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Tin can Navy adventures and combat in the Korean War

Photo By Timothy Lawn | The USS Strong (DD-758) is an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, the second destroyer...... read more read more

TAMPA, FL, UNITED STATES

02.01.2015

Courtesy Story

215th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Oh, it's roll and toss and pound and pitch and creak and groan you son of a bitch, Oh, boy, it's a hell of a life on our destroyer… Oscar Brand (Every Inch A Sailor)

TAMPA, Fla. - The night illumination star-shell flare exploded, bathing the North Korean sampan in a brilliant wash of light as the USS Strong (DD-758), an Allen M. Summer class destroyer, swayed back into a firing position. The gun crew could now depress the twin 5-inch-.38-caliber guns enough to target and fire at the oncoming enemy boat.

“After getting a visual, I ordered the gunner to fire… ‘bulls’-eye,’ we got it on the first shot, and hell no, I didn’t expect to get the small boat. It was 2 a.m. and pitch black,” said Martin Joseph Sullivan, a U.S. Navy and Korean War veteran.

Sullivan was the gunnery fire control technician on the USS Strong that night. At the age of 18, Sullivan had been in the Navy for no more than a year and had been baptized with his first taste of naval combat.

Life aboard a Navy destroyer in the Korean War was more than just naval combat, it proved to be an adventure for the young kid from Boston.

Sullivan’s Korean War destroyer adventure began with a shakedown cruise through the frigid North Atlantic, and then included traversing the Panama Canal, crossing the equator and earning the traditional honored title of “shellback” by undergoing the Navy tradition of “crossing the line.”

No one truly knows where the crossing of the line tradition originated, but it’s estimated to date back more than 400 years. The fact is that sailors were a superstitious lot. It is believed that the ceremony originated to pay homage to the mythical King Neptune for crossing the equator safely. The ceremony also is a way to initiate new sailors into life at sea.

Sullivan reveled in the day-to-day life of being in the Navy as a “tin-can sailor” on the USS Strong.

Born and raised in Boston, on historic Noodle Island, Sullivan’s life in the Navy and adventures aboard the USS Strong began in the summer of 1951.

“There was some kind of shit going on over in some place called Korea,” he said.

After graduating from Navy basic training, Sullivan reported to the USS Strong.

His shipboard duties as a newly minted sailor began the next day with work as a deckhand. These jobs are considered entry-level seamanship duties, and include sweeping and mopping the decks; chipping, sanding and painting; loading and unloading cargo, and performing basic ship maintenance.

Deckhand duty at sea is arduous and can be dangerous. Danger can come from anywhere in the tight confines of the ship, or from the sea itself.

Sitting low in the water, a destroyer is sleek and fast, and can plow through rough seas. In the Atlantic Ocean, winter storms whip up and waves wash over the decks and gun mounts. As each wave blasts the decks and guns they create thick layers of sheet ice. The ice can weigh the ship down and can even cause the ship to capsize.

With a sweep of the hand, Sullivan described what the decks were like when covered in ice and water.

“A sailor can walk out on deck, slip, and go straight overboard.” he said.

Going overboard In the Atlantic in winter is a death sentence because of the extremely cold water temperature. A sailor who falls overboard will survive for just a few minutes, with hypothermia immediate and death following.

“Life as a deckhand was hell,” he recalled. “I often wondered what I was doing there, but I liked it. I liked the whole thing.”

It was May 1952 and the Korean War was entering its third year. The USS Strong joined Task Force 77. Sailing alongside the Battleship Iowa (BB-61), they headed into combat.

Assigned to penetrate deep into enemy waters, the Iowa and Strong were tasked with going above the 38th parallel and conducting naval gunfire strikes on the east and west coast of Korea.

The Strong targeted and shelled everything from power and transportation infrastructure to bridges, tunnels, and railroads.

“Anything that moved,” Sullivan recalled.

A couple of combat missions remain vivid for Sullivan, even to this day.
He recalled a slightly humorous raid they conducted. A farm that belonged to a high-ranking enemy officer was identified.

“Our guns blew the garden to hell,” Sullivan said with a laugh.

Being in enemy waters and getting close enough to shore to acquire targets often put the Strong straight into the sights of enemy gunners. The Strong and North Korean gunners often engaged each other.

Strong recalled a memorable duel on a Sunday. The Strong’s chaplain had borrowed an organ for services from another chaplain. The Strong came under an enemy artillery attack and a call came over the line that there was a casualty. Fearing the worst, they all split with laughter in fits when the call came back; the Koreans had blown up the borrowed organ.

From seeing action in combat in the Korean War to sailing through the Panama Canal and crossing the equator, Sullivan never forgot his life, friendships and duty aboard the Destroyer USS Strong.

He returned to the U.S. and was honorably discharged from the Navy in April 1955. He stayed in the Navy Reserves until 1959.

Today, Sullivan sits on the board of the Korean War Memorial Project and Museum at Veterans Memorial Park in Tampa.

The Korean War memorial was dedicated on the 60th anniversary of the Korean War, on July 27, 2013. It is an ongoing project at the Veterans Memorial Park and Rear Adm. LeRoy Collins Jr. Veterans Museum in Tampa, Fla.