Editor’s Note: In an e-mail we asked for your stories about being at sea—storms you experi-enced, creatures you saw in the ocean, how the oceans differed, times you were really scared, other ships you encountered on the sea, how much in awe you were of the vast ocean, beautiful scenes from on board, etc. Here are your responses: From A.B. Henry, Jr. EM3 1963-66: During my last de-ployment in 1966, the Cambria was caught in a storm off Cape Hat-teras as we were return-ing to Norfolk. We were experiencing some tre-mendous waves and heavy rolls. I was re-lieved from my watch on the main switchboard and decided to take some pictures of the waves and other ships in the squadron. I posi-

tioned myself with my legs wrapped around the ready service locker on the starboard side just forward of the fan-tail. The stern of the ship came out of the ocean and I had my camera ready. The wave dropped out from under the stern and as the next wave closed in, the fantail went under and the wave washed over me just as I snapped the picture. Had I not been well an-chored, I probably would not be here to relate this story. For those of you who re-member the Cambria, the only part of the jack-staff showing is about the top foot of the staff. If I can remember, I’ll bring the picture to our reunion. I always loved being at sea and espe-cially during heavy weather. The only drawback was if I was showing a movie I had

to remember to hold onto the camera so it wouldn’t fall off the mess table. The posi-tive side to heavy weather was the chow lines were shorter as most of the marines embarked were not in-terested in eating.

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From Frederick Smith, RM3 (aka Smitty): The only stories that I have about being on the USS Cambria was r e memb er i ng t h e storms like typhoons or hurricanes while being out to sea when the winds would whip the rain sideways. I remem-ber our ship also knock-ing down antennas dur-ing at least one storm. I'm sure that people know that when these storms are around we have to pull out to sea and ride them out. If we stayed in port the docks would be demolished.

Volume 15, Issue 1

Stories about Being at Sea

January 2012 O f f i c i a l N e w s l e t t e r o f U S S C a m b r i a ( A P A - 3 6 )

Cambria Press News Stories from the crew 1-3

Coordinator’s Column 4

Welcome Mat & Taps 4

The Birth of the SEALS 4-5

Treasurer’s Report 5

Mail Call 5

Cruise Book 1956-57 6-8

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

One scary time that has probably been said be-fore, of which I'm certain scared many of my ship-mates, was our collision at-sea with the USS Shadwell at 0300 hours on 7 July 1969. I'm pretty sure that nobody on our ship had gone through that same experi-ence before. I was on a mid-watch three decks up in the radio shack, but most of the crew was sleeping at that hour. Waking up to that must have been pretty confus-ing and scary. And lots of the sleeping compart-ments are below the wa-ter line. Our ship's alarm went off six times, and then a night-watch person had broadcast over the intercom system, "stand-by for collision!" The creatures out to sea that were amazing to watch were the dolphins and how they seemed to be frolicking with the bow

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of our ship, as if leading the way. I remember also seeing flying fish in one of the ports. You'd of course see an occasional whale. There are no street lights out there so I got a kick out how dark it was being out on the deck at nighttime and seeing people walk past you without even knowing that you were standing there. Those were a few of the experiences that I can remember from 1969-1970.

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From J. Elder U.S.N. Retired: In the 8 months I was serving USS Cambria, the thing I remember most was the after berth-ing compartments were infested with bed bugs, and every week the ship’s doctor would come down and spray around bunk lashings and lock-ers. In between visits we would use cigarette light-ers and run the flame around the bunks to kill them. Also there was a rodent problem in the dry stores and galley. This was back in 1957.

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F r o m I r v i n g J . Buchbinder, DPM, for-merly HM2 USS Cambria MED Cruise 1969-70: This is from the Cruise Winter of 1970. (the last of the cruises of the good ship Cambria). We had been in the Med for the winter and were coming out of Rota into the North Atlan-tic. Apparently there was

(Continued from page 1) a large storm system and we were supposed to avoid it, but Cambria and some of the deep bottoms ran straight into it. Cambria was tossed about. I remember going into the engineering office just as the paperwork desk came loose and spilled its sea of forms all over the place. There was a mustang LT on board (after 40 years I can't re-member his name) in en-gineering. He sorta l o o k e d a n d s a i d 'Waddayaknow'. The medical unit was-n't much better with our equipment flying all over the place when lashed (or not lashed) down. The day the storm calmed, perhaps 0630 or so, I went to visit “B" (Doyle Dean Barracks) BM2 who headed 6th division. B was enormous, a great ship handler, a good friend from Mohammet, Illinois. He's not been on any of the lists. We used to hang out in the chain locker in the foc's-cle. Cambria was doing these enormous ups and downs and we two, know-ing better, decided to crack the foc'sle hatch and go look. After her collision with Shadwell, she had an eccentric prop shaft and at 16-18 knots there was this persistent shuddering and vibration throughout the ship, made more noisy and wild when a screw would lift out of the water. So there we are, in blues for some inspec-tion, the boatswain and hospitalcorpsman, on the foc'sle rail watching the ship’s motion, seeing the hull depth markers as

she pitched and yawed through near 100ft waves, uncovering the keel, rising as she plowed through the wave then was tossed up the waters rising to a few feet of the railing then up and down. Hypnotic. Stupid. We were just about to leave, watching the last of these move-ments, the silence in the trough, the wind on the crest. The water, this time rose fast, and faster and OVER the two of us, soaking the blue wool uniforms and us. We raced for the hatch, climbed in, dog-ged it and thanked whomever watches over seamen that we'd not been washed off too. I can still hear the wind, the waves and Barracks. I miss them, my crewmates and Cambria. She was good to us.

__________ From John Atkinson: The only time I was worried was when I was aboard the Cam-bria. The captain at that time in ‘69 liked to fish. We put the gig in the water with him, some fried chicken and cold drinks. He told the ship to carry on and be back at a certain time to pick us up. Well, when you’re in a small boat and you see your home leaving, you start to wonder if the ship will be back and if they can find you in the mid-dle of the ocean. Of course they found us, but I had an uneasy

P A G E 2 C A MB RI A P R ES S N E W S

feeling in the pit of my stomach all day.

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From Don Snyder, YN3: For those of you who had similar experiences, I will try to recall some re-actions and observations that I can after 55 years, while a crew member of the Cambria. Imagine that you have put your head in a freezer to get cool for a minute, and a blast of ice water hits you in the face! That is what I felt when stand-ing lookout watch on the ship’s way to somewhere during exercises in the North Atlantic. In the opposite direc-tion, during a trip to Vene-zuela, (I don’t recall why we were ordered there) the temperature turned from a balmy, pleasant degree to a scorching clear ocean that you could see through and on deck literally fry an egg! In contrast, during my tenure aboard the Cam-bria, I had the experience of riding out 3 hurricanes. One at sea, one at Hamp-ton Roads and one at Norfolk Naval Base. The hurricane at sea developed waves big enough to breach the brow of the ship which was 26 feet above the waterline. We had de-stroyer escorts along in a convoy heading out to maneuvers. I recall it took about 8 minutes for those destroyers to reach the top of a swell after head-ing to the bottom of it. SCARY, VERY SCARY! I’m sure many of you have had some type of

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P A G E 3 C A MB RI A P R ES S N E W S

personal remembrance while serving aboard the Cambria. When I finally graduated from boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, (I say finally, be-cause just as my company was ready to leave, one of the company came down with spinal meningitis and we were quarantined for a extra TWO WEEKS!) Anyway, I was assigned to the Cambria, and being from Indiana, the largest watercraft I had ever seen was my dad’s fishing boat. When I saw the size and awesome magni-tude of the Cambria, I said to myself, “Don, what have you gotten yourself into?” I was assigned to X Division which was Deck Force. The Deck Force maintained the condition of the ship, swabbing decks, chipping and painting, etc. I DECIDED THAT WAS NOT WHAT I WAS CUT OUT TO DO! In order to advance myself, I devised a bold plan...I went to the First Lieutenant in charge of X Divi-sion, scared to death he would deny me anything, but lo and behold, he turned out to be a civil guy who had advanced himself from common sea-man to First Lieutenant (a “Mustang”) and understood my desire for a bet-ter tour of duty aboard the Cambria. I told him what I had in mind and that I didn’t want to chip paint as a billet while on board. He asked me if I could type. I said, “I can hunt and peck.” He said, “I admire your tenac-ity and desire for advancement, therefore, I have an idea for you… my Legal Yeoman is being trans-ferred and I’m screening for a re-placement. If you’re interested, you can have the job, OK?” I liked to have fallen through the deck and obviously said YES! Long story short, he gave me the job, sent me to Class A Yeoman School at Bain-bridge, MD where I graduated with a typing word speed of 60 WPM, be-came his Legal/Mast Yeoman and Court Reporter. Upon graduation from Yeoman School, I couldn’t catch the ship in

(Continued from page 2) Norfolk because it had departed for the Mediterranean for a shakedown cruise. I flew to Nice, France and went aboard there. That experience was the best and worst of my life! I hated the exer-cises, but immensely enjoyed the Liberty time, the sites, sounds, peo-ple, the language, cities and ancient places of Mediterranean Europe. Just one of the good things I par-ticipated in was being assigned to Shore Patrol Duty while in Athens, Greece. My name and another sailor were put on the duty list to protect Sophia Loren, Alan Ladd and Clifton Webb while they were casting and making the movie “Boy on a Dolphin” in 1957. We were billeted in The Brit-ish Embassy while on duty and es-corted the actors to and from the movie set. While in the Med, Cambria was ordered to proceed to the Gaza Strip. The ship’s mission was to evacuate a United Nations Truce Team from Gaza and take them to Alexandria, Egypt until the fighting between Is-rael and Egypt subsided. While in Alexandria, it was Christmas Eve, so the ship held a Christmas Party for the UN Team, the crew and about a hundred children from Alexandria who had nothing in their existence to speak of. To see the delight on their faces upon receiving the gifts we passed out was something that I can still see to this day! I might add that during the extrac-tion of the UN Team, we had to send in “Mike” boats to pick them up… they were fired upon, but the ship couldn’t fire back because of our neutrality. I can still hear and feel the bullets passing by me as I crouched down in the Range Finder Turret for our 5 inch guns which was at the very top of the ship. Anyway, we got out of there safely, and after a few days we took the UN Team back into Gaza. This little operation was, for some reason, not considered a major one, but necessary. There were many, many other things too numerous to recall that we all called “duty” that I’m sure all of you participated in and don’t have

space to write about….maybe in an-other issue. I served 28 months aboard the Cambria, then transferred to USNAS Kingsville, Texas in the Legal De-partment until my discharge in Janu-ary of 1959. “Ahoy, Mates!”

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MY HEART’S AT SEA FOREVER

Long ago I was a Sailor.

I sailed the Ocean blue.

I knew the bars in Singapore…

The coastline of Peru.

I knew well the sting of salt spray,

The taste of Spanish wine,

The beauty of the Orient…

Yes, all these things were mine.

But I wear a different hat now,

Jeans & T-shirt too.

My sailing days were long ago…

With that life I am through.

But somewhere deep inside of me,

The sailor lives there still.

He longs to go to sea again,

But know he never will.

My love, my life, is here at home,

And I will leave here never.

Though mind and body stay ashore,

My heart’s at sea forever.

Submitted by John Partin

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V O L UM E 1 5 , I S SU E 1

Daniel Miller (1966-68) RM3 193 Split Oak Ln

Linwood, NC 27299 336-752-3531

danmiller44@yahoo.com

Nathan Jacobs USMC (1969) nkjacobs@optonline.net

Robert Manuel BM4

mcmom57@yahoo.com

Richard Sokolik (1966-68) SN/BM 3rd Div

188 Doe Trail Ln Statesville, NC 28625

704-878-9387 rdsokolik@yahoo.com

Scott Foy (1964-67) MM3

39 W 606 Lori Ln Elgin, IL 60124 847-840-0575

Scott.jane@comcast.net __________

P A G E 4

Welcome Mat

We are proud to announce that the following USS CAMBRIA ship-mates have recently been located. Welcome Aboard and we hope to see you at the next reunion. Also, you are invited to become an active member of the Association.

Coordinator’s Column

Greetings from the Henrys. We hope everyone had a pleasant Christ-mas and a Happy New Year. It sounds like we should have a pleas-ant time in Branson. I’ve been in con-tact with people from Norfolk, VA and Greenville, SC as possible sites for 2014. I’m putting this out there so that they can be considered. I hope to see everyone in Branson and that we all remain healthy, happy and safe.

Hank and Donna Henry

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Taps

The Association was saddened to learn of the following shipmates’ deaths. The entire membership ex-tends our deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the deceased.

Henry Williams (1956-59) Date of death not reported

Presley Premeaux

(1950-52) BM1 3rd Div Date of death not reported

William Roush

(1967-69) SMC O Div Died March 17, 2011

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Published by:

Premier Reunion Services

PO Drawer 11399

Hickory, NC 28603

Phone: 828-256-6008

Fax: 828-256-6559

E-mail addresses:

dina@mlrsinc.com

karen@mlrsinc.com

Web site: www.mlrsinc.com/cambria

The “SEAL Trident” The Birth of the

Navy SEALS

As a former Gator sailor, one of the Navy's most interesting organiza-tions to me is the U.S. Navy SEALS. They are a unique breed of warrior, and I thought their history and mis-sion would be of interest to former Cambria crewmembers and other readers of The USS CAMBRIA Newsletter: The Navy SEALS were established by President John F. Kennedy in 1962 as a small, elite maritime military force to conduct "unconventional warfare". They carry out the types of clandestine, small unit, high-impact missions that forces with high-profile platforms (such as ships, jets and submarines) cannot. SEALS also conduct essential on-the-ground Special Reconnaissance of critical targets for imminent strikes by larger conventional forces. SEALS are the Special Opera-tions Command's force-of-choice among Navy, Marine, and Air Force Special Operations Forces (SOF) to conduct small-unit maritime military operations which originate from, and return to a river, ocean, swamp, delta or coastline. This littoral capability is more important now than ever in our history, as half of the world's infra-structure and population is located within one mile of an ocean or river. Of crucial importance, SEALS can negotiate shallow water areas such as the Persian Gulf coastline, where large ships and submarines are limited by depth. SEAL-Sea, Air, Land....The SEALS are trained to operate in all environments (Sea, Air, Land) for which they are named. SEALS are also prepared to operate in climate extremes of scorching de-sert, freezing Arctic, and humid jun-gle. The SEALS current pursuit of elusive, dangerous and high-priority terrorist targets has been operating in remote mountain regions of Af-ghanistan. They have also been in-volved in hostage-taking incidents off

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P A G E 5 C A MB RI A P R ES S N E W S

the coast of Somalia, and in successfully completing an operation to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last year. Gator Navy Link......SEAL teams are located on both US coasts: Team One at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in San Diego, California and Team Two at Naval Am-phibious Base Little Creek, Virginia. Both SEAL teams are constantly deployed throughout the world frequently on amphibious force ships to protect national interests. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

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FINANCIAL REPORT FROM ML&RS, INC The cost of this issue of Cambria Press News is $758.03

Treasurer’s Report From the desk of treasurer USS Cambria APA-36,

Ramon Stafford

Money on hand at July newsletter…………………$2,902.63 Money received-Hats, Patches, Mouse Pads……. $30.00 Money received for newsletter………………………….$75.00 TOTAL…………………………………………$3,007.63 MONEY EXPENDED ML&RS newsletter July 2011..$770.62 Postage…………………………………$4.16 TOTAL…………………………………...$774.79 Balance………………………………$2,232.85 For those of you that receive the newsletter with the enve-lope in if you have not donated to the newsletter in the past and wish to continue to receive the newsletter every little money will help. If you do not wish to receive the newsletter please let us know and we will take you off the list. If you have an E-Mail address, please send it to me and MLRS. If you wish to have the newsletter sent to you by E-Mail, please let Karen at MLRS know and that will get the cost of our newsletter down. My E-Mail address is: rstafford34@hughes.net and Karen who writes the newsletter is karen@mlrsinc.com I have hats for $15.00 if they are to be mailed, that in-cludes the postage. At the reunion the hats will stay at $10.00. At the present time I do not have any Mouse Pads with the USS Cambria picture on. If enough ship mates would like to have one let me know and I will try to have more made up. The cost will be $6.50 including postage. I have the same patch that is on the USS Cambria caps for $4.00 including postage. If you want a USS Cambria cap, USS Cambria hat patch, or a mouse pad please send a check for the amount to Ramon Stafford, 5324 Tower Hill Rd., Gladstone Va. 24553. Treasurer, Ramon Stafford

Mail Call

Hello,

My name is Nate Ja-cobs and I live in New Jersey. I served on the USS Cambria from spring 1969 to late sum-mer 1969 as a US Ma-rine. My neighbor down the street, Bob Kinsley, also served the same as I and I believe that he was trying to send some scanned info to Andrew Henry. Anyway, when Bob mentioned a reun-ion for APA-36 and I said that I was interested and probably would attend,

however, when I googled the information, I found out it was for crewmem-ber of APA-36. I was on the USS Cambria the night it collided with the USS Shadwell (LST) in the summer of 1969 and understand that previous crew members might not be aware of the events of that night and might be interested. I could try to scan some photos while in dry dock if you are in-terested. Also, you might find it interesting to know that the Cambria is shown in the 1969-1970 movie “Patton” with George C. Scott. Just look for the black and white news-reels in the movies. If you are interested, please e-mail me.

Nate Jacobs

nkjacobs@optonline.net

There are some new and exciting things hap-pening at the ML&RS, Inc office! You can read a b o u t t h e m o n o u r b l o g a t www.mlrsinc.blogspot.com. If you don’t have internet access, we will fill you in on more of the details in the next newslet-ter! Dina Coffey General Manager Premier Reunion Services LLC dba Military Locator & Reunion Service PO Drawer 11399, Hickory NC 28603 828-256-6008 (phone) www.mlrsinc.com

News from Your Reunion Service

V O L UM E 1 5 , I S SU E 1 P A G E 6

Scanned from USS Cambria Mediterranean Cruise Book 1956-1957 Submitted by Don Snyder

P A G E 7 C A MB RI A P R ES S N E W S

CAPTAIN W.A. STEVENSON, USN Commanding Officer USS Cambria (APA-36)

V O L UM E 1 5 , I S SU E 1 P A G E 8

The CAMBRIA PRESS NEWS is the official publication of the USS CAMBRIA Association. It will be published twice a year, in July and January, subject to re-ceiving sufficient funding. The Newsletter is funded by voluntary contributions from the member-ship. All members are encouraged to support the voice of the PRESS NEWS. If the newsletter funds cus-todian provides the information, a financial statement will appear in each issue of the newsletter. Con-tributions to the newsletter fund should be sent directly to: Ramon Stafford, 5324 Tower Hill Rd, Glad-stone, VA 24553. The editors will bill the custodian after each issue is published. The Press News is intended to be a vehicle for the members to express opinions, make sugges-tions and especially share experi-ences. Unless otherwise stated, the views and opinions printed in the newsletter are those of the arti-cle’s writer, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Asso-ciation leadership or the Editor. All letters and stories submitted will be considered for publication, except unsigned letters will not be published. Letters requesting the writer’s name be withheld will be honored, but published on a space available basis. Signed letters with no restrictions will be given prior-ity. Letters demeaning to another shipmate will not be printed; let-ters espousing a political position will not be printed. The editor reserves the right to edit letters to conform to gram-mar, and/or space limitations. You are encouraged to actively participate in the newsletter fam-ily, by submitting your articles and stories directly to the editor.

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Statement of Publication

LOOKING FOR… Alfred Hale (1965-66) is looking for Monte Richard Findley from Ft. Madison, Iowa who served on the Cambria. If you have any information about Mr. Findley (address, phone number, e-mail address), please con-tact Mr. Hale at 180-A Sparks Ln, Minford, OH 45653. Phone: 740-356-3146. Thank you.