Here are some of my recollections:

Warrington was scheduled to go on a 6 month deployment to the mideast with three months on station in the Red Sea in May of 72. We had scheduled an around the world cruise with port calls in San Diego, Pearl Harbor, New Zealand, and Pago Pago on the way to the mideast. On the way back we were going to stop in Kenya and then cross the Atlantic to Brazil before going back north to our home port in Newport, R.I.. About 2 days before deployment we were ordered to make best speed to the Phillipines where we would take on ammunition, red eye missiles, and fuel and then relieve on the gun line off South Viet Nam for a couple of weeks before proceeding to the Red Sea.

We left Newport, traversed the Panama Canal, and crossed immediately to Pearl Harbor. We had a short stay in Pearl, I believe about 36 hours, stopped in Guam for fuel, and made Subic Bay.

After a short stay in Subic we proceeded to the gunline about 5 miles off of Quang Tri near the DMZ. We were one of about 20 ships on the gunline giving nonstop Naval Gunfire Support to ground troops in a battle on the beach. Use of ammunition was so great, when we went back to sea we took on as much ammunition as possible and stored it in every available space, including the DASH hanger on the main deck. This was early July, 1972.

The time was shortly after Nixon had ordered the mining of the North Viet Nam harbors to hinder the resupply of the Viet Cong. A Chinese merchant ship was anchored outside the five mile limit off of Hon La Island, about 60 miles north of the DMZ. Warrington was one of two destroyers ordered to proceed north to a station off of Hon La Island and attempt to stop WBLCs (water borne landing craft?) from ferrying supplies from the Chinese Merchant to the North Vietnamese mainland. When we observed activity, we would make a run toward the beach and fire at the light craft.

Once a day, one of the two destroyers made a high speed run down the coast to the DMZ again looking to fire on light craft, and then return north to our station off of Hon La. We had just completed our run and were returning to station when we experienced two tremendous explosions. The fantail of the ship was lifted clear of the water on both occasions. At the time, we thought we had been hit by shore batteries since we were fired on intermittently.

After the hits, we immediately took on water and were listing severely. We had lost one screw and the other was vibrating violently. We immediately headed toward sea and got out as far as we could before we had to shut down and go dead in the water. We received an initial tow from Robison and then later a sea going tug back to Subic. The seas were heavy, and the tow chain parted at least once on the way back to the Phillipines. The damage was heavy, and most of the crew slept on deck. There was no fresh water except that which could be brought on board from other ship. You could literally not walk inside most areas of the ship. Safes were ripped from the deck and thrown across spaces from the impact, communication gear was ripped from its racks, etc.

Contrary to initial reports back to the states and our families, there were no fatalities, although there were several injuries. There was a long investigation led by Captain Lloyd Bucher, formerly the captain of the ill-fated USS Pueblo. Although I'm not aware of an official pronouncement of the findings, it seems clear the conclusion was that we hit 2 misplaced U.S. mines which were outside of the 5 mile limit. The mines were laid by dropping from aircraft and were each the equivalent of a 500 pound bomb.

After a drydock inspection, it was decided to decommission Warrington in Subic Bay. The crew was reassigned and most flew back to the states in October of '72.

Some of the crew:
CDR Noel Petree - Captain
LCDR Harvey McKelvey - XO
LT James (Otto) Honigschmidt - OPS
LT Ed O'Neil - Weapons
LT Dave Dwyer - Engineering
LTJG Jerry Oliver - Damage Control
LTJG Pete Heimlich - Ops ?
ENS Steve Shepard - ASW?
ENS Jim Felix
ENS Lindsay Waters
RMC Bobby Keith - Communications
LTJG Dave Congdon - Navigator

I've talked to and know the whereabouts of Otto Honigschmidt and Gordon Stofer, the former navigator who had left Warrington shortly before the cruise.

If I have a chance, I'll scan in some pictures and the cruise book.

Pete Regnier - pregnier@efmark.com