Christmas Day 2001. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all
former Cook Crew!
Things are looking pretty good. We are listed by some of the major
search engines, and former crew, who look for sites related to the Cook, are
going to find us.
Since I last wrote, there have been a couple more crew members, who have
checked in. Pat Wharton who was aboard her in 1969, up until the
time of decommission, has checked in. I am not sure
what division he was in, but have requested that info from him.
"Vee has vays to geets zee informasion from you, Yankee swine."
Another Cook sailor who I vividly remember from my time aboard has check in.
BT2 Victor Moshier. He was aboard her from 62 until 68 and his
brother James was aboard in 62. I am inclosing Moshier's
email to me, for you all to enjoy. If I can get his permission, I would
like to post it in the Sea Stories section, where I put contact email
information from the crew, which holds ship's information. Apparently,
my information on the sailors killed in Viet Nam was wrongly labeled
"advisors". I will correct that. This is the kind of
information I need to fill in and flesh out the Cooks history. If any of
you can write up information about ships sailing dates and ports of call, I
would be grateful. Any information, pictures, etc., are really
important. The one item in Mosier's email that puzzles me is the
report of a hole in the "starboard side" which occurred on his
mid-watch? That is a different hole, than the one we
experienced by hitting the Mount McKinley, while refueling, on
route to Pearl during the Cruise of 66. Maybe Mosier or
you guys can provide some more information on that, i.e., where she was
headed, cause of damage, date it happened, etc., (Notice, I
didn't ask for 4 X 8 Glossy Photos, but I was tempted. <Big Grin>)
Vic. do you remember Widdison and a BT3 named Stevens from Salina
California? I am thinking of a time, when we were checking the
boxing gloves out of the rec room ,(aft troop), and some of the guys were
boxing on the forecastle. I was doing pretty good until I took on
Stevens. My recollection is that he had me hung backwards over the
guywire and was delivering a hell of a beating. LOL. (I couida been a
contenda) Cracked the whole bottom row of teeth. Didn't create any
real damage, but for many years, until I lost them in an accident, I thought
of him often while brushing my teeth. Widdison was an IC3 and from
Gunnison Utah.
There are some items I would really like to get pictures or scans of. I
lost my Cook Zippo lighter. If anyone has one, could you scan it and
send me the pic? Still looking for a picture of the ships plaque.
I saw the real one pass thru Ebay a couple of years ago and am still kicking
myself for not buying it. I emailed the lead bidder. My thought
was that he was ex-crew. Now, I realize there are a lot of people out
there collecting things which have no real meaning to them personally.
Scans of Cruise Books, and Cruise Book Covers. Scans of articles
written about the Cook. I used to have an article written by the Naval
Station News Paper about the Cook Receivieng the Arliegh Burke Award in
1966.
A fellow named Tom Perry who is an officer in the USS Carpellotta APD
136 Assn. told me earlier that they had purchased some ships logs
from the government for their association, and he thought that maybe there
were some Cook logs in there. I have just sent him another request to
see if he found them. I will let you know.
Finally, I hope some of you will use the Yahoo Message Board for the Cook.
It gives us some visibility and your stories and comments there will be well
received by other Cook sailors? Please write the web address (URL)
of the web site on guestbooks and message boards you visit. Search
engines pick these up and it will help others find us.
http://www.oocities.org/usscookapd130
Merry Christmas ANDY
VICTOR MOSIER WROTE:
Andy My name is victor Lee Moshier, I served on the Cook from the time
she returned from the 62 cruise to 1968, yes we did lose three men from the
cook, but they were not advisors, they were sailors from the crew of the Cook.
We were ambushed while deploying Marine Recon. in Chu Lai. While some of my
memories are faded about the crewmen of the Cook, some of those listed I do
remember. my brother James Moshier was on the cruise in 62, he was a BT1, we
spent some time together, but he was later transfered. The UDT team we carried
was team 12, from Coronado, California. The hole we had in the hull was not on
the port side, nor caused by a collision, it was on the starboard side on the
midwatch, along the seam in the hull abouve the feed water tanks in number two
fireroom, I was top watch when it happened. You do not know how happy I
was to see something on the Cook, I have been looking for years but it was
like we never existed. Also it seems like the Navy Covered up when Ens.
Charles Sanborn jumped ship in the South China sea, after we were followed by
a Russian trawler for a few days. maybe you can find something on this. Thanks
for your effort in information for one of the best ships in the fleet. V.L.
Moshier BT.2.