Tag Archives: Arleigh burke

Making memories and earning blisters

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Some 100 years ago, caught in time.

Landing party, USS Arizona (Battleship No. 39), resting during a required 5-mile forced march with full pack near Bremerton, Washington, in 1925. The junior officer in the center leading the drill is newly minted Ensign (future CNO) Arleigh Albert “31 Knot” Burke (USNA 1923).

Collection of Admiral A.A. Burke, USN(Ret), NHHC Catalog #: NH 100270

Landing party drill marches such as these were an annual requirement.

The battlewagon’s man crew was expected to provide a 201-man light infantry company reinforced with a machine gun detachment for service ashore if needed. Three such companies would form a battalion, such as in the Navy’s actions in Vera Cruz in 1914.

Navy Landing Party, 1914. Their uniforms are stained khaki with the use of coffee grounds. Courtesy of Carter Rila, 1986. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 100832

  • A Naval Landing Party Battalion consisted of 28 officers and 636 men.
  • A company, 6 officers, 195 men.
  • A rifle platoon, 1 officer, 44 men.
  • A machine gun platoon, 1 officer, 55 men.
  • A rifle squad had one petty officer squad leader and 12 men divided into three fire teams.

According to her 1924 book of plans, seen below, Arizona’s small arms locker at the time included two .30 caliber machine guns (likely Lewis guns), 350 M1903 Springfield rifles with bayonets, 100 M1911 .45 ACP pistols, and 10 cutlasses, as well as an undefined quantity of older Krag rifles.

Most ships of the era also carried a few shotguns and rimfire pistols for recreational purposes. The battleship likewise stored full marching order sets of web gear, canteens, knapsacks, blanket rolls, and button-up canvas gaiters to gather the bellbottoms.

Atlantic Fleet sailors in formation, landing force drill, circa 1909. Collection of CQM John Harold. Catalog #: NH 101534

While few large naval landing parties were sent ashore after WWII, the Navy continued to issue a manual (OPNAV P 34-03) to cover such evolutions into 1960. Under its guidelines, even destroyers and destroyer escorts were expected to cough up a trained and properly equipped 13-man rifle squad for service ashore.

Mustin at 20

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Painting, oil on canvas; by Morgan Ian Wilbur; unframed dimension 15H X 30W. Naval History and Heritage Command. Accession #: 2015-012-10.

The 39th Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer was christened USS Mustin (DDG-89) on 15 December 2001 at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula.

Named after the storied Mustin family (Captain Henry C. Mustin–“The Father of Naval Aviation”– his son, VADM Lloyd M. Mustin of WWII fame, and the latter’s sons: VADM Henry C. Mustin and CDR Thomas M. Mustin), the Flight IIA destroyer recently returned to San Diego this summer after 15 years serving in the Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF) in Japan.

The above painting, “Under a Pacific Moon,” was produced in 2015 for the Navy after the artist embarked on the forward-deployed destroyer for a cruise in 2014.

More on the work of Mr. Morgan Ian Wilbur, here.

And just like that, the Burkes are 30

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A port bow view of the guided-missile destroyer USS ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG-51) underway in rough seas. Camera Operator: PH3 JAMES COLLINS Date Shot: 31 Mar 1993 DNSC9303708

USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), the paterfamilias of the largest class of warships built in the West since Korea and longest production run for any post-WWII U.S. Navy surface combatant, was laid down at Bath Iron Works in Maine on this day in 1988, set for a 1991 commission.

Elsewhere that day, Roy Orbison died of a heart attack at age 52, Nelson Mandela was transferred to Capetown’s Victor Vester Prison, Mikhail Gorbachev was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and Ronald Reagan was busy packing for the ranch in California as George H. W. Bush was slated to move into the Oval Office.

The top of the Top 100 that week, as related by Casey Kasem, was Chicago’s power ballad Look Away.

To borrow a line from the song, the Navy may have been looking (hard) but they haven’t “Found someone else” and Burke remains on active duty. In 2011, she completed a hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) modernization to extend her service life to 40~ years, well into the 2030s. By that time, as many as 104 Burke-class destroyers could be on the Navy List.

Admiral Arleigh Burke’s Deep Dive Diploma

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Image of Deep Dive Diploma awarded to Admiral Burke.

U.S.S. Robert E. Lee (SSBN 601) Pax Deterrendo Deep Dive Diploma

Be it known among all ye landlubbers and topside sailors that on 15 Nov 60 I was visited in the depths of my domain by the U.S.S. Robert E. Lee (SSB (N) 601) during a dive to DEEP DEPTH. And among the distinguished present at that time was Admiral A.A. Burke, USN He shall forevermore bear the mark of the confirmed Ballistic Missile Submariner.

For Davy Jones
W.F. Dawson
His Majesty’s Scribe

Neptunus Rex
Woodall
Commanding
His Majesty’s Servant

Arleigh Albert “31-knot” Burke was of course the longest serving Chief of Naval Operations, a job typically filled in two-year terms, serving from across the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, working 15-hour days, six days a week, starting in 1955. Born 19 Oct 1901, he was just a couple weeks past his 59th birthday when he picked up his Deep Dive diploma above.

Upon completing his third term, Burke was transferred to the Retired List on August 1, 1961.

Though famous for being a destroyer man, he oversaw what became the Navy’s SSBN program, arguing that land-based missiles and bombers were vulnerable to attack, which made the U.S.-Soviet nuclear balance dangerously unstable. By contrast, nuclear submarines were virtually undetectable and invulnerable– the strongest part of the nuclear triad.

The Robert E. Lee was a George Washington-class fleet ballistic missile submarine and the third to join the fleet when she was commissioned 15 September 1960. She served until replaced by a more modern Ohio-class boomber in 1983 and was recycled by 1991. When commissioned (and while Burke took his cruise) Lee carried 16 UGM-27 Polaris SLBMs, each capable of being armed with a single Mk 1 re-entry vehicle, carrying a single W-47-Y1 600 kt nuclear warhead.