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"General Quarters!"
Out in the Tonkin Gulf during a line period, I can't remember the exact date, just that it woke me up to hear "General Quarters! This is not a drill!" Raced to CIC and the Talos Weapons Direction Console. Put on the sound powered phones and heard a bunch of shaky voices telling me that Talos system 5 and 6 were ready for battle. Weapons Boss was informed that 5 and 6 were ready. Could hear the screws increase turns as we started to make some serious knots after doing 3 turns for station keeping over the previous days of the line period. The ship was coming alive as the crew came ready for GQ. All over the ship you could hear hatches slamming shut. We were already at condition 3 zebra before GQ was sounded. Now we were locked in, with all the water tight doors and hatches secured. A thought went through my head as I heard the hatches closing: "We are six decks below the waterline. If the current scuttlebutt was correct, there were two PT type boats out there trying to do the Long Beach harm."
Funny how the training works. Everyone on the sound powered phones sounded professional even though you could also hear the stress in their voices. GQ ended sometime later. Our ever present escort DD, DLG, or DE along with the Chicago's escort had taken out the PT boats. After securing from GQ, it seemed some of the hatches had to be opened with sledge hammers they were dogged down so tight! Guess I wasn't the only one with their juices flowing that night. Good Crew.