. LOUIS (LKA 116), USS BRISTOL COUNTY (LST 1198), USS ALAMO (LSD 33) and USS CAYUGA (LST 1186). After the usual stop in Pearl Harbor for a pre-deployment conference, SCHENECTADY proceeded to Kwajalein, Marshall Islands to load 4 house trailers as part of an opportune lift. SCHENECTADY took these trailers to Subic Bay, conducting underway replenishments with USS MARS (AFS 1) and USS PASSUMPSIC (AO 107) along the way. SCHENECTADY delivered these trailers, then loaded Marines and their vehicles for transit to Okinawa".

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED???

I was on that WESTPAC tour. The trailers mentioned in the article never made it. We departed Guam because typhoon June was heading our way. June was the strongest storm of the season, but had no effect on land. At the  time, June was the strongest typhoon on record, with a minimum central pressure of 876 millibars and maximum sustained winds of 185 mph.

At sea we lost the trailers overboard. The old flat bottom boat (ok ship) was rocking like hell!. "OPPORTUNE LIFT" ha! These were admiral's "pleasure rooms". I don't remember 4 trailers but I do remember that we lost some trailers. I have a photo of the bow hitting a huge wave with a caption "beginning of typhoon June". The photo was shot from the bridge. I was a quartermaster. That night was when we lost the trailers.

 [Larry Bates-larrybates@yahoo.com]