This trilogy is about how the U.S.S. Chara was a defining experience for a young sailor.

First, I am Douglas Beck. I served on the Chara between 1952 and 1955. I left the Chara an ET1. Spent my most of my time in O Division, stood watches in CIC. To the deck hands and the engineers this is a foreign place indeed.

The first tale began as we were making an entrance to Ulsan Wan, on the South Korean coast. The Captain came into CIC and inquired, "who is on the radar?". I replied, "Beck, ET2 sir". He thought a while and then said, "I want to be exactly 2000 yards off the beach. Call out the distance as we go in". For a change I replied, "Aye Aye, Sir!". As we went in, I watched the shoreline on the radar, calling out the distance every 100 yards or so. When we reached 2000 yards, The anchor went down. Later I went to the bridge and saw several officers using a distance measuring device checking out position. It was right on the money. Thereafter, when we went into Ulsan, the captain would send for me to get on the radar and put us exactly where we were the last time. This was a great confidence builder.

Tale two was when were set to rendezvous with TF77 to refuel and rearm them. We had a new air search radar installed the last time in the yard. Given the environment it was useless as a defensive weapon, but the old one was on its last legs so we got it. The Captain came in CIC and inquired, "do you have the Task Force on the radar yet?". We did not. "Do you have any idea where they are?". No. Then I gathered up my courage and said, "I can make a good guess on an azimuth to them". I turned the radar to non-radiating and watched as the antenna swept around. At a particular azimuth, the display lit up like a Christmas tree. I explained that every ship in the Task Force had one of these radars and we could see the output from them much farther than we could get a return. The Captain looked at me, looked at the radar, looked back at me and left CIC. We soon came to the azimuth shown and within 20 minutes were tracking the Task Force. An early ELINT effort and successful.

Tale three came when we rearming a Destroyer. Destroyers were usually taken to Starboard. I was the inter ship phone talker on the Starboard wing of the bridge during rearming. The exercise was taking a bit longer than usual, and we were getting far from the Destroyer's station. The Captain came out and eyed me and then said "we are going to reverse course". "Keep your eye on me, and when I signal you, tell the Destroyer to come left 10 degrees". I acknowledged the order and we came around in 10 degree segments. The Destroyer did a good job of keeping station, and no one doing the rearming even knew we were doing a major course change.

These tales demonstrated the importance of becoming part of a group, gathered to accomplish a goal, doing my small part and doing it as well as I could. It made a difference in my life almost beyond measure.

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This page was written and is maintained by Doug.

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