Picture History - The '80's
Hull's final day
Note: Some pictures
of the actual sinking appear to be of Mullinnex (DD-944), as Hull
did not carry any guns to her final day.
Photos compliments of John H. Wepplo LT '80-'82
(click thumbnails to view)
(l to r)
1-Chnge of command 1981, Subic, QDWO
2-VIP visit to Arizona during BSF: SupO, CO, me, EMO, DisbO –got permission
from PHBR to use HULL PL to visit
3-Refueling alongside the Big E (CO, me, Lt Valente). HULL only plane guard
ship requested by “E” –Hull PLG’d for most of dply.
4-Unrep
waiting station, Battle Group Echo, view from the pilot house
5-Guam
(Apra Hbr), at the fuel pier. Got u/w from here with no assist. Took in lines,
rang up ahead bells and left no paint behind.
6-SDGO, full dress. Open house ship
7-SDGO,
same full dress day viewed from stern
8-Return
from deployment day
click thumbnails to view
(additionally each picture can be further
expanded)
Richard indicates the above photos were taken at "The
Quarter Deck Club" Olongapo P. I. on 25-26 Feb '83, making it the last time Hull
was in the P.I.
Photos taken at Baloy Beach P.I. compliments of Richard Cardenas BT2 '80-'83
Photos and commentary compliments of Evan Caffrey BT2 '79-'83
(click thumbnails to view)
How many remember when the Dallas Cowboy
Cheerleaders paid a much-appreciated visit to the old Happy HULL?
Oh, yes, it did happen. I want to say it was in Diego Garcia, my second Westpac
Circa 1982-83 but I could be wrong. I might recall that they were hangin' on a
certain Tender in that garden spot. What I remember for sure is that it was a
damn good shot of morale to see such BEAUTIFUL "round-eyed" women in the middle
of nowhere!! May God bless each and every one of those gals, and while we're at
it why don't we ask one of THEM to come address the next reunion? I'm sure
they're all still "foxes"!
During HULL’s
1982 WESTPAC deployment and enroute to Singapore in October, she rescued five
Vietnamese boys adrift in a battered fishing boat and awarded the Humanitarian
Service Medal
These are the five young men
we rescued. Their boat was leaking. They had no food or water and had
been, if I recall correctly, drinking seawater. They were seriously hungry
when we brought them on board and spent a good bit of time on the mess decks
soaking up food and liquids.
The
Humanitarian Service Medal was first authorized by Executive Order 11965 of 19
Jan 77.
OK, here is what I remember about our
efforts to dispose of this hazard to navigation. A few Gunners Mates
took the whaleboat out to the boys' boat. They soaked it with diesel
and returned to the ship. Then they shot a few grenades into it but it
would not stay lit. Then they raked it with .50 cal machine gun tracers
(see photo). Again it caught a weak fire but would not stay lit. We
were ordered inside and were told to stop laughing at the
gunners. We had to back away a good distance until they could lower the
5" guns enough to train on the boat. They blew it to pieces with one
shot from the 5". We had fun with the gunners. We knew they were
awesome and it was fun to mess with them because they were overgunned
for this little wood boat. We knew that our gunners were top guns in
the fleet, so no offense to them.
