Full Tour of a Cold War Navy Destroyer - USS Orleck

Join Joshua Hanlon and Zack for a tour of the Cold War era Navy Destroyer USS Orleck.
More info on the USS Orleck website: www.jaxnavalmuseum.org/

[@seahorse1970]

I worked as an operational electronics senior petty officer on this ship in the Turkish Navy between 1995- 1998. It is emotional to see it again.

[@SSN515]

Cool. Looks like they reconfigured parts of her when she went to Turkey. The Tincans I was on had the old canvas racks and footlockers, this one has the modern "coffin" racks. Some other "updated" details, too. I was a engineer in the "Pit". Forward and After Enginerooms.

[@cemakkilic]

Amerikan çöplerini satın aldık yıllarca. Tam MİLGEM projemiz başlamıştı, Tayyip Erdoğan baltaladı.

[@doxierottenbreath5773]

This message is for Zack featured on this video. Thank you Zack for taking the time to do this, but I do have to mention a few things. The ASROC Launcher was not loaded from the front, the cell in which to load was elevated and loaded from the back. The modernization that the ship went through was called, "FRAM I" (one). This class of ships never fired an ASROC in a real combat situation. Also, nobody carried the torpedoes from aft to the torpedo deck. In a wartime situation, all 6 of the torpedoes would have been loaded by crane to the torpedo deck. Every now and then we had to take a torpedo out of the tube and put it on 3 chocks for maintenance reasons. It took 6 guys, 3 on each side, with 3 straps laid underneath it to get them to the chocks. These straps had to be weight tested to assure they wouldn't rip. It would help if you refered to the topedoes as Subs, not as ships, as these torpedoes are for subs, not surface ships. STG2 Mike Welch, USS Dyess (DD-880), 1976-1979. 🙂

[@1billthekid]

Well said and accurate Mike! Also the DASH is actually historically older than the ASROC, wish i would've served while they were active. They used to be stored in the ASROC rocket storage magazine, before it served that purpose. Served on the ex-USS Charles P. Cecil and the ex-USS Stickel in the 80s and 90s as a GM ASROC captain. Great times, and was lucky enough to have fired a few 'rounds'.

[@doxierottenbreath5773]

@@1billthekid I was on the USS Dyess out of Brooklyn and you guys came down and stayed a few days at Pier Kilo with us and the Myles C. Fox in the later 70's. After we were ASROC qualified, we did fire one off, but I don't remember where. Take care and you do a great service to the visitors!

[@jimpiper5297]

Would be a kind of a bitch to muscle those torps up and down "stairs", huh? ;-)) ("Now muster a 20-hand working party with TMC Smith on the pier!")

[@doxierottenbreath5773]

@@jimpiper5297 Doesn't work that way, lol.

[@jimpiper5297]

@@doxierottenbreath5773 ;-))

[@rossreed9974]

Big THANK YOU to the folks that maintain this ship, my pop was on a similar Destroyer, the USS CONE during his last cruise, to Viet Nam in 1971-72. He was a Chief Signalman and retired in 1977.

[@davidfryman835]

Great video and information on the Orleck... Just one note; Joshua did reverse the description of the radars. The big rectangular antenna (SPS-29) is the air search, and the antenna that was rotating is the surface search (SPS-10).

[@bholdr----0]

The channel host is a good interviewer, imo- asking prescient questions, guiding the conversation, and letting the curator share his expertise... Good job/good vid- an easy +1! Cheers!

[@destinationsofhistory7077]

Thanks for watching and for the nice comment!

[@navysailor]

The ship looks good and shipshape. Nice to see she is being taken care of. My three Ships USS Seattle AOE-3, USS Inchon LPH0-12 and USS Butte AE-27 were all sunk as targets off the East Coast by missile attack and torpedo attack.

[@legocool23]

JOSH, THE LEGO GUY. Omg its great that your taking in extra history.

[@daniel-bertrand]

Deck plates are often recycled into Souvlaki BBQs from shipyards in the eastern Med, huge demand for them. They put an integrated chain drive on the sides so that a whole bunch of skewers will rotate. Very clever and lasts forever. Thank you for this visit. The Gearing FRAMs have always been a favorite design of mine, must be the combination of steam and heritage. Plus this destroyer is shipshape !

[@SSN515]

They, and the Forrest Shermans and Adams classes were the last lean and mean badazz looking "real" warships.

[@brianalbrecht3914]

Just found this video. That was the ship that my dad served on during Vietnam as CiC officer. Her keel was laid down in 1946 at Orange Texas. There was a misfire of one of her fore guns. The shell exploded right after it exited the barrel. With RAP the guns could reach about 15 miles.

[@jamesjoy8866]

I served for two years on the USS Bausell DD 845. It was a real museum piece, but steamed circles around the newer frigates. As part of the USS Midway task force, we frequently were on plane guard station directly behind the carrier. It seemed like the F4 pilots were trying to break our mast lights with their landing gear every time they came overhead. It was a good ship with a tight crew. Everyone worked together and most partied really hard together ashore. I stood a lot of shore patrol and know firsthand about how seriously the crew took their liberty. I will always remember the chief master at arms welcome aboard lecture. He said there is one race of sailors on the ship, the human race. We will all work together, or we will all drown together.

[@johnparichuk8367]

I remember Bausell well. I was stationed in USS Rowan (DD-782) 1973-1975. In 1975, Rowan, Gurke, and Richard B, Anderson left Yokosuka, Japan for decommissioning in San Diego. I crossdecked to USS Francis Hammond (FF-1067) and headed back to Yokosuka. I was in Japan 1970-1972 and 1973-1981. I loved the country and the people.

[@jimpiper5297]

Plane guard in the Tonkin Gulf ... lots of memories. USS Theodore E. Chandler DD717

[@jimprice1959]

Thank you Zack for your presentation. It's unusual to find a younger person so versed in the various aspects of a Navy ship.

[@davesimmer5617]

It is more correct to refer to a gun mount, not a gun turret. Turrets are on larger ships such as Battleships. We also used the DASH with a TV camera of North Vietnam and used it for spotting our gun shots. I served on four different destroyers over twelve years.

[@landtuna3469]

Orleck did not do any train busting during the Vietnam War (1964-1966). Korea - yes, because Korea is a very mountainous country most railroads hug the coast making them vulnerable to ship-to-shore gunfire. Orleck was built as an anti-submarine destroyer in 1945 but had significant anti-aircraft armament as well. The anti-air capability has almost totally disappeared and as it is now configured it is ASW once again. The DASH drone was a disaster and did not have a long life. I believe we lost two of them while I was aboard. The flight deck made a good area for evening movies though. ASROC was installed during FRAM II in 1963. It houses 8 rocket mounted torpedoes. Physical contact was not necessary to fatally wound a submarine and it could mount small nuclear warheads. ASROC was never used in combat (from Orleck). It's called a Fire Director not 'weapon director'. It was used to aim the two 5"38 mounts. RADAR is described backwards. The rotating antenna is surface search (SPS-10 if I recall) and the "bedspring" large antenna was air search (SPS-40 I seem to remember). The description of visual signals vs radio is completely false. Visual is used for secrecy. If you are not in range of the sender (either flags, light or semaphore) it cannot be intercepted whereas a radio signal can be intercepted miles from the source. Also, those are not 'searchlights'. They are signal lights. Search lights would be many times larger and would not need handles to work the aperture. Signal lights project a much narrower beam and are used for communication. Orleck did not carry searchlights in her Vietnam War service. The "bridge" is for navigation. CIC (combat information center) houses SONAR, RADAR and is where combat type information is processed and combat decisions are made. Radio Central does not look anything like it was during the mod-60's except for the big patch panel on the right as you enter. The initial space housed all but three of the main transceivers (URC-32's and a dozen UHF transceivers plus two R-390 receivers and two RBO's (ship's entertainment). The rear space was used to house crypto gear and the three ASR-33 teletype machines. Two morse key stations were off to the left of the main door but most communication was either RTTY or voice (between ships or aircraft). There was no window outside the door, that was added by the Turkish crew. Torpedoes cannot be manually moved. They weigh close to two tons each. Those are not "turrets", they are mounts. Turrets are much larger and placed on capital ships, not destroyers. The berthing area showed was not representative of the mid-60's ship. They are not called "stairs". They are ladders. Chow (food). The narrator is wrong on this segment. Officers in the post WWII Navy paid for their own food and their meals generally were very different than that of the enlisted men (whose food was paid for by the Navy). Officers ate in the wardroom. Enlisted personnel ate in the mess room. The enlisted mess served lots of pre-frozen and dehydrated food as fresh food of any other type was impossible to store. To this day I cannot eat SOS (ask an old sailor what it is if you don't already know). And, it's not a "kitchen", it's a galley. Also, you cannot serve aboard a destroyer if you get seasick. No such thing as "grabbing" bread to prevent seasickness. There was no "uniform" cleaning in the laundry. Working attire only. We got our uniforms cleaned while in port. John Hamlett RM2 4-63 thru 3-66

[@buddystewart2020]

Yeah, them saying 'turret' was driving me crazy, as well as some other stuff. In the USN, the difference between a turret and a mount is that a "Turret" is built into the ship and extends well below the weather deck and includes a barbette. A "Mount" is not part of the ship's structure and does not include a barbette. As a general rule, 5 inch and smaller guns are in "Mounts, " while 6 inch and larger guns are in "Turrets.

[@johnslaughter5475]

Thanks for all of your corrections. I know I would have caught some, like mounts vs turrets. I won't bother with the rest of the video. I served aboard USS Ranger (CVA-61) during 2 WestPac cruises from 1968-'70. I don't know if Orleck ever sailed with us. It's certainly possible. BTW, I like SOS. Still eat it to this day. My daughters like it, too. Stouffers makes a fairly decent chipped beef sauce. I don't know why they won't even try fried bologna instead of bacon. It wasn't bad.

[@musa7010]

1: No it was not originally built as asw ship 2: No sonar in CIC it's was hull mounted and it's display was in UB 3: I don't have time to correct all your supposed corrections

[@ross7684]

Of course you can serve aboard a destroyer if you get seasick; a good share of the seamen just out of boot camp or "A" School got seasick their first trips at sea or first hurricane or typhoon or first few watches in after steering in rough seas but everyone got used to it eventually. Our corpman had a ready supply of dramamine that he would give to anyone who asked for it, no need for bread.

[@nogoodnameleft]

It is a turret according to WWII era terminology. "Muh mount" is Cold War era OCDness.

[@robertforeman933]

74 to 76, DD 806, USS Higbee, loved it

[@ctlancearrowlarson8237]

When they showed the bakers berthing, that looked like regular navy racks. During Vietnam era racks had canvas bottoms with 1" of cushion were used. Usually they were 3 racks high. On gearing destroyers we had foot lockers (approx. 2' x 2' x 1' high). It was a bad design. All 3 foot lockers were below the bottom rack. If someone was sleeping on the bottom, you couldn't access your locker. These were good times, except when we were at GQ.

[@ahhhhhhhhdogdogdoggggg]

Fascinating thank you

[@dougearnest7590]

For someone with no Navy experience just learning on his own, he did a commenable job. A Navy ship is a complex thing. Others have made a few corrections regarding other areas, but I'll point out something regarding the Sick Bay. As the tour guide said, there would most likely be some young guy working in Sick Bay but he would be there learning the job (maybe he's been to the school, maybe he's doing OJT before going to the school) and doing a lot of paperwork -- but there would also be an older more experienced Hospital Corpsman on board who had been to a special advanced school (Independent Duty Technician) for corpsmen serving on small ships without physicians on board. So in case of ruptured appendix at sea you're not totally at the mercy of some 18 year old kid.

[@SSN515]

My ships, same as this one, usually had a Chief or First Class senior Corpsman, and a Second or Third Class Rated Corpsman and a HN, or SN "striker . Sometimes we had a A School HN AND a striker, usually from Deck.

[@user-yr6li4vg8v]

The space under where mt52 handling room was, turned into berthing on DD824 12racks GM/FT

[@ross7684]

Well done, despite the critics above. For a volunteer, your guide did an exceptional job even as he admitted that he is still learning. My Navy experience was as an FTG aboard a DDG that was about 20 years newer but most of the information still applied.

[@wilsonle61]

The small rotating radar is an AN/SPS-10 that is the SURFACE SEARCH radar. The big square antenna is what we call a mattress or bed-spring type type antenna below it is the Air Search radar. I believe it to be either AN/SPS-29 (or if it was upgraded then its designation is AN/SPS-37 they both used the same antenna). Great tour only minor details amiss, I am very impressed with your knowledge of a ship that was built, re-built, in and out of service before you were born! Good Job!

[@1billthekid]

Great footage, thanks for the video!

[@ericanderson7882]

Great job! Thank you!

[@antonioaugusto808]

Excelent tour! Very informative!!

[@mikekehr8848]

I’ve been to see the ship and she looks great. Needs a bit of attention , but well worth the trip to see her.

[@barrykery1175]

Nice tour. I was on a Gearing Class Destroyer starting in 1967. I have to say, I always thought the food was pretty good, even when we were underway for an extended period of time when the fresh food was pretty much depleted. The powered eggs were really ok but the powered milk? Well, I made sure I got chocolate milk for the flavor, but still good. Now the distilled water was something different. No taste. The first time I drank it.....WTF? Pure water with no minerals is something everybody should try to drink one time. Barry

[@jimhenry9876]

Served on the dd885 Johr R. CRAIG

[@michaelmeier7097]

The large rectangle antenna is the air search radar and the small dish one above it is the surface search radar antenna. Probably An SPS37 for air and an SPS 10 for surface.

[@jimpiper5297]

Negative SPS-37. Is an SPS-29.

[@jimpiper5297]

Nice visiting an old Gearing similar to the USS Theodore E. Chandler DD717 that I was on for two years (8-'68/8-'70). Perhaps go back to the docent who gave you your tour and PLEASE make these corrections to the narration of the tour (time marks approximate): Crew complement of the Gearing class destroyers (of which the Orleck is one) was less than 300 men. My ship had a Vietnam war complement of 275. If we carried "flag" (i.e., the destroyer division commander and his staff, our complement rose to 300. (Perhaps the Turkish navy embarked more personnel than 275.) 9:58 DASH torpedoes were NOT "miniature" DASH carried two Mark 44 anti-sub weapons, the SAME as those launched from the triple tubes forward. 11:43 the DASH flight deck was too small but for the smallest, the Boeing MH-6 (we had one land on our flight deck when operating off Vietnam). Personnel and stores transfers were done by a helo hovering over the flight deck. 12:50 ASROC launched torpedoes after entering the water and release from its parachute would go into a circular search/target acquisition pattern as it dropped in depth. It did NOT go straight down on top of the target (submarine). 14:22 "Gun Director" that provided for radar acquisition and track of a target or visual range and aiming. The protrusions from the sides of the director are optics for range finding. 15:28 Rectangular antenna NOT a surface search radar but rather the AIR SEARCH radar (likely an SPS-29 on the Orleck). The rotating truncated parabolic at the top is the surface search and navigation radar (standard of the period was the SPS-10). 21:59 Radar monitoring was primarily done in CIC during normal cruising or during Battle Stations. The radar "repeaters" (displays) on the bridge were not constantly monitored by bridge personnel and would be typically used by the officers on watch. The personnel that manned the engine order telegraph wasn't a specialist other than the minimal training needed to work the levers or turn the knobs to the indicated turns of the propeller shafts wanted. Propeller speed was otherwise controlled in the engine room. 21:51 the couch discussed is in the captain's sea cabin behind the bridge. The sea cabin provided a place for the captain to sleep (particularly during wartime patrols) and be immediately available to the bridge watch vs. being below in his normal stateroom. 21:26 the red box is a neither a transmitter nor receiver but rather a patch panel to interconnect voice encryption equipment to voice handsets located elsewhere. Red indicated encryption equipment. On the shelf directly below is a radio receiver. 35:00 Destroyers didn't have "turrets" like cruisers and battleships (turrets extend from the main deck down through the ship to the magazine. Gun mounts sit on the deck with only ammunition hoists extending down one deck to a ready magazine. 36:02 Those bunks are definitely post Vietnam as ours were pipe frame with lashed canvas and a tick or foam mattress. Lockers were below the lowest bunk. Definitely not with the room of those in the small berthing space in your video. 46:01 The mess decks are one deck down from the main deck and is at the water line, vs. below it. 56:50 "corpsman ... young 19, 20 year old ..." NO! NO! NO! Tin cans like the Orleck typically had a senior (ours was a Chief Petty Officer) experienced corpsman particularly qualified for "independent duty" aboard a ship the size of a destroyer or destroyer escort. He might also have a more junior ('young') enlisted who was learning/working toward the Corpsman rate. 57:52 Engineering oil lab did not test the oil (bunker fuel for the boilers or diesel fuel for the back-up emergency generators to "see if the ship was riding well". A ship's list is going to be known long before any lab samples are tested. Rather the samples were tested for contaminants. There is a dipstick (folding similar to a carpenters folding rule) laying on the table in the lab. That was for "sounding" the tanks and voids in the ship to physically measure the amount of fuel in the tanks and to physically check for seawater leaks into voids (tanks) that should otherwise be empty. Best regards -- Jim USN 12/1966-11/1972

[@buddystewart2020]

You guys keep saying 'turret', but that's not a turret, it's a 'mount'. In the USN, the difference between a turret and a mount is that a "Turret" is built into the ship and extends well below the weather deck and includes a barbette. A "Mount" is not part of the ship's structure and does not include a barbette. As a general rule, 5 inch and smaller guns are in "Mounts, " while 6 inch and larger guns are in "Turrets.

[@nogoodnameleft]

It's a turret...WWII literature called them turrets. Nobody cares about Cold War terminology and OCD from Cold War sailors.

[@buddystewart2020]

@@nogoodnameleft ... You would be wrong. Thanks for playing.

[@nogoodnameleft]

@@buddystewart2020 Incorrect. They are turrets, not mounts. Thanks for being wrong 🤣

[@TimGivens-cx7cf]

I was on the uss Samuel n Moore dd 747 64/66 we went to Vietnam we are part of the Tonkin yacht club

[@anthonyferrara2222]

We didn’t have curtains in my day!!

[@vaindioux]

How long does it take roughly to tour the ship?

[@thomashall1726]

My grandpa served on this ship

[@preservativetalkradio]

ASROC loaded from the back. Active/Passive acoustic homing torpedo or nuclear depth-bomb.😂

[@nx014]

Today the US Navy can resupply vessels at sea with not only with fuel for the ship, but also food and etc

[@timpetta2974]

That began in www!

[@lelandgaunt9985]

We know

[@user-rw1oj4bo7e]

Zack needs a lot of work on basic naval terminology. For instance, Ships (not boats) do not have Kitchens. They have galleys where the messmen prepare the meals. The ship does not have stairs, Those are ladders

[@soylentgreen8536]

Missing a gun turret ...

[@mdtransmissionspecialties]

Grey ghost is the Lexington

[@TheKilroyman]

The Lexington was the blue ghost. Enterprise and the 2nd Hornet were the grey ghosts.

[@nogoodnameleft]

Lexington and Hornet are actually sadly both a combination of a permanent submarine and artificial reef. It is an insult to give the "Ghost" nicknames to neo-Lexington and neo-Hornet when they did absolutely nothing to earn the Ghost nicknames like the original Lexington/Hornet/Enterprise did. Talk about stolen valor. They came online late in the war when there were like 100 escort carriers and 24 Essex class carriers and they both didn't do anything exceptional and deserving of the accolades and honor and the Ghost nicknames that the original Lexington and Hornet earned.

[@lelandgaunt9985]

All of these ships called themselves “grey ghosts.”

[@matthewrobinson4323]

A ship is "SHE", not "it"! Learn what you're talking about. I served aboard the U.S.S. John R. Craig DD 885 in Vietnam. Those torpedoes were for ASW not shore bombardment. And they're gun mounts, not turrets. It's a ladder, not a flight of stairs. She's a destroyer, not a "destroyer ship". The "R" in ASROC stands for "rocket", not for torpedoes. Signal flags and flashing light are more secure because with radio transmissions your ship's position can be pinpointed with electronic equipment.

[@daleharvey3278]

I was on the jrc in 77+78.... We're you onboard when she took morter fire in the fantail? According to the guys in combat she did 36 knots getting out of range....the snipe's must have been sitting on the safeties.

[@daleharvey3278]

If you don't know the John R Craig DD 885 was decomed in 79-80 and used for a target ship off San Clemente island....she had a crack under no2 condensate pump,had been welded twice while I was onboard...I think ...she was then restricted to 20 knots. I left on a swap in 79 ,a brown bagger didn't want to go on SOPAC.....we only had one solo shell evaps working so we were on water hrs as soon as we left the pier. We were a reserve ship, we had one reserve st lose his teeth overboard puking, and we started getting baby nukes in engineering while they waited for nuke school.....we had fun w them...

[@matthewrobinson4323]

@@daleharvey3278 No. On my cruise (1968) we were shot at plenty, and had a lot of near-misses, but we were never hit.

[@matthewrobinson4323]

@@daleharvey3278 Yes, I knew she was sunk as a target. To my regret, I was unable to attend the decommissioning ceremony at 32nd St. On a lighter note, my wife asked my if John R. Craig would be attending the ceremony. I told her that if he showed up,, she'd see me run across San Diego Bay to get away.

[@michaelmeier7097]

The decks are painted the wrong color. It should be Deck Gray which is darker than the Haze Gray you have it painted. Haze Gray is use on the sides of the ship and all superstructers.

[@preservativetalkradio]

Likely a money thing. The deck should be non-skid.

[@jimpiper5297]

Be glad the volunteer restorers didn't have enough of either red lead or haze gray and ended up mixing 'em.

[@nogoodnameleft]

It would be cool if the whiners put just as much effort in fundraising for them to fix the errors that they obsess over rather than react like someone who would rather these ships be scrapped than exist intact with the "wrong" shade of grey 🤣

[@timpetta2974]

@@nogoodnameleftThe whiners are making constructive remarks. Some of them might have donated.

[@nogoodnameleft]

@@timpetta2974 99% of them haven't donated. They just like to whine and try to control the people who actually own or are the ships' caretakers. They have extreme OCD.

[@bradolsen8629]

Young man, please quit shouting thank you

[@michaelmiller9452]

So many errors from the "guide". He needs some serious training on what he says from some of the vets that served on these ships before we're all dead.

[@nogoodnameleft]

You go volunteer then and get off your couch with your Cheetos-stained fingers and show him how it's done 🤣

[@johnj9267]

I don't guess they didn't have firerooms or engine rooms... a lame tour without the two most important areas not even mentioned. DD822 Robert H. McCard 1971-74 snipes rule!🤠

[@daleharvey3278]

The engineering spaces were usually off limits...when I've went to tour any ship it was a waste of time...I wanted to see the hole,but always the excuse of insurance. What the f. ...do they think I'm going to grease a twiget?