USS Corry and the MK 14 Sperry Gyro

This relationship goes back 45 years to 1961. I served 13yrs, 3mo and 24 days on active duty in the US Navy. In those years there are about 10 people who I served with that I remember as if I met them yesterday. I reported aboard the U.S.S. Corry DDR-817 in March of 1961. The ship had just returned from a Med cruise. Jim McGill IC-2 was the only one who did not get transferred or discharged upon arrival. The day I reported aboard as an ICFA gave me one day to learn the ropes, before McGill left on leave; this left me as senior IC man.
Not to worry though; the ship was in port and not too much happening as the ship was on shore power and cold iron right. Hold your horses shipmate, we had to light off the following week and maneuver up the York river to Yorktown to offload ammo. A Mk 14 Sperry Gyro Compass (bottom left in Pic) has to be lit off. I had seen these contraptions in IC-A school, but I don't thing any of them actually worked, and we didn't spend much time in the practical operation. Thankfully I had a Chief Electricians Mate who knew how to light off all the equipment and he walked me through all the things that need to be done. Talk about baptism under fire. In retrospect though I am glad to have had perform without the help of a full compliment of IC-men, as I learned fast.
Going back to the Mk. 14 Gyro. You had to attach a vacuum pump to the rotor housing to vacate all the air. In a perfect world the dumb thing would hold a vacuum of 32 in of mercury. But nothing in the Navy was perfect, (except the people I hung out with) so before lighting off the gyro you had to pump the air out. We were happy with 28 in. Of mercury. Another thing that is critical, was the course indicator (the dial on top) had to be aligned to point as close to the direction that the ship was headed. After all these preparations, you now light the gyro off. By the way if your are nautical I don't have to explain this language; if your not then try to figure it out. After lighting off, the course indicator will "precess" which means it will go to the left of the course, then right of the course and continue this procedure, each time going shorter distances on each side until it has "settled out". All this process is done the day before in case "Murphy" came aboard and it give you time to react. It all went well.
I don't remember much of the trip to Yorktown, as I spent most of my time in the IC room on watch or on trouble calls; that's what they hired me for. Sometimes my memories run together. I wish I had all the letters that I wrote home while aboard, that would help me with the history. I believe Lenny Viehland (on the right in the pic) was the next IC man followed by Jeff Nauser. I will write more about them as they are two of the 10 I mentioned before.
I rode the Corry from March '61 to Nov. '62 when I was transferred to pre-commissioning of the USS Harry E. Yarnell DLG-17, with Lenny Viehland. We had advance to IC-3 in that time.
During my tenure aboard, we made one Med cruise, repair in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, shake down to Gitmo where we were diverted to Belize, British Honduras when hurricane Hattie wiped out Belize in Sept 1961 (we gave away all our blankets aboard including the ones on our beds). We were on quarantine of Cuba during the Cuban missile crises when Lenny and I were picked up by helicopter and transferred to the USS Independence CVA-61 on our way to Newport RI and pre-com for the Yarnell. That would be the last time I was with Jeff.
We are working on a personal reunion.

Tommy believed in what he was doing in Iraq. He often talked about the little children, giving them a pen or candy or whatever he had. I know it reminded him of his own two daughters, Danielle and Alexandra. I found this picture on a jump drive that contained pictures that he saved from his digital camera. The look on his face, the smile and the looks of the little children and his down at their level posture shows his compassion.

When I last wrote my son Patrick was finishing his tour in Mosul, Iraq (Nov 2003). My son Tom was deployed to Iskandriah, Iraq in January of 2005. He went out of his way to volunteer with the Mississippi Army National Guard with the 155th Infantry. He didn't have to go. He told us that he wanted to do something that mattered. He was a Captain, (Capt. Lowell T. Miller II) graduating from Virginia Military Institute in 1993. Tom volunteered for many assignments. He went to various training sessions up to two weeks at a time, learning all the aspects that he could to be a total soldier. He took care of his troops, sometimes at his own career expense. This is the thing that I most admired about him as his father was an enlisted man in the Navy. He sought my council many times when dealing with a situation with some of his enlisted troops. He took care of the good people and weeded out the dirtbags. Performance is what he looked for, and he would assist anyone to reach that performance, but he needed more time for slackers. He was Rowan; he could take a message to Garcia.
He returned home on the first of July 2005 for three weeks' leave. On returning to Iraq, he had volunteered to train Iraqi troops. Prior to that, he had a safe job inside the wire working the night shift to coordinate operations and retrieve disabled equipment. He didn't go to Iraq for that; he wanted to be where the action was and could be of the best use. He never sent a man to go where he wouldn't or ask anyone to do anything he would not do himself. .......

Just six short weeks after reentering Iraq, Tom was killed by a single sniper bullet at about 8:30 pm Iraqi time on 31 August 2005. He was with the men he was training to search for insurgents they had intel that they were in a house known to them. He went to the second floor and was singled out because of his 6ft 3in frame and an officer. He died on the scene after heroic efforts to save his life. The past year has been a roller coaster of emotions as the first events came and went. The first Christmas missed, was his birthday, his daughter's birthday, Mother's Day, and Father's Day. We have tried to fill in and do the things he would have done for his two daughters. We don't try or would want to take his place. We are trying to fund a scholarship in his name at VMI.

Patrick our youngest is still serving at Fort Lewis, WA with his wife and daughter. They are expecting a son in October. This will be our first grandson. He was going to get out last December, but after his brother got killed, he decided to stay in for a while. Patrick was promoted to Captain in March 2006 and wears bars that were worn by Tom.

Jennie our daughter is still serving in the Navy Reserves. She is an E5 and has just taken the advancement exam of E6. She is deploying to Germany in October for one year to work in the hospital where the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan are medevac'd. She is a hospital corpsman and a surgical tech. She is also studying to be a registered nurse. When she gets done with that she will be commissioned.