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Total Run This Leg:
2,238.1 Nautical Miles
Total Average Speed: 5.17 Knots
Hours / Days This Leg: 432.5 Hours, 18.02 Days
Distance To Go This Leg: 709 Nautical Miles
Estimated Time Of Arrival: 7:00 a.m., Saturday, October 16, Balboa Sea
Buoy, Panama
Present Course: 117 Degrees Southeasterly
Winds: Southwest at 10 Knots
Seas: 1 Foot
Swells: 6 Feet from the West-Southwest
Barometric Pressure: 1012 Millibars
Air Temperature: 77 Degrees
Sea Temperature: 79 Degrees
Visibility: 10 Miles
Skies: Scattered Clouds
Sea Floor: Ocean depths beneath the USS New Jersey at this point are
2,215 Fathoms or 13,290 Feet Position:
USS
New Jersey is now 160 Nautical Miles Southwest of Puerto Corinto, Nicaragua, the principal
port of entry on the Pacific coast for this Central American nation. The land in
this vicinity is low with few distinguishing features. However, numerous high
volcanic peaks are visible for a considerable distance seaward, and are excellent
landmarks when not obscured by cloud cover.
Volcan Viejo, the highest peak in Nicaragua, rises to a
height of 5,668 Feet, about 18 miles Northeast of Puerto Corinto.
Time:
Captain Ogaard has directed that Sea
Victory's clocks be advanced one hour at 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning to conform to the
eastward advancement of the USS New Jersey's Southeasterly track to Panama. We will have
exited the equivalent of the U.S. Mountain Daylight Time zone, and entered the Central
Daylight Time zone.
New Jersey's Expert Shots
The U.S. Marines aboard the USS New Jersey, part of the
traditional Marine Detachments, served the Admirals and Captains as orderlies, and
provided ship security, but they also assumed battle stations when the time came.
Master Sergeant Roger Lockwood was on the New Jersey in
Korea between 1951 and 1953. He knew first hand what the Marines did then, but has
also read much about his predecessors.
"All I know is what I've read," he said in an
interview from his Michigan home. "In old history, the Marine officers had the
little braid on top of their hat so they wouldn't be shot by the enlisted personnel.
They were the sharpshooters who were up in the mastheads, and shooting down on
enemies," he recalled. "Those were the old days."
In Korea, he said, "On our ship, the New Jersey, the
Marines served as gunners in the anti-aircraft batteries. My own job was as a
director- pointer, or sector-pointer for anti-aircraft guns, and my station was way up on
the 011 level which is 11 levels above the main deck.
"I was way up there, and it was one of the most
dangerous places because usually if you were in combat, the enemy ships would try to blast
the bridge where the Captain and the direction of the ship was operated from," he
noted.
Lockwood explained how the Battleship would operate when
making strikes against Korean gun emplacements on shore.
"When we were in Korea, our first gun strike with
the 16-inch guns, and the 5-inch guns, was just off the Manchurian border. We were
firing at targets of opportunity like trains coming down the coast," he said.
"When we were circling around Yodo Island in North
Korea, we were firing at caves which were manned by shore guns, which moved back into the
mountain after they were fired. We took some shrapnel there, but as soon as the fire
started from the shore, the ship would move out to sea." That's what made New
Jersey so protected all those months and years. "Those 16-inch guns,"
Lockwood said, "could blast something 20-25 miles away."
"A 16-inch gun can do an awful lot of doggone
damage," the crusty but gentle Marine observed. "I know one instance when
we were laying off the shore of North Korea, by maybe 15 or 16 miles. We had a
spotter plane, and the 16-inch guns fired over the top of a mountain range, on a target
given by the spotter plane, and they hit bridges that were out of sight of the Battleship,
on the other side of the mountain.
"It's an amazing thing. That ship is an
amazing piece of equipment, and in battle, it's just like an arsenal all by itself.
He said the Marines had their assignments.
"All of them had their own battle stations, whether it be on the anti-aircraft guns,
or machine guns, 50 calibers, or up as spotters, or as being a messenger for the admiral
of the Seventh Fleet who was aboard at that time, or the Captain's orderly. And we always
kept in contact with everybody else," Lockwood said.
They all worked as a team, hand-in-hand, as he said
earlier, despite the intramural rivalries between sailors and marines when the guns fell
silent. That was all part of it.
Submitted by Bob Wernet onboard the Sea Victory.
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