USS Wright (CC-2)
When I left Washington
At the time, diesel submarines were being quickly replaced by nuclear submarines, and I, as a diesel submariner, was part of a vanishing breed. By “not making the cut” I put myself in line to climb the ladder to (hopefully) command a destroyer, and this was a prize for any naval officer.
So, here I was, an ex-submariner, and I was sent to a strange little former aircraft carrier that was neither fish, nor fowl, nor good red herring.
Capt. Frank Romanick was skipper of USS Wright, a small (46,000 ton) carrier converted to a national command authority communications command ship. Romanick was the public relations person par excellence. He lived for seeing his face plastered across a newspaper page, or on TV. He came from command of a naval communications station in the Philippines , where he had been known all over the Far East for his publicity tricks. Now he commanded a ship that, in time of war might have the President aboard. I was his navigator.
Sailors man the rails aboard USS Wright, 1968
This was a remarkable ship— it had once been a light aircraft carrier, but was now converted to a super state-of-the art floating communications station, a “National Emergency Command Post Afloat”. Large antennas sprouted from the flight deck, and we had a helicopter that would often lift a heavy wire antenna several thousand feet in the air, its other end tethered on the ship, to experiment at sending signals if this ship took over from shore facilities in Washington
The central part of the ship was called “The Box” and it contained all the communications systems and an operations control center manned by a special team of officers and enlisted men from all the armed services, and NSA, CIA and so forth. We even had a grandiose state room called “Flag One” which was designed for the President, who was then Lyndon B. Johnson. It even had the array of three television sets that LBJ always demanded wherever he went. [In those days he wanted to watch NBC, CBS and ABC at the same time. It would have blown his mind to have to watch CNN, Fox, MSNBC and all the rest!]
Captain Romanick congratulates Mrs. Romanick
Romanick discovered that ships got good press when they did good deeds. When we visited a port, he sent the Chaplain out in one direction and me in another, to round up orphans, kids of all descriptions, ladies' groups, whatever, to tour that ship.
We had ship visits down to a science: Bring them aboard in the hangar bay, welcome them, give them yellow "Wright Guy" buttons, then put them on the flight deck elevator and send them topside. Play with a gun mount. Look at the helo. Watch a liferaft inflate. Climb up to the bridge. Then, down to the mess decks for cookies and fruit punch. Then off. (and check to make sure none of the little rascals got left behind.)
I think the low point in my life aboard Wright was when we tied up at the Boston Navy Yard and I was in charge of touring The Little Wanderers aboard ship. These kids were poor orphans from a time-honored Boston
Once a month in port in Norfolk , we'd have massive “Bravo Zulu” ceremonies, where Romanick would give large plywood keys, painted with the ship's logo, to people who really excelled at something, like giving the most blood at a blood drive, or leading a team of sailors to clean up a school in Bermuda . [“Bravo Zulu” is Navy code for “Well done!”]
There were flowers for all the wives and girlfriends who came to watch, and awards, awards, awards.
Romanick discovered that you could get good press for rescuing someone at sea, so he tried to turn us into a coast guard cutter, by steaming into hurricanes or other storms, looking for ships or boats that had sent a distress signal. We rescued a few, but as the President's National Command Post Afloat, was that our mission?
One time he got negative press, though .He was in a big rush to get up to an anchorage in Annapolis, where we were expecting dozens of helos full of flag and general officers and the Secretary of the Navy, flying over from Washington.
So we roared up Chesapeake Bay at 27+ knots with a wake that spelled disaster for the marinas along the shore.
At 46,000 tons, this was not just another motor boat tooling up Chesapeake Bay. Unless you've done it, it's hard to imagine how a carrier navigation team looks for lighthouses and other navigational aids on either side as you zip past at 27 knots.
At 46,000 tons, this was not just another motor boat tooling up Chesapeake Bay. Unless you've done it, it's hard to imagine how a carrier navigation team looks for lighthouses and other navigational aids on either side as you zip past at 27 knots.
The Baltimore and Norfolk papers gave Romanick just the kind of coverage he didn't want, people from all the marinas in Chesapeake Bay were calling up the Navy Department and yelling, and Romanick got chewed out by his boss.
Frank came up with another scheme to get publicity. We’d do a burial at sea! The brother of one of our officers had just died, and so the plan was to bring his coffin aboard and bury it at sea, with appropriate ceremony by several chaplains and gun salute, and all hands on deck in dress blues. The ceremony went nicely, with cameras snapping and capturing every move, and the coffin was eased down a slide on the stern. However, they had not put enough air holes in the coffin, nor weighted it down enough, and so it floated along astern of the ship. Romanick was furious and ordered the stern gun mounts manned and away they blasted at the poor, defenseless floating coffin, until it finally sank.
USS Wright and Romanick tested me in a way that I had never been tested before. In addition to the frantic, manic, screaming skipper, we had a quiet, pensive executive officer and a collection of officers at all ranks who seemed to act as if they wished they were somewhere else.
One young officer who worked with communications in “The Box” for the Joint Chiefs was Lieutenant Junior Grade Bob Woodward, USNR. Shortly afterward he left the navy and found his way to The Washington Post where he distinguished himself with his stories about the Watergate Break in that ended with the resignation of President Nixon.
I had just come from several years in submarines, where I had been surrounded by competent officers and men, highly motivated people with a real sense of purpose. Here I found officers who openly admitted they were “putting in their time” before they were released, and everyone clearly unnerved by a commanding officer with a quicksilver temperament and a large case of insecurity. In submarines I thought every officer and man was dedicated to a professional qualification program, and people were proud to learn more about their boat and the Navy every day, and showed it.
Aboard Wright, everything was for the moment, because the captain was likely to change his mind many times in the day, whether at sea or in port, and then expect everyone to conform instantly. While I was aboard this ship, it looked like my future was to get assigned to a service force ship, the kiss of death for promotion. I put in my papers to resign from the Navy, but after they had reached Washington
Frank wasn’t at all sure he needed an ex- submariner as his navigator, and he was pretty tough on me, which encouraged me to do my best. I learned a lot from him, including some invaluable pointers about the positive aspects of public relations, and certainly a lot about leadership.
Life aboard Wright exposed me to “The Amazing Things”.
Now, the Personal Navigator offers these books and papers:
Portfolio of the World War-- Rotogravure Etchings Selected from the Mid-Week Pictorial of The New York Times. 1917. New York
by Butts, Isaac Ridler 1849 Boston , MA No. 2 School Street
Spirit of Sail: On Board the World's Great Sailing Ships 1987 New York, NY Henry Holt & Co. 175 pp. 24 x 31 cm. This is a magnificent work, with beautiful photographs aboard the finest tall ships in the world, by Peter Christopher, with text by John Dyson. Cloth on board, excellent condition. Dj has two minor scratches, else excellent. (0719) $40.00. Nautical/ Picture Books.
Table compares Armies and Navies of the World, and tonnage of ships under sail or steam, 1882 1882 Graphic presentation shows relative size of shipping fleet in tons; Size of armies and navies in numbers of men. Great Britain and Ireland led the world in shipping, with 3,621,650 tons under sail; 3,335,215 under steam, with U.S. Siam Russia had the largest army in the world, with 717,747 soldiers, next was Italy with 714,958, and France with 518,642, Germany Great Britain had the largest navy with 69,540 sailors; Sweden and Norway United States
Tales of the Coast and a Brief History of the Merchants & Miners Transportation Co. Seventy-fifth Anniversary 1927 Baltimore , MD Battle of Chesapeake and Shannon , June 1, 1813. History of Merchants & Minors, from 1852. Thomas C. Jenkins, first president of company. Capt. Solomon Howes was master of Company's first vessel in 1854. Includes fold-out map of United States Eastern Seaboard with mileages from various points to and from Baltimore
Vielliebchen [in German] von Marie von Olfers, 1882 Berlin , Germany
Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net
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