U.S. Naval ships. Appalachia. And a New Year’s tradition.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

In an effort to assist veterans with claims, for the past year the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have been engaged in a project to digitize U.S. Navy deck logs from the period around the Vietnam War.

Deck logs are the daily operational records of ships.  The Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) gives an overview of the type of information found in deck logs here.

While the main elements in deck logs are operational and administrative, the Navy has a tradition of incorporating poems into them for the entry to start a new year.  Although the poems provide elements expected in a deck log, the format is certainly atypical.  The NHHC article on the poems here explains the tradition.  

How do ships of the U.S. Navy and Appalachia relate?  After all, they often are not discussed together.  Still, they are not mutually exclusive topics.  For example, the Navy has had a ship named Kanawha since 1861; the USS Kanawha (AO-1) was an oiler in World War II. 

The aforementioned poems can appear in some of the deck logs associated with Appalachia.  LSTs, or tank landing ships, typically are named after counties or parishes.  Designated in part after counties in Kentucky and Virginia, the Floyd County (LST-762) was one such vessel.  In 1968, she offers a poem on New Year’s Day while in the waters off San Diego:

00-0400 We’re moored starboard side to USS Tioga County (LST-1158) in a nest  
of three ships of Squadron One’s best  
The U.S. Naval Station North Mole Middle is our berth  
with the standard mooring lines about our girth  
From the pier outboard secured against all weather  
Stand the USS Tioga County (LST-1158) this ship and USS St. Clair County (LST-1096)
together    

We’re receiving miscellaneous services from the pier in the holiday spirit  
while within the ship we’ve condition watch five set  
And all requirements for material condition yoke met  
Therefore if trouble should arise we need not fear it.    

All the various ships present of the U.S. Pacific Fleet,  
Yard and District craft, we three in the nest complete  
Including VADM B.F. Roeder Com First Flt who’s always on call  
Aboard the 5 USS Oklahoma City (CLG-5) as SOPA here  
All join together in hope that the New Year  
Will be a good one if not better for all. 

Two years later, we have an example from another vessel associated with an Appalachian county.  At the start of 1970, the USS Garrett County (LST-786), named for the westernmost county in Maryland, was located off the coast of South Vietnam.  Her verses are as follows:

 
 00-04: The New Year comes but not a child
 His gait too sure, his head too high
 To be a babe nor yet to know
 What failure is. A young man comes
 To take the watch from ’69.
 I see them and write my log
 And listen as the decade goes:
 
 The Garrett County’s anchored here
 Off Song One Doe at VQ730952 but have no fear.
 The Ship is dark; grenades are thrown
 ‘Lest some swimmer venture near.
 
 “Many men have spent their time
 In this far land and some have died.”
 
 Condition YOKE is set below.
 Across the water comes the glow
 From Satyr’s lights. She’s present here.
 The tide begins its inward flow.
 
 “Learn the language; learn the land.
 You could come out a better man.”
 
 Now six and twenty feet straight down
 Below the waves is muddy ground.
 Bow anchor’s out to forty five
 Fathoms so the ship won’t pound. 

 “Our forces stand here and there.
 The Cong? Maybe God knows where.”
 
 Embarked aboard are CTG
 One ninety four point two, HAL 3-
 DET 6, the former being SOPA.
 A busy ship this LST.
 
“But what’s accomplished? What’s ahead?”
 “Don’t know except we did a job.
 Results will be for you to judge.”
 “I relieve you, Sir” he said. 

Beyond counties and LSTs, ships may have a connection to Appalachia because they were named after individuals associated with the region.  The USS Berkeley (DDG-15) is a guided missile destroyer.  She is named after Randolph Carter Berkeley, who was born in Staunton, Virginia.  In 1965, she was at Long Beach and offered the following on New Year’s Day:

 
0000-0400   “THE NEW YEAR”
 A new year does dawn with this morning sun,
 As Berkeley’s moored port side Pier Fifteen, Berth One.
 Long Beach Naval Station, California’s the place,
 This historic night for the whole human race.
 
Using standard lines doubled, and spring lay fore and aft,
 We stand well prepared from mast top to shaft.
 Moored to our starboard is the USS Waddell,
 And all is calm as we ring the first bell.
 
Our condition of readiness is now set at Five,
 While our material condition is YOKE-MODIFIED.
 Alas, silhouettes of Pacific Fleet ships here break through,
 Along with local craft as the morning sky grows blue.
 
COMMINPAC is SOPA, and don’t dare forget,
 This new year ahead is not tarnished yet.
 So let us rejoice, and give thanks we’re alive,
 We welcome you New Year — do good “Sixty Five”! 

As the deck logs from the project are scanned, they will be added to the National Archive’s online Catalog — https://catalog.archives.gov.  They are part of Record Group 24, Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel.  A list of those with scans already available is here. Hopefully NARA will upload more of these poems to its Catalog!

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