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Text Box: BURIAL AT SEA ABOARD WHETSTONE By: LTJG Mike Cunningham  In going through some old slides from my Navy days, I came across something that might be interesting and different for The Rolling Stone. I have written the account below and have attached a photo scanned from a color slide. Thank you for the good work you and the others have done for the Association and the newsletter. Mike Cunningham, LTJG 1964-67 Whetstone was a day out of Pearl Harbor in July 1965, on the way back from our second short WESTPAC cruise that year, brought on by the escalation in Viet Nam. LTJG Terry Gough was officially a short-timer, only days away from leaving Whetstone to return to civilian life. He and I had shared a stateroom for the past year, and we had both noted that he had a pair of the saltiest, grungiest leather boots ever seen. He didn't want to weight down his seabag with these dirty, smelly relics, so we decided that it was only fitting that they be given a burial at sea in honor of the many nautical miles they had logged. We arranged an informal little ceremony, including Bos'n Felts who helped provide the proper atmosphere by piping the boots over the side. We had also each tied a black sock around our arm as a sign of respectful mourning. In addition to those in the photo, others present included Monahan, SN, Hoff, FT3, and perhaps others. Just before the boots were slid over the side from their place on a blanket-covered board, I read a poetic eulogy that I had written for the occasion, the text of which appears below. It was probably the only "burial at sea" ever conducted aboard Whetstone. Our little ceremony was the type of thing that became one of many fond memories of life aboard the ship. It was with much sadness that I learned years later (in one of the first editions of The Rolling Stone newsletter) that Terry Gough had passed away in Michigan.

1953

By: Vince Leopold

Somewhere between Japan and Korea, after the conflict was over, we spotted nine Japanese fishermen clinging to a capsized fishing boat in rough water. I can’t recall if we flooded the well deck o gring them on board after we picked them up in a LCVP or just used the port crane. I don’t know what happened to the fishing boat– we did not bring that on board.

(See Vince on page

Text Box: Submarine net transport  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




 

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