U.S.S.
Wright
USS Wright (CC-2)
I crammed in a lot of Navy living during the few months I served on the most strategic ship* in the U. S. Navy during the Cold War**. (I was aboard during 1968--the height of the Vietnam "Conflict" and a really wild year for America! ***)
The USS Wright was a National Command Communications ship designated as an escape for the president and top government officials had a nuclear attack upon the United States occurred.
She was a Lady with a Secret. While aboard, I became
the best pot scrubber in the Navy worldwide.
If you want to read more about the Wright and the Cold War
see "Ghosts of the East Coast: Doomsday Ships” at Cold War Times (page 9). If that doesn't work go to http://coldwar.org/education/coldwar_magazine.html then click on February 2006 - Vol. 6, Issue 1 and see page 9. For the updated article with citations and footnotes go to
http://www.coldwar.org/museum/doomsday_ships.asp. Or, you can read the article without leaving this site by clicking HERE.
Click on each picture
for a larger image.
(Then hold CTRL and roll the mouse wheel to enlarge.)
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The design is based on the National Shield
with an American eagle and globe in the lower right.
The lightning bolt in the eagle's talons represents
command and communications, Wright's mission.
The motto "Vox Imperii" is translated "voice of the leaders".
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*The crew of the Wright’s sister ship--the USS Northampton (CC-1) —would disagree.
MILITARY LINKS
USS Wright Association
USS Wright Novelty Items
USS Wright Unit Page
Allied Forces Cold War Association
American Cold War Veterans
Cold War History
Cold War Museum
Cold War Veterans Association
Our Heroes
Support our Troops
Thoughts of the Cold War (blog)
US Navy Museum Cold War Gallery
Vets for Freedom
West Virginia Vets (WVV)
** The COLD WAR was waged to stop the spread of communism. Communism (in a nutshell) required (1) abolition of religion; (2) government ownership of communication, transportation, factories, agriculture; and (3) government control of labor and education.
Communism resulted in bloody purges, lethal labor camps. and the cold-blooded murder of multiple millions of innocent people.
Lasting from September 1945 to December 26, 1991 many experts refer to the Cold War as World War III. It was global, with many facets and changing strategic considerations. During some parts of the period, actual shooting wars were involved, but always it was a political and military confrontation. Many of the personnel losses in the Cold War were on missions that were under the veil of secrecy because it involved various shades of warfare--conventional and unconventional; open and in the shadows.
Cold War Veterans served in all kinds of roles from the mundane headquarters jobs to the front lines, in the bunkers of NORAD and over Soviet airspace, tracking Soviet submarines and detecting enemy radar and signals along the coast of North Korea and the USSR, deployed to Nike Hercules nuclear missile units that defended such familiar places as New Jersey to forward locations along the Iron Curtain and Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and in places of which many had never heard. Sometimes, the Cold War turned very dangerous and we accepted that risk.
Vietnam (with Korea) was a major hot part of the Cold War. I volunteered for Vietnam duty, but Uncle Sam had other plans (All part of God’s perfect plan.), so I am a Vietnam Era vet. “A Vietnam Era Veteran is a person who served on active duty for a period of more than 180 days, any part of which occurred between August 5, 1964 and May 7, 1975, and was discharged or released with other than a dishonorable discharge.” (http://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/regs/compliance/fsvevraa.htm )
In his first State of the Union speech President Dwight Eisenhower said, “There is but one sure way to avoid total war--and that is to win the cold war.” We won! Cold War veterans
answered the call, drafted or volunteered, when it was popular and when it was not. America needed her guardians of freedom and we were there. We served around the globe for 46 years ensuring freedom would not disappear at the hands of totalitarian communist regimes. We did it at places most of the world never heard of and at locations that made routine headlines. We did it in the air, on land, and at sea. We served with our active duty forces, our reserve forces, and with the National Guard. We served with conviction and honor. We served with pride. (See "Cold Warriors" below.)
"There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us. We're at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it's been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening."
Ronald Reagan in “A Time For Choosing” (October 27, 1964)
"And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." (Robert M. Gates, 1996)
(Adapted from: American Cold War Veterans and various Internet sources.)
***Few years in America’s history were as wild as 1968.
Some headlines:
January 23 The U.S.S. Pueblo (spy ship) was captured
by North Korea. (I was at sea and my ship was near Florida for a port visit when we got orders to return at full speed and stand by off the coast of D. C.)
January 31 The Tet Offensive in Vietnam began. (By the time it was over U. S. forces had over 9,000 casualties--over 1500 KIA.)
February 21 A Delta Airlines jet carrying 169 passengers was hijacked to Cuba. (More hijackings followed.)
April 4 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. (Race riots erupted all over the country.)
April 9 Opening Day of Major League Baseball was postponed because of the funeral for Martin Luther King Jr.
April 11 The Civil Rights Act was signed. (This strengthened the 1964 Act.)
March 16 The My Lai massacre occurred in Vietnam.
May 22 The U.S.S Scorpion (submarine) disappeared. (I remember the stunned silence of my shipmates as we listened to the news about our fellow sailors.)
March 31 President Johnson announced he would not run for reelection. (He also announced a decrease in the U. S. efforts in Vietnam. This led to an early release of several thousand troops which effected me.)
June 5 Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.
June 28. The USS Liberty was decommissioned. (In June of 1967 the spy ship Liberty was attacked by Israel during the Six-Day War. 34 sailors died. I was assigned to the pier detail when the Liberty came into the Portsmouth shipyards in 1968. I distinctly remember the reverence I felt as she was nudged alongside the pier.)
July 13 The Hong Kong flu was detected. (It arrived in the USA in September. Deaths peaked in late December with a final toll of about a million (34,000 in the USA.)
August 5-8 Richard Nixon was nominated by the Republican Convention. (He was elected president on November 5.)
August 26-29 Violent confrontations, between police and anti-war protesters, erupted at the Democratic Party convention.
(There were numerous anti-war protests throughout the year and, for several years, a lot of anti-military hatred was directed at those of us who served.)
September 7 Feminists protested the Miss America Pageant.
November 20 An explosion at a coal mine, at Farmington, WV, killed 78.
December 20 The Zodiac Killer began to murder in California.
December 20 The famous author John Steinbeck died.
December 24 (Christmas Eve) Nearly one billion people watched on television, or heard on radio, as the Apollo 8 became the first manned mission to a celestial body and listened to the astronauts read the first 10 verses of the book of Genesis from the King James Bible. (Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an atheist, sued the United States government for allowing what she perceived was a violation of the First Amendment.)
Cold Warriors?
By Karl Priest August 21, 2009 (revised 5-13-09)
(This article appeared in the Cold War Times, vol.9, issue 4, November 2009, pg.37 http://www.coldwar.org/text_files/ColdwartimesNov2009.pdf)
A fellow Cold War vet called me a “Cold Warrior” and I pointed out that I was only a flunky. So, who would qualify to be labeled a “Cold Warrior”?
Would it be a
Navy SEAL who served as a sniper from his hidden perch in the trees? Or would it be the draftee who crawled up a hill with bullets buzzing by? Is a pilot dropping bombs more of a warrior than the pilot flying reconnaissance missions? Is a pacifist medic who serves with the Army in heavy combat less courageous than the
soldiers
beside him? Is a tank driver less brave than the man who drives a jeep along a mine infested road? In actual combat, is the guy knocked out by the percussion of a shell less worthy of praise than his buddy who charged forward and destroyed the enemy mortar crew?
For every combat veteran there are thousands of other military personnel doing the jobs they were ordered to do.
A friend of mine served in Vietnam and spent the entire tour in an air-conditioned building doing clerk work. Should he not be proud of his service? Another friend of mine spent two years in the Navy and never went to sea.
How can a man who serves on a sub be compared to one who puts a plane safely onto the deck of a swaying surface ship? Is the crew of a supply ship somehow of lesser value than the crew of a battleship that launches shells to a coast several miles away? Should the crews of the lone wolf ships Northampton and Wright be considered more heroic than the crews of the aircraft carriers which were heavily protected by escort ships? Were the officers aboard the Wright and
Northampton
who carried the code to launch nuclear weapons more important than the officers who sat deep in a bunker ready to press the button?
Should a veteran of the Marine Corps be honored more than an Air Force vet?
What is the difference between a friend of mine who served as a Marine Reservist with a few months active duty and another Marine friend who completed several years
with the regular forces?
I have no problem with calling some career Special Forces men “Warriors.” But, is there a hierarchy of warriors? Is a warrior with 20 notches on his rifle butt more of a warrior than another with only 10? Also, every warrior’s account of battle I have read describes his fear during the action. Does that make him cowardly and only able to succeed because he feared death?
I think you see where I am going.
It takes courage and determination to honorably complete a tour of military duty. Whether soldier, sailor, airman, guardsman, or Marine—they all are worthy of respect.
Every
cook, clerk, mechanic, and musician
should be proud of the service they gave to the United States of America.
Note:
The arguably most formidable military warriors are U. S. Navy SEALs. Here is what one of their best says about SEAL operation dependence. “By October, Naval Special Warfare Task Group Central had acquired four fully deployable SEAL platoons (for Desert Shield and Desert Storm). In addition, we had numerous naval support personnel backing us up in various specialties such as medicine, radio electronics, legal affairs, mechanics, administration, and Special Boat Units (SBUs). The Task Group was now ready for war.” (p. 140). Also, on page 151 the author describes how a Seabee backhoe operator was instrumental in providing protection from incoming missile attacks and praises Air Force helo pilots on page 153. Meeting God Behind Enemy Lines--My Christian Testimony as a U. S. Navy Seal by Steve Watkins (1999) http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b4swatkinsnavy_p2lc.htm
Other books by Navy SEAL Christians:
SEAL! by Lt. Cmdr. Michael J. Walsh & Greg Walker
Splashdown: The Rescue of a Navy Frogman by John Wolfram
In August 2011 over 20 SEALs (some from SEAL Team 6 which is the “Elite of the Elite” and credited with killing Osama bin Laden) died when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. One was Aaron Carson Vaughn was a man of deep faith, insisting to his family that he didn't fear his job as a Navy SEAL "because he knew where he was going" when he died. Aaron was a Christian and he's with Jesus today," Geneva Vaughn of Union City, Tenn., told The Associated Press on Saturday. "He told us when we saw him last November that he wasn't afraid...He was a tough warrior, but he was a gentle man." (He) was already a decorated fighter when he was asked by the Navy to return stateside to become an instructor. But he applied to SEAL Team 6 after two years, earning his way onto the squad in 2010. He asked the military to return him to combat and shipped out just six weeks before he was killed. http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/07/2349090_p2/family-friends-remember-fallen.html
Atlantic Shores Baptist Church at Virginia Beach had three members who were killed in Afghanistan. Navy SEALs Kevin Houston and Louis Langlais died on August 6, 2011. They worked with the youth ministry at the church. In March 2010, SEAL Adam Brown was killed in Afghanistan. Source: WAVY.com and a CBSnews.com article.
From an article by former SEAL Jim O'Neill:
“America needs to bring God back into our national fabric. This, more than anything else, is what our country sorely needs. We have lost our moral anchor, our guiding star, and only acceptance of God, and His natural law, can return us to our intended course. God either exists or He does not. If He does not exist then nothing ultimately matters, and we are left with naught but the ash heap of atheistic nihilism.
“But if God exists (and oh He does), then we would have to be insane to deny His existence, or more commonly, we would need to be in secret (often a secret hidden even from ourselves) rebellion against God — refusing to acknowledge anything higher, more important, or more worthy of devotion than our own sweet selves. Such an attitude is a soul sickness, and America is sick in her soul.” http://constitutionalwrites.com/2011/07/16/time-to-reboot-america/
I have found nothing that claims that Marcus Luttrell, author of Lone Survivor, is a born-again Christian, but he did say regarding a decision not to kill some unarmed Afghans that he could not do it because he has a “ Christian soul." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12690379 “Luttrell says he talked to God while in battle and prayed that he would survive so that the courage of his comrades would not be forgotten.” http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2007/November/One-Navy-SEALs-Tale-of-Survival/
Ex-SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (author of American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military ) is a Sunday-school teacher/deacon’s son. He is a “man of faith” but that does not neceassily equate to being a borna again Christian. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/meet_the_big_shot_BxlVpxzQijkC9mwZcmwkrN
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For information about the ultimate "war" see "The Culture War".
H. Res. 900
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
March 21, 2010.
Whereas the Cold War involved hundreds of military exercises and operations that occurred between September 2, 1945, and December 26, 1991;
Whereas millions of Americans valiantly stood watch as members of the Armed Forces during the Cold War; and
Whereas many Americans sacrificed their lives during the Cold War in the cause of defeating communism and promoting world peace and stability: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) honors the sacrifices and contributions made by members of the Armed Forces during the Cold War; and
(2) encourages the people of the United States to participate in local and national activities honoring the sacrifices and contributions of those individuals.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr111-900
429 Ayes, 0 Nays, 1 Present/Not Voting.
COLD WAR VETS ARE STILL WAITING FOR THE BILL TO REACH THE PRESIDENT.
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