My next duty station would be with the Staff of Commander Amphibious Squadron One. The squadron was coming back from combat duty in Vietnam. They were the first amphibious squadron to conduct combat operations in Vietnam since the Tonken Gulf incident. In fact, their squadron received combat casualites during the first amphibious assault that they made. Since they were returning to the States, my orders stipulated that I join them in the States. Mary and I were able to visit Minnesota before they arrived back in San Diego, California.
When I joined the staff of COMmander AmPHIBious SquadRON ONE (COMPHIBRON ONE), another officer reported at the same time that I did. We both came with a CIC background. Unfortunately, with some time spend in the Gunnery Department on the Valley Forge, it was decided that I would serve in the Readiness and Training Area which also dealt with weapons and the other officer would serve in the CIC Operations Department. I was the Assistant Weapons/Readiness and Training Officer on the Staff.
Being on a Commodore's Staff now meant that we really needed to be careful about what we said and did. We were the "experts" at times standing in for the Commodore. There were 8 ships in our Squadron and we were the people who would evaluate them in various training and other type exercises or procedures. There were also lots of "command performances," change of command ceremonies, etc. Better learn etiquette. Be sure that your dress whites are kept in good condition. What about minature medals for your dress uniforms. When do you wear a black cummerbund, when do you wear gold? Do the folds point up or do they point down? Learn proper sword protocols, etc. What is the proper way to do such and such? Yuck!
Eventually it was time for the Gold Team and the Blue Team to join together as one. The PHIBRON ONE ships training periods were over and it was time to go back to WESTPAC to replace one of the Amphibious Squadrons that were involved in combat.
While enroute to Hawaii and beyond, there were times for training exercises. When the ships were in Hawaii, some of the COMPHIBRON ONE staff transferred to another ship to conduct gunnery exercises. I was one of those who walked onboard the training ship. When the gunnery exercises were over, we were at sea. We would be returning to the other ship via high line - that is, we would ride a chair on a line (rope) strung between the two ships. The lines would be held by many sailors instead of something mechanical. If something mechanical held the lines, there was the chance that the line might break if excessive strain was applied to the line. That would be an no-no if a person was over the side on the line at the time. Anyway, I got in the chair and was properly secured. Just before the deck officer tossed the chair with me in it over the ship's side, he said,"Tell Lieutenant Jones that he has this chair rigged wrong!" What a trip! It was exhilerating just from the trip hanging between two ships with the seas whipping by under me ... while at the same time wondering, "How is this chair rigged wrong?"
Whoops! Bad news for me. The "Powers That Be" decided that the move was going to have to happen earlier than originally planned. The move needed to occur in October. We (COMPHIBRON ONE Staff) spent lots of time packing things. Most of the stuff was packed in cardboard boxes. Everything was well labeled and organized so that everything would get put into the right office for unpacking.
The day of the big move ---> to the USS Iwo Jima was here. However, the Iwo Jima was involved in air operations. Once they finished, they would take our boxes onboard. We loaded our boxes into open "Mike boats" and got ready for the transfer. Air operations took a little bit longer than usual. Before the transfer occurred, we passed through a large rain squall. Water in the boats was at least 6 inches deep. ... and our boxes were not in too good of a condition. Eventually the transfer occurred.
Guess what? The USS Iwo Jima was having problems with their aviation fuel. Bacteria was growing in the tanks and plugging up the gas lines. They would need to go to Sasebo, Japan, to get the tanks cleaned out. COMPHIBRON ONE would need to move to another ship to conduct war operations from. CPR-1 would take selected boxes of operations orders with them. The rest of the boxes would remain in a central storage place on the Iwo Jima until CPR-1 rejoined the Iwo Jima. The USS Iwo Jima carpenters built some strong boxes for CPR-1 to move what was needed because the cardboard boxes were in terrible shape from the rain storm.
Until it could be determined what ship would become the temporary Flagship for COMPHIBRON ONE, CPR-1 would move to the island of Okinawa to reside on the base for several days. We were there for about a week when it was decided that the temporary flagship would be the USS Valley Forge, my old duty station. CPR-1 staff would load the Valley Forge from Okinawa but I needed to fly to Subic Bay, Phillipines, to pick up some operation orders. I would join the Valley Forge in Subic Bay several days later.
November 1966 was fast approaching. I would soon be leaving duty with Commander, Amphibious Squadron One Staff in WESTPAC for my next duty station. I won't be involved in any more of this "Staff ship hopping" again, I hope. The day that I left the USS Valley Forge, COMPHIBRON ONE Staff were moving again. They were moving back to their original Flagship, the USS Henrico. Originally I thought that I wasn't going to be involved in any of COMPHIBRON ONE's moving but then ... (I got plenty of experience in moving for later work at MSU. My first responsibility at MSU in 1972 was to move the Biology Department from Nichols Hall on Lower Campus to Trafton Science Center on Upper Campus).
Back in May 1965, I had "run" into another classmate of mine. Again The Janesville Argus was the informant. I had found out that my high school classmate was stationed in San Diego, California. He said, "If you ever come to San Diego, look me up." My wife and I needed to find housing in San Diego for my duty with COMPHIBRON ONE. Perhaps he could give us some advice on where to look. The day we got there, he and his wife were literally moving from their apartment in Chula Vista, California. We came ... we saw ... we took their apartment and told them to forget doing the final cleaning. Mary and I would do that for them. Janesville-ites would continue to live in that apartment for a while. That was easy "apartment hunting."