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USS Navasota AO-106 PAGE 1
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The picture below of the USS Navasota AO-106 was given to me by Don Morris.
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USS Navasota AO-106
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See below "Contents" section for 2 stories from Admiral Galantin's book about when he was on the Navasota.
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Site Contents: "Contents" section updated 11-12-2007
(After clicking on each of the links below, use your "Back" button to return to this page)
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Email Me
My email address is in the brackets:
[ bdy405@aol.com ]
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See story below
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Below is an excerpt from Admiral Galantin’s book entitled “Submarine Admiral” about his service as Captain of the USS Navasota AO-106 in 1952:
“In the combat zone, days passed quickly. From dawn to dark, and sometimes at night, a procession of ships came alongside as we steamed on a steady course on the most stable heading we could find. Carriers came to our port side because their island (navigating bridge) was on their starboard side. After we shot messenger lines over, the booms that supported the heavy fuel hoses were swung out and soon the two ships would be coupled together. All hands turned to with a will, eager to help set daily records of gallons delivered, tons highlined or personnel transferred from ship to ship.’
“One night, as Navasota held steady course and speed Los Angeles came alongside to port and quickly coupled our replenishment hoses to her fuel manifolds. As the pumping operation proceeded, empty ammo cases, freight, mail and personnel were also moving from ship to ship.”
“The executive officer of the Los Angeles was my good friend and fellow submariner Capt. John S. McCain, Jr. who was also broadening his career by surface ship duty. As our ships steamed through the dark night, Jack and I conversed via the telephone line rigged between the ships’ bridges.
According to Jack, ‘Last night a funny thing happened. We were giving star shell support to an Army outfit under attack. Their radio talker would give us the coordinates, and we’d send a salvo of star shells. Time after time the voice coming by radio to our speaker here on the bridge would say, ‘Give us ‘lumination.”
“We couldn’t satisy him. After every salvo he’d say, ‘Give us more ‘lumination.”
Finally, the skipper got annoyed. He took the microphone and asked, “Who am I talking to?”
“This is Corporal Jones.”
“Let me speak to an officer.”
“They ain’t no officers here. This is the front.”
“It was a story that my Army peers accepted with good grace in the friendly give-and-take of the burgeoning joint schools and joint staffs of later years.”
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Captain Galantin took command of the Navasota in Kaohsiung, Formosa in 1952. This story begins at that point in his book "Submarine Admiral":
When Navasota left Kaohsiung to return to her normal base in Sasebo on Japan's island of Kyushu, we plotted uneasily the track of a developing typhoon curving northward from the Philippines. As we neared Okinawa, a message from the commander of the seaplane patrol force based there directed us to enter Buckner Bay and go alongside his flag ship, the large seaplane tender Pine Island (AV 12) to refuel her. By the time we reached the harbor entrance, heavy, dark clouds and rain made visibility poor. The wind was gusting to forty-five knots, sending white-crested swells crashing against the harbor's ugly, encircling reef. The confines of the poorly protected roadstead was no place for a lumbering, deep-draft oiler in a storm; she could do her job better as she was designed to do it-underway on a suitable course.
By radio I reported that I would remain outside and refuel Pine Island when she came out. The reply ordered tersely, "Proceed into port." With extra lookouts stationed, the chains manned, anchors made ready, and radar sweeping carefully, we headed in cautiously. I tried to hide my rage but inwardly I seethed, "What is that stupid airedale trying to do? Does he want me to go aground? Does he want two ships damaged? Has he ever conned a big ship, any ship, in this kind of sea?"
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The unevenly gusting winds made 540-foot long Pine Island yaw in her mooring as we gingerly approached her starboard side. When we shot over our messenger lines and began to pass mooring lines, the sterns of the big ships came dangerously close. "All back emergency! Right full rudder! Take in all lines!" I shouted.
I would give it one more try. This time I eased further forward, well off Pine Island's bow, and dropped my starboard anchor. Slowly veering chain, all the while using both screws and rudder to keep twisting our stern out, we came alongside Pine Island with only minor bumps, separated by all the fenders each ship could rig. .......... Never again would Navasota get her hoses connected so quickly, pump so strongly, and get clear so thankfully.
End of quote from “Submarine Admiral” by Admiral Galantin.
Note: According to my log, we arrived at Buckner Bay, Okinawa on August 31, 1952. Bill Yarbrough
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