I was Operations Officer when the Warrington hit the mines off the coast of North Viet Nam. Immediately after we hit the mines I had the bridge and CIC chart plots locked in a safe. I then had all intelligence information including location of mined areas plotted on a new chart along with information from the ship's navigational logs to determine our location at the time we were hit by two mines. I was the first and only officer to appear before the Board of Inquiry led by Captain Brown. I did not produce the original charts until the day of the inquiry. Poring over those charts and the ship's logs for several hours, we found both the original and recreated charts to agree and identify our location at the time of the incident to agree exactly. That location was miles from the nearest coastal mine field as well as miles from jettison points identifed for aviators to offload ordnance in an emergency.The evidence was so overwhelmingly convincing that Captain Brown dismissed the Board on the same day with no punative judgements, whatsoever. Captain Petree went on to command another destroyer in LANTFLT. I recall two other mine explosions in the same area, before and after that of the Warrington. I believe one was associated with the USS Higby (sp?) before our incident and I don't recall the name of the second ship which occurred after the Warrington. Neither had the crippling blow dealt the Warrington, but I recall similar incidences of those explosions occurring outside the coastal minefield areas and never near the mine jettison locations. My theory has always been: How could a pilot in an emergency situation find that dotted circle in the ocean to jettison mines when he was worried about his own safety!?! Unfortunately for us it meant a long and arduous trip back to Subic and a lengthy decommisioning period. Incidently, no one was killed or even seriously injurred. I do recall the DCA (Ltjg Jerry Oliver) breaking an ankle. He was coming down an exterior ladder when we hit the mines and tumbled to the deck below breaking his ankle in the fall.
I wrote to "Otto":
>
. . . s n i p . . .
> Thanks for the _great_ post in the Ship's Log of the USS Warrington
> Home Page! It looks like your full name still didn't get posted, so
> if you'd care to send me your name and anything else you'd like
> posted, or just permissions to move your log posting to the main
> page, I'll put it up there instead of just in the log.
>
Dear Bruce,
I would be happy to be on your home page with my Communications Officer at the time, Pete Regnier, who I actually ran into in Chicago not long ago, but probably before his 1997 posting on the log.
You have an excellent Website. I found it, incidentally, by grabbing a search engine (I think excite) and typing in my last name. Since my name appeared on Pete Regnier's story, your Website popped up.
I have many pictures of the Warrangton damage, mostly engineering spaces, many of which I took after we dewatered spaces and before we got the ship back to Subic that I would be happy to share for the Website, but my own scanner isn't working so we would have to do something else. Any ideas?
We may see more on this later! - bru h
My name is James "Otto" Honigschmidt. I left the Warrington as a Lieutenant for one more tour of active duty and stayed in the Navy Reserves for twenty-four more. I retired as a Captain last June with 17 other Naval Academy classmates ('68) in Annapolis. The retirement was presided over by Admiral Jay Johnson, CNO, also a '68 classmate!
I have been in Chicago since I came off active duty in January 1975 and currently live in Hinsdale, IL. You may post my e-mail site. I would love to hear from some old shipmates. I recognized some of them in the log.
"Otto's" email address is: DRSjoh@red-works.com
By the way, the Warrington was towed out to the Mariannas trench and used for target practice after being stripped of spare parts. There is no truth to the rumor that she was sold to China. Two MK36 mines did so much damage to the engineering spaces and equipment that she would never sail again. Admiral Bulkeley was head of the Board of Insurve and personally visited the ship in drydock after we got back to Subic. He was actually very impressed with all of the Planned Maintenance System (PMS) logs and care given to the ship by her crew. But little was salvageable for further use.
Incidentally, Admiral Bulkeley was the PT boat skipper that picked up General MacArthur at Corrigador after which he declared "I shall return!" Of further coincidence, Admiral Bulkeley's son Peter is a 1968 USNA classmate of mine and was eligible to retire at our ceremony last June but couldn't make it.
Keep up the good work on the Website. I will check in now and then and leave a story behind.
Sincerely,
"Otto" (remains my nickname to this day by my Navy classmates and friends)