Talk:USS Card/Archive 1

Archive 1

Won Hung Lo? Seriously?

This has to be a joke played by somebody. 107.191.165.192 (talk) 03:15, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

No casualties in 1964 mining?

I removed the below text from the article, as it's original research. 24.18.232.32 (talk) 11:53, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

The foregoing is incorrect to say the ship was sunk and crew were killed. I was a US Navy Lieutenant (JG) and the US Navy Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon duty officer and I drove up on the pier about 0530-0600 to see the USNS Card down by the stern, bow pointed downriver, and listing heavily toward the pier. I came face to face with a merchant marine LtJg ship's officer with a propellor device on one lapel at the footbridge followed by 3 crew with their duffle bags departing the ship. I asked who was in charge and was told "No one is in charge". I said my skipper was senior naval officer in Saigon and that I was the duty officer. I said "You are under my command. About face, forward march." My command probably had doubtful legality but they obeyed, and I had them take me down a hatch in the hangar deck where we came to an open hatch to an engine room. The compartment was filling with water fast and it was very turbulent. I ordered the hatch to be shut and then we got mallets and wedges and wire from the damage control locker, and timbers stored in the overhead. We wedged a timber on each side of the hatch against overhead steel beams and then proceeded to seal off secondary flooding through drains and vents throughout the ship.

About 0800 my skipper, Captain Malcolm Friedman arrived and the ship's master appeared. I believe he had been his stateroom until then because no one saw or mentioned him while we were working. I was not part of his conversation with my skipper, but I read on microfilm of the New York Times that the ship's master, Wolfgang ...somebody told my skipper that as soon as the mine blew up, "We buttoned up the ship right away." I dispute this. If the hatch to the compartment where the hull was ruptured was left open and the crew had been permitted to leave with their personal effects, then I say this was a false statement. I worked on pumping the water out for four days until a salvage vessel arrived from the Philippines. They heeled the ship over away from pier which exposed a rip about 15 feet long in the hull. They built a steel box around the rip and towed the ship away. I was debriefed by US Naval Intelligence about two weeks later. I am sure than no crew members were killed or even injured because the officer and crew I met would have been distressed about such and I would have known it.

I received a commendation about a year later from Admiral Thomas M. Moorer, Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet stating that my efforts resulted in preventing the sinking of the Card. I expect that other than flooding and hull rupture, the worst that happened to the Card was that her stern probably had some mud on it. Lamont Phemister, 2011 Parrot Drive #1, San Mateo, CA 94402 tel: 650 286 9707, email llpmtv@gmail.com US Navy Service Number 641748/1100 20:41, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

That's true, there were no casualties during the bombing according to http://www.vvmf.org name list (by the way, it's pretty well-known fact). 195.248.189.182 (talk) 15:32, 1 May 2008 (UTC)