Military Record For
George H. Cotton

Naval Communications Station - Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam

On Board From:  October 1966 to May 1968  (1 year, 6 months, 26 days)

I found these pages while surfing the net many years later.  The pictures were taken by an Air Force pilot assigned to the Air Force Base north of my location on the peninsula of Cam Rahn.  These are the first images I've found, showing where I was for so many months.  One in particular, was a magnificent aerial shot of the Communications Station shortly after construction (it's the "X" shaped building against the mountain) and before the rest of the base was completed.  At the time, there were NO Navy people there, except for the construction supervisors.  

I was the 10th person to arrive back in October 1966, and on my birthday to boot.  What a party that was -- NOT!!!  Actually, as you can see, the beach was terrific.  I went swimming just about every day.  The water was warm, clear, calm and clean.  The beach was about a mile long and pure white sand.  I'll bet there is a hotel there now.  I know there is one up the road about a mile or two on another fabulous beach where our receivers for the communications facility were located.

During the Tet Offensive in 1968, I felt very comfortable.  Being on the tip of the peninsula, I was protected on three sides by water with Navy patrol craft.  Inland, to the North were about 40,000 Army personnel and a bit further up the road were about 20,000 Air Force personnel and the massive Cam Rahn airport.

USS Northampton (CC-1)
Active Service:  17 Years, 1 Month, 1 Day
Life Span:  29 Years, 1 Month, 3 Days

On Board From:  September 1968 to August 1969  (0 years, 11 months, 16 days)

http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/04125.htm

http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/cruisers/clc1.htm

http://www.mich.com/~ttyler/C3I/NMCS/NECPA/NECPA.htm

(CLC-1: dp. 12,320 (It.); l. 677' 2"; b. 70' 3"; dr. 19' 2" (mean); s. 33 k.; cpl. 1675; cl. Northampton)

CLASS - OREGON CITY

Displacement: 13,700 Tons, Dimensions, 674' 11" (oa) x 70' 10" x 26' 6" (Max)

Armament: 9 x 8"/55, 12 x 5"/38AA, 48 x 40mm, 24 x 20mm, 4 Aircraft Armor, 6" Belt, 8" Turrets, 2 1/2" Deck, 6" Conning Tower.

Machinery: 6 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 120,000 SHP; G. E. Geared Turbines, 4 screws, Speed, 33 Knots, Crew 2000.

Operational and Building Data

Laid down: Bethlehem Steel Fore River Yard, Quincy, MA, August 31, 1944

Construction cancelled: August 11, 1945 (56.1% complete)

Construction reordered as CLC-1: July 1, 1948

Launched: January 27, 1951

Commissioned: March 7, 1953

Recommisioned CC-1: April 15, 1961

Decommissioned: April 8, 1970

Stricken: December 1, 1977

Fate: Scrapped, March 1, 1980

The third Northampton, was laid down as CA-125 on 31 August 1944 by the Fore River Yard, Bethlehem Steel Corp., Quincy, MA. Work suspended between 11 August 1945 and 1 July 1948; she was launched as CLC-1, 27 January 1951; sponsored by Mrs. Edmond J. Lampron, and commissioned as CLC-1, 7 March 1953, Capt. William D. Irvin in command.

Following shakedown, Northampton reported for duty to Commander Operational Development Forces, Atlantic Fleet. For seven months she conducted extensive tests of her new equipment. Evaluation completed in September 1954, she reverted to the operational control of Commander Battleship-Cruiser Force, Atlantic Fleet. She next demonstrated her capabilities as a tactical Command Ship by serving as flagship, first for Commander Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet (October-November 1954) and then for Commander 6th Fleet (December 1954-March 1955). Between 1 September and 22 October she served as flagship for Commander Strike Force, Atlantic, a position she was to hold frequently over the next fifteen years.

On 24 February 1956, Northampton emerged from her first overhaul, at the Portsmouth, Va., Naval Shipyard, and after refresher training off Cuba, participated, as a unit of the Navy's first guided missile division afloat, CruDiv 6, in the first public demonstration of the Terrier missile. In April, she steamed east for 6 months with the 6th Fleet, and, during the summer of 1957, resumed midshipmen training cruises. But, between that time and 1961, she returned only infrequently to European waters. Deployed on those occasions for NATO and Fleet exercises and People to People visits the command ship was visited by high government officials of various European countries, including King Baudouin of the Belgians and King Olav V of Norway.

Redesignated CC-1 on 15 April 1961, Northampton has remained in the western Atlantic until decommissioning in February 1970. Her cruises ranged from Canadian to Panamanian waters as she extensively tested and evaluated new communications equipment and played host to visiting national and international dignitaries, including Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Originally laid down as the 4th of the Oregon City Class, construction was stopped on August 12 1945, when 56.2% complete. Construction was resumed under a new design, July 1 1948. Capable of acting as either a fleet flagship or an    amphibious force flagship, she had an extra deck added to her hull for command and control spaces. She was converted into a National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA) in 1961.

NECPA was a JCS mission utilizing United States Navy assets to provide a sea-based mobile command and control platform for the National Command Authority to operate from during a national crisis.

The early phase of the Cold War era brought senior political and military leadership of the United States of America to realize that there was a constant risk of destruction to the well-known senior command facilities within the United States.  This was a reality not previously encountered on such a large scale in America.  Facilities such as the White House and Pentagon were not only somewhat vulnerable to attack via manned bomber aircraft or ballistic missiles, but also sabotage efforts by specially trained enemy forces already located within the United States ('sleeper' agents).

Efforts to mitigate this potential consisted of the construction of hardened, land-based facilities such as the Alternate Joint Communications Center in Pennsylvania, the 'US Army Interagency Communications Agency' bunker in Mount Weather Virginia, and other such facilities.  These sites were constructed as secretly as possible, but their scale made it expected --if not known—that the Soviets would be aware of their locations and would have the ability of constantly keeping an eye on them, ready to impede the access of senior officials responding to the land-based sites at the onset of hostilities with the USSR.

Due to integrated air defenses such as airspace surveillance, interceptor aircraft, and a network of 90mm anti-aircraft cannon emplacements, the hardened land facilities were for the most part expected to not be vulnerable to attack from Soviet nuclear weapons dropped by bombers. Nor were they initially considered very vulnerable to intercontinental ballistic missiles, since the delivery systems were inaccurate enough to provide good odds towards the survivability of a properly hardened structure.

Yet a major vulnerability that continues to this day is the safe relocation of senior personnel to the land-based bunkers in question.  Once the President or Secretary of Defense were inside a hollowed out chamber surrounded by a mile of granite, he could have been considered relatively safe.   But through skill or luck (or a combination), a 'Headhunter' agent waiting in the proximity of that facility might be able to take-out the official while in transit.

That concern caused the concept of a sea-based national-level command center to be studied. The Army operated land-based facilities such as the AJCC and HIGH POINT (Mt. Weather bunker), and the Air Force was about to implement the National Emergency Airborne Command Post mission.  While the Navy operated the Camp David presidential retreat, the small hardened command center on site was controlled by the White House Military Office, staffed predominantly by the... Army, leaving the mundane facilities management and Camp David administrative functions to the Navy.  The Navy did operate some remote, hardened Presidential Emergency Facilities scattered about the region in support of the White House Military Office -- WHMO is the agency charged with Presidential emergency actions and secure relocation of the President/National Command Authority during a crisis.

President Dwight Eisenhower, a former Army 5-star General and Allied Commander during World War II, understood the need for survivable command and control in the nuclear age, and more importantly, understood the need for each branch of the US armed forces to have a major involvement in high-level systems.  For that reason, President Eisenhower approved the plan for the National Emergency Command Post Afloat -- an asset operated by the Navy, but under the operational control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on behalf of the National Command Authority.

The Navy would heavily retrofit some existing ships for the NECPA role. United States Ship Northampton was laid down as a heavy cruiser, CA-125, on 31 August 1944 at Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Fore River Yard in Quincy, Massachusetts.  Construction was suspended in August of 1944, but picked up again starting in July of 1948 due to the Cold War. Northampton was launched on January 27, 1951 and finally commissioned as CLC-1 on March 7, 1953.  The CLC designation indicated her use as a Tactical Command Ship.  Since she was already a command ship, the USS Northampton was chosen to become the first National Emergency Command Post Afloat platform. After being laid up for extensive retrofitting, she was redesignated as CC-1 on April 15, 1961.  During her days as CC-1, the NORTHAMPTON operated on radio nets using the static callword (JANAP-119) SEA RULER.  

The Northampton's interior spaces were designed to be airtight, and positive-pressurization could be employed to prevent contamination by chemical & biological warfare or radioactive fallout.  A nice aspect of this was the climate control system, which kept virtually all spaces aboard the Nort'n at a comfortable 72 degrees F temperature, year round.  Additionally, the ship was retrofitted with an exterior wash down system designed to spray sea water over the outside of the vessel (everything except the troposcatter dish) in order to wash fallout or other contaminates off the ship.  Testing this system was somewhat rare, because afterwards the ship would have to use fresh water to try to rinse to ship off of it's saltwater residue, but when in use, it caused the ship to look like one big rainstorm.  Each military branch had their own compartment aboard the Northampton, with approximately 20 officers & enlisted members from each service aboard, usually headed by an O-6.  These personnel were assigned to the JCS Joint Staff, and would support the Joint Chiefs of Staff during a contingency.  The was also a suite aboard the Northampton reserved for the President of the United States, and it consisted of a bedroom, a living room (with a fully-stocked bar), and dining area.  Furniture inside was black, 1950s-era 'modern' design that these days would be considered art deco, but to the few crewmembers who had reason to go inside the suite ("to check on the air conditioning system"), it looked quite tacky in the 1960s -- even to one young sailor who'd grown up in hills of rural Georgia!

President Eisenhower's extensive military service made him keenly aware of the importance of training for military scenarios, especially those as grave as nuclear war. As such, Eisenhower made open visits to NECPA numerous times for briefings. He was also flown in via helicopter during the middle of the night for classified, no-notice exercises while the Northampton, on-duty as primary NECPA platform, was in Chesapeake Bay.  President Kennedy also received a NECPA briefing aboard the Northampton on several occasions.  President Johnson spent several days seasick aboard the Northampton, including flying in on Marine One on August 30, 1966.  During the Bay of Pigs situation in 1961, the USS Northampton was deployed to a station off Oriente Province, Cuba, maintaining General Quarters conditions for several days and Condition Red (attack imminent) on at least one occasion, when the Cuban gunboat Pinar del  Rio lobbed one naval artillery round in her direction.  Northampton crews were close enough to the invasion effort that they heard much of the gunfire and witnessed several landing craft operated by the Cuban exiles being sunk. Though the NORT'N had at least one Destroyer Escort on-station to protect her, Cuban military focused their counterassault on the rebel forces.  CC-1 was the command ship that relayed tactical situation reports to the White House. Officially, US forces never fired a shot, as history reveals that President Kennedy made the agonizing decision to let the invasion attempt fail without intervention.  Another great moment in history that some Northampton crew remember is the time when the Nort'n somehow managed to run over a whale and not only mangle the whale quite badly, but cause one of the Northampton’s 18" propeller shafts to be bent out of shape, causing a major vibration when the ship ran at high speed until it was repaired. 

For the National Emergency Command Post Afloat mission, one of the ships would be stationed somewhere over a several hundred mile long 'box' just off the eastern coast of the United States, sometimes in the protected waters of Chesapeake Bay.  For this reason, the USS Northampton received the nickname "The Gray Ghost of the Virginia Coast." The rationale behind this was several fold:

NECPA always had to be within helicopter range in order to rapidly evacuate senior officials to the ship.

In the early 1960s, helicopter technology was still relatively new, and while understanding the necessity, the Joint Chiefs were apprehensive about senior leadership having to make a long helicopter ride out over the open ocean.

NECPA also had to be close enough to three special communications stations along the eastern seaboard in order to maintain quality circuits over a troposcatter radio link.  To mitigate the threat of a submarine attack, NECPA needed to stay within waters shallower than 100 feet.

Shore stations providing dedicated communications support to the National Emergency Command Post Afloat included several facilities along the US Atlantic coast, which would establish multiplexed voice and data circuits to the NECPA ship via troposcatter radio.  Naval Radio Station Lewes, Delaware -- callsign NNQ and an administrative sub-unit of Naval Communication Station Washington (Cheltenham, Maryland) -- was established in 1963 adjacent to an existing USN SOSUS facility.  NAVRADSTA Cape Cod, Otis AFB, Massachusetts was established in 1968, and administratively assigned to Naval Communication Station Newport, Rhode Island. And NAVRADSTA Lola, Cedar Island, North Carolina was established in late 1968 -- a two-building station staffed by one officer and 12 sailors, administratively a part of Naval Communication Station Norfolk.  The tropo link provided NECPA with some dedicated hotline circuits to various command centers.  Each tropo site could tie the ships into the site's Private Branch Exchange, allowing virtually unlimited (and unregulated anyway) access to the commercial and military telephone networks.  Taking advantage of this, some radio operators enjoyed making calls to family members on one channel, while handling classified traffic on others!  For operational security reasons, NECPA would want to remotely operate land-based High Frequency radio equipment in order to mitigate hostile radio direction finding activities being able to plot the location of NECPA.  Compared to Tropo, secure HF circuits were a lot more difficult to maintain for the radio operators, especially when using special techniques such as frequency and diversity reception.

Aboard the NECPA ships, the large tropo antennas were gyro-stabilized using the ship's main compass gyro, with the vertical axis being stabilized by a separate gyro designed especially for that purpose.

Life aboard the NECPA ships was good, though at times stressful.  Unless involved in major drydock repairs, the ships could be put to sea on very short notice, due to exercises or real-world contingencies.  Northampton crewmembers on shore leave tuned to commercial radio stations and if they heard the mysterious "Seaman Gray G. Host, report to your ship immediately!" they knew that was the recall signal for all Northampton (Gray Ghost of the Atlantic Coast...) to respond back to the ship.   For routine matters, the Northampton always departed exactly on time, even if it meant doing so without the skipper aboard, as a Captain Conrad found out the hard way in the mid-1960s, arriving as his ship was just a couple hundred yards off the dock. The Captain had to drive his Mercedes 220 up to the Northampton’s next scheduled port of call to meet it there.   The crew even had betting pools to guess the time -- down to the second-- that the Nort'n would next depart the dock on a no-notice mission.  If one thing tended to bother the crews, it was that information about the ships movements and missions was highly compartmentalized -- the crew understood their job functions, but frequently didn't have much of an understanding as to what the NECPA mission was!  The officers and enlisted men who were involved with the National Emergency Command Post Afloat program generally kept to themselves, and didn't interact frequently with the Os and Es who operated and maintained the ships.  The NECPA compartments were outfitted with a Pneumatic Tube Messenger System, commonly known as Bunny Tubes, which allowed them to put classified messages into small canisters & have them passed to other secured, NECPA compartments aboard the ship via compressed air.  One time when the Bunny Tube system stopped functioning, the ships engineering branch workers tasked to fix it diagnosed the problem as being a broken diaphragm in the pneumatic compressor system.

The diaphragm was made out of kangaroo skin -- the nearest naval depot had three in stock, and the Northampton bought two of them!  For the crew, most often the best source of information regarding upcoming deployments would come from their own wives. It turned out that the ship's Captain would let his own wife know, and she would inform other wives at Wives Club gatherings!  One year the Northampton’s ship chaplain (a full Commander) somehow caused the delivery of a pool table for the Nort'n.  As some crew were in the ship's library setting up the pool table, some Interior Communications specialists installed a telephone between the library & Engineering Office.  When the chaplain was asked the purpose of the phone line, crew were somewhat taken aback to learn it was so that the pool table could be kept level by calling down to Engineering & asking them to better-balance the ship's fuel and water storage tanks!  The Nort'n was kept immaculate, and even the most minor problems considered normal ways of life aboard luxury liners were not tolerated aboard the Northampton.  The food aboard her was probably the best in the Navy.  The cooks didn't order separate provisions for the President, Senators, or various Admirals that could be aboard her at any given time -- everyone aboard would eat the same 'Presidential quality' food, so unlike most other ships, Nort'n crew members didn't have to eat powdered eggs & usually had fresh fruit and vegetables.

In the early 1960s, it was proposed that the USS Triton, SSRN-586, become a National Emergency Command Post Submarine. The Triton had been built specifically as a RADAR picket platform, commissioned on 10 November 1959. Her mission was to deploy in advance of Atlantic Fleet battle groups and covertly detect other surface vessels in the area.  Unfortunately, by the time the TRITON was placed into service, shore and carrier-based maritime patrol and airborne early warning aircraft were successfully handling the mission Triton was outfitted for.  At the time, the Triton was one of the largest submarines in the Navy, as well as one of the fastest -- during one exercise when she was to rendezvous with the Northampton, the Nort'n crew was amazed to see the Triton (at periscope depth, with periscope extended) pass the Nort'n as if she were standing still.  The Northampton was doing 33 knots at the time.  

In 1960 Triton was the first submarine to circumnavigate the globe while submerged -- it took 82 days.  In the Spring of 1962, she underwent conversion to Attack Submarine at Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard, New Hampshire. Upon completion her homeport was changed from Naval Submarine Base New London CT to Naval Base Norfolk Virginia, and became the flagship for the Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic Fleet on 13 April 1964. Modifications for the flagship role included the enlargement of her Combat Information Center and enlarged berthing compartments for COMSUBLANT and staff.  Triton served as a COMSUBFORLANT flagship until being relieved by the USS RAY (SSN-653) on 1 June 1967. Shortly afterwards, her homeport switched back to NSB New London. A planned overhaul in 1967 was canceled, and in the Fall of 1968, she started the preservation and inactivation process.  

USS Triton was decommissioned at Naval Submarine Base New London on 3 May 1969. She was towed to Norfolk Naval Ship Yard where she sat for 24 years before finally being towed to Puget Sound Naval Ship Yard, Washington, for scrapping.  The Triton’s special electronic support measures suite and enlarged operations compartment made her quite useful for classified intelligence gathering missions throughout the mid to late 1960s, for which she received both a Presidential Unit Citation and Navy Unit Commendation.  The Triton was used in several exercises with the Northampton.  Triton would pick up important personnel in Chesapeake Bay and then submerge as deep a possible & quickly head out of the bay to rendezvous with the Northampton and transfer the important personnel to the Nort'n via one of the Northampton’s utility boats.  It remains unknown whether the Triton’s conversion to COMSUBLANT flagship might actually have been a plausible cover story for what in reality could have been conversion to National Emergency Command Post Submarine.

Educated speculation -- which of course is still just speculation -- is that the use of a nuclear submarine as a wartime National Command Authority platform remains an extremely attractive and viable option, perhaps a highly classified reality.  The submarine could provide a long-term, highly survivable (due to mobility) shelter, and could communicate over a variety of circuits while maintaining depth via pre-deployed undersea communications nodes linked via cable to shore-based radio communications and command & control facilities.

By the late 1960s, the utility of the National Emergency Command Post Afloat mission was reevaluated, and it was decided to deactivate the existing NECPA program and assets.  NECPA became vulnerable to Soviet aircraft stationed in Cuba, and with the advent of satellite communications, other ships in service (namely the amphibious command ships USS Blue Ridge and Mount Whitney) could perform a NECPA mission if necessary.  The NECPA program was disbanded in 1970, the USS Northampton being decommissioned on 8 April 1970.  Finally stricken from the Navy ship list on 31 December 1977 and scrapped on 1 March 1980.

USS Glennon (DD-840)
Active Service:  30 Years, 11 Months, 27 Days
Life Span:  35 Years, 7 Months, 11 Days

On Board From:  September 1969 to August 1972  (2 years, 11 months, 17 days)

http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/840.htm

http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd840txt.htm

(DD-840: dp. 2,425; l. 390'6"; b. 41'1"; dr. 18'6"; s. 33k.; cpl. 367; a. 6 5"; cl. Gearing.)

CLASS - GEARING As Built.

Displacement: 3460 Tons (Full), Dimensions, 390' 6"(oa) x 40' 10" x 14' 4" (Max)

Armament: 6 x 5"/38AA (3x2), 12 x 40mm AA, 11 x 20mm AA, 10 x 21" tt.(2x5).

Machinery: 60,000 SHP; General Electric Geared Turbines, 2 screws, Speed, 36.8 Knots, Range 4500 NM@ 20 Knots, Crew 336.

Operational and Building Data

Laid down: Bath Iron Works, Bath ME, March 12 1945.

Launched: July 14 1945

Commissioned: October 4 1945.

Decommissioned: (?).

Stricken: October 1 1976.

Fate: Sunk as target off Puerto Rico February 26 1981.

 The second Glennon (DD-840) was launched 14 July 1945 by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; sponsored by Miss Frances Reading Glennon, granddaughter; and commissioned 4 October 1945, Comdr. George W. Pressey in command.

After shakedown off Cuba, Glennon sailed from Boston 12 February 1946 for Europe and visited many of the nations washed by the North Sea before returning to New York in August of the same year. Undergoing upkeep at Boston and overhaul at Newport, Glennon conducted refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay during April and May 1947. For the next 12 months she engaged in a rigorous schedule of tactics along the New England coast and down the eastern seaboard to ports of Florida.

In February and March 1948 she took part in combat fleet exercises and maneuvers in waters ranging from Cuba to Trinidad and the Panama Canal.

Sailing from Norfolk in June 1948, Glennon served with the Midshipman Practice Squadron and made calls at Portugal, Italy, and French Morocco. She joined the 6th Fleet in August 1948 for Mediterranean duty, returning stateside in January 1949 for overhaul at Boston. In the winter of 1949-50 she was part of Operation "Frostbite," a cold weather exercise near the Davis Strait, subsequently to sail from Newport 4 January 1950 for another "Med" cruise.

Upon return to the United States, she made a series of reserve training cruises along the eastern seaboard and engaged in type training along the New England coast and into the Caribbean Sea. Underway from Newport 8 January 1951, she embarked on another "Med" cruise, returning to Boston in May for overhaul followed by refresher training out of Cuba.

Glennon spent January and February 1952 with a carrier task force conducting cold weather training in waters ranging northward to the Davis Straits. From April to October she was flagship of Destroyer Squadron 8, and stood out in June for the Mediterranean, returning to Annapolis in September 1952. For more than a decade the destroyer continued her already established peacetime operation pattern. Highlights of this exacting duty included participation as a recovery station ship in the 1961 and 1962 Project Mercury flights, and in the search for the lost nuclear powered submarine Thresher In August 1961 Glennon was called away suddenly to join the task force for the Project Mercury space shot carrying Major Grissom. In early 1962 she was again chosen to man an Atlantic recovery station for the historic three-orbit flight of Maj. John Glenn. An extensive overhaul at Boston terminated 24 July 1963, and through the remainder of that year Glennon trained in the Caribbean acted as school ship for the Antisubmarine Warfare School at Key West, FL, and put in at Boston in November for refitting.

The years 1964 and 1965 found G1ennon continuing her ASW work. In September 1964 she was chosen to carry guests to the America's Cup Races. Later in May 1965 she conducted exercises called "Mule 65" in which U.S. Army cadets from West Point were given shipboard indoctrination. Through 1967 Glennon continued to operate with the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.