USS Taussig (DD-746) - Vietnam

Vietnam

On 23 October 1964, Taussig cleared San Diego harbor for another deployment to the western Pacific. She operated in the Hawaiian Islands until Christmas and then continued on to the western Pacific. On 6 January 1965, the destroyer joined a task unit built around Constellation off the coast of Japan to begin duty with the 7th Fleet. During this deployment, the warship saw her first tour of duty off the coast of Vietnam, where civil strife was growing steadily in intensity. Soon the United States would be deeply committed to bolstering the democratic forces in that Southeast Asian country against communist aggression. For the time being, however, Taussig's one short patrol at "Yankee Station" in March constituted her only Vietnam service during her ninth deployment since the Korean War. For the remainder of that deployment, she conducted normal peacetime training and patrol operations, including a tour in the Taiwan Strait Patrol. The destroyer departed the Orient on 2 May and, after a stop at Pearl Harbor, reached San Diego on 24 May. On 24 July, she entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard to begin regular overhaul which she completed on 8 November. After a month of independent ship's exercises and holiday standdown, she commenced refresher training on 3 January 1966. On 12 February, the ship entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for three weeks of sonar repairs.

Following further exercises and shore bombardment qualifications, the destroyer got underway from San Diego on 20 April to return to the Far East to provide naval support for the burgeoning American presence in the Republic of Vietnam. She stopped at Pearl Harbor from 26 to 28 April and then continued on her way — via Guam and the Philippines — to duty off Vietnam. She departed Subic Bay on 26 May for her first real line period of the Vietnam War. On the 27th, she was ordered to assist in a search and rescue (SAR) mission for flyers downed by Typhoon Judy. On 1 June, she took up station off the coast of Vietnam to provide naval gunfire support for operations ashore. From then until early October, Taussig alternated naval gunfire support with plane guard duty for Constellation on the southern SAR station off Vietnam.

After 10 days in Subic Bay as naval gunfire support ready ship, the warship headed south on 9 October to participate in Operation "Swordhilt." She refueled at Manus on 15 October and, on the 16th, joined ships of the Australian, New Zealand, and British navies for the 11-day exercise in which antisubmarine warfare and air defense were emphasized. Following Operation "Sword-hilt", she visited Australia. On 4 November, Commander, 7th Fleet, cut short her stay at Melbourne by ordering Taussig to assist Tiru which had run aground on Frederick Reef some 300 miles northeast of Australia. She escorted the damaged submarine into Brisbane on the 7th and sailed two days later for the United States. She stopped at Suva, Fiji, along the way and entered San Diego on the 25th.

Taussig spent the following year engaged in operations out of San Diego. She conducted ASW training operations during the first two weeks of January and underwent hull repairs at Long Beach for the rest of the month. Early in February, she conducted ASW exercises with Lofberg, Chevalier, Scamp, and Pomfret, and then entered San Diego for a tender availability from 11 to 24 February. In March, the destroyer visited Acapulco, Mexico, and returned to San Diego on the 23d. On the last day of the month, she moved to Long Beach, where she began additional hull repairs on 1 April. Those repairs were completed exactly a month later, and she returned to San Diego on 4 May. In June and July, she embarked NROTC midshipmen for their summer cruise, conducted gunnery drills at San Clemente Island, and resumed antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training with Lofberg, Chevalier, Frank Knox, and Raton. She disembarked the midshipmen on 3 August and returned to San Clemente for naval gunfire support exercises with Marine Corps spotters. For the remainder of the year, she participated in various drills and exercises — primarily in ASW — along the West Coast.

Early in December, she put into San Diego to make final preparations for her next deployment. On 28 December, Taussig departed San Diego in company with ASW Group 1 bound, via Hawaii, for the western Pacific. She reached Pearl Harbor on 6 January 1968 and, after a week of ASW exercises and another of rest and relaxation, got underway for Yokosuka, Japan. The destroyer never reached that port. On 23 January, units of the North Korean Navy seized the electronic reconnaissance ship Pueblo, and ASW Group 1 was diverted to the Sea of Japan. Taussig and her colleagues arrived in their patrol area on 29 January and remained on patrol station for 45 days.

Taussig departed the Sea of Japan on 1 March and put into Subic Bay for upkeep three days later. The destroyer left the Philippines on the 12th to take up naval gunfire support station off Vietnam. On 14 March, she relieved Cone off the coast of the U.S. III Corps area of South Vietnam. That evening, she fired her first round of the deployment in support of Allied forces ashore. Prichett relieved her on 1 April, and Taussig arrived in Kaohsiung on the 4th for a tender availability. Eleven days later, the warship put to sea to return to Vietnamese waters. On the 15th, she joined the screen of Bon Homme Richard in the Gulf of Tonkin. After five days serving as plane guard for the carrier, Taussig parted company with the task unit and proceeded to the III Corps area of South Vietnam for three days of gunfire support duty. The destroyer rejoined ASW Group 1 on the 23d and, after a five-day visit to Hong Kong, conducted ASW exercises near the Philippines en route to "Yankee Station" in the Gulf of Tonkin, where she spent most of May plane-guarding Yorktown and Kitty Hawk. On the 26th, Taussig headed for Port Swettenham, Malaysia, where she arrived on the 29th. The destroyer put to sea again on 2 June and, by the 5th, was back on station in the Gulf of Tonkin.

After 12 days of plane guard duty, she pointed her bow toward Sasebo for the first leg of her journey home. On 21 June, Taussig stood out of Sasebo, formed up on Yorktown along with the rest of ASW Group 1, and headed for the California coast. On 5 July, the warship steamed into San Diego and began a six-week post-deployment standdown. She departed San Diego again on 21 August to enter the San Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard for overhaul. Her refurbishing was completed on 26 November, and Taussig departed San Francisco to return to San Diego, whence she operated for the remainder of the year.

Taussig spent the first six weeks of 1969 preparing for refresher training, which she commenced on 14 February. For the ensuing six weeks, the destroyer went through a seemingly unending series of drills, inspections, exercises, and battle problems. Finally, however, Taussig passed her final examination on 28 March and settled back into routine operations out of San Diego. She departed San Diego on 4 June, in company with Halsey, Herbert J. Thomas, Prichett, John R. Craig, and Hamner. The six destroyers refueled at Pearl Harbor and continued on to Japan, arriving at Yokosuka on the 21st.

Two days later, Taussig stood out for Vietnam, reaching Vung Tau on 28 June. From 29 June to 15 July, she provided gunfire support for the Allied ground forces fighting North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units in the U.S. IV Corps area of South Vietnam. From here, she headed for Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for a two-day liberty after which the destroyer steamed on to Japan. After a tender availability alongside Ajax at Sasebo, Taussig entered the Sea of Japan on 4 August to "ride shotgun" for Benjamin Stoddert and Halsey. On 24 August, the warship headed for Hong Kong where she arrived on the 28th.

Five days later, she departed Hong Kong and returned to the gunline, this time near the U.S. I Corps area of South Vietnam. On 3 September, Taussig supported a combined United States–Korean amphibious landing about 20 miles down the coast from Da Nang. As the only gunfire support for Operation "Defiant Stand", Taussig and her crew kept up a hectic pace until 21 September when her relief arrived, and she headed for the Philippines. She completed repairs and departed Subic Bay on 2 October in company with Hancock. She did plane guard duty for the carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin until the llth when she headed for Yokosuka.