Kasia Rand, Yvonne Bantum, & Christina EsquivelCORONA

U.S. History-Period 4May 29, 2012

Before the Navy Anthony Robles was 17 years old and a

junior in high school when he joined the Navy Reserve and went on active duty at age 19.

Both his stepfather and father were in the navy as well during WWII.

He joined the Navy to honor his step-father and since he loved Navy history and hoped to live an adventurous time if he joined.

USS Edson DD946 Mr. Robles was a "QM striker" while on the USS Edson

and became third class petty officer after he left duty there.

The 400 foot long USS Edson was a traditional all-gun destroyer, whose job was to protect the aircraft carrier it was assigned to.

The Edson was a member of the first post-WWII class of destroyers. The Edson had three automatic firing 5 inch (diameter of shell) guns that could fire more than 30 shells per minute per gun (3 times faster than WWII 5 inch guns) The bullets were heavier than the WWII version.

Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club Navy ships like the USS Edson who operated

in the gulf adjacent to North Vietnam were members of the "Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club", which was a tongue-in-cheek nickname for ships of the US Seventh Fleet during the Vietnam war.

The Navigator’s Assistant Anthony's job on the ship was as assistant to

the Navigator and was called a Quartermaster. He said that he was fortunate to have a job

that he loved doing, and was one of the few crew members onboard who always knew what was going on and where they were, and what was up.

Mr. Robles said that many crew members would ask him where they were and where they were going next.

Quartermaster of the Watch The job of navigating the ship was split up

between 4-5 men. He was very proficient plotting fixes on

navigation charts using the RADAR repeater and enjoyed all the work involving navigation. But the one thing he hated was the long hours and lack of sleep.

Battle Stations At first his ship operated off the Demilitarized Zone (border

of North and South Vietnam) as mobile fire support ship for US Marines operating in that area. "Three Guns, No Waiting" was the ships motto for this type of gun support.

While up along the north Vietnamese coast the Edson would come under intense "counter-battery" fire from artillery ashore. In a few gun duels there were more than 2 dozen artillery batteries firing at the ship.

During General Quarters (battle stations) his job was to record everything that happened on the QM Notebook.

This included trying to keep track of the number of shells fired by the enemy at the ship and how close and the position of each. Too many incoming rounds forced him to make general statement such as "numerous shell splashes at various bearings and distance to the ship..."

Robles thought that this was a great adventure and was too busy during combat to think about the danger. He usually got stressed out and shaken AFTER all the action was over. Once remarked naïvely: "They're really trying to kill us!"

Liberty Being 19 Robles and his comrades were often

tempted by all the diversions created to attract sailor's attention.

Robles was even involved in an impromptu "Rickshaw" race. He and his comrades often went to areas not allowed to go to, for the "adventure" of it.

He and his buddies would go out on liberty thinking they were going sight-seeing but ended up going to "unwind" at a bar or nightclub.

Different Cultures Being in the Western Pacific region Mr.

Robles was able to see many different cultures that he had only heard about.

In his day many US sailors had a misunderstanding of the Asian people and showed little respect for them. But he was engaged to a Filipino women back home so was understanding of the Asian way of thinking and generally loved everything about the people and culture of the Orient.

At Sea Robles and the ship would normally spend 6 to 8

months at sea at a time. Major storms were a frequent environment for the

ship and he loved the rough seas. To keep from going stir crazy during the long days at

sea he talked to his buddies and read books or wrote letters to people back home.

Robles said that when he was bothered or upset about something he would simply talk it out with his friends and that helped him relief some pressure of long days at sea.

Robles became very close to his buddies, but after leaving the Navy after 10 or so years he had lost contact with them.

Operation Sea Dragon Sea Dragon was an operation that ran from October

1966 till November 1968.The operation allowed naval ships to engage

suspected and real enemy targets that were of strategic importance to the war in South Vietnam, but the operation was conducted off the shores of North Vietnam.

The Operation basically allowed the ship to attack any target of opportunity along the shore of North Vietnam.

The Edson fired thousands of rounds, damaged and destroyed many targets during this operation.

CombatThe USS Edson participated in numerous gun

duels with North Vietnamese shore-based artillery batteries, including at least 6 "knock-down-drag-out" gunfights as intense as any in WWII!

• This even involved Edson in a ship-to-ship battle with a small enemy gunboat!

• Mr. Robles said that they never really saw the faces of the enemy people since they were at least 1 mile out to sea during gun duels and shore bombardment assignments. He compared this to the bomber crews of WWII who never saw who they were bombing.

Unconventional WarRobles said that the Vietnam war was

unconventional in that there were very few frontlines drawn and abstract objectives.

It appeared that this war was based on how many enemy could be killed and therefore the enemy body-count was the gage of how successful the US was in "winning" this war.

In this way it was very similar to the Iraq war and Afghanistan, you don't know who the enemy is.

Coming Home Mr. Robles said he doesn't remember too

much about the day his active duty aboard Edson ended.

He Signed out from all the ship's departments after 2 1/2 years and walked off the ship.

He then went on reserve until the Vietnam war ended.

Being HomeWhen he came home from a tour in 1967

people still weren't quite against the war at that time.

He felt good about serving in the warzone and people would give him credit and congratulations when he wore his uniform off base.

This would change by the 1970's.

The Hated War• In the 70's people were very much against

US involvement in Vietnam, and pushed for US soldiers to be sent home.

• By then Mr. Robles and other service people would not wear uniforms for fear of public protest against them as representative of an illegal war against the Vietnamese people.

Memorial EventsWhen first on board USS Edson Robles watched the

war fighting from a few miles off shore, kind of like a bystander.

At night he watched helicopter attacks, exchanging gunfire with enemy troops and with tracer bullets arcing to and fro, it looked like a Star Wars battle since there was no moon to show the land from the sky, all very surreal and mysterious.

He saw the earliest attacks by the DC3/C47 gunships attack during the day and at night and found it strange that they called the gunships "Puff The Magic Dragon" and that they played "Snoopy and the Red Baron" song on a loud speaker as they attacked.

He saw the last use of propeller-driven ground attack aircraft ever used by the US in anger.

Experience in the Navy Mr. Robles at 19 wanted to have an

adventurous time while in the Navy as he had read in the many books about US warships in Harm's Way. He believes that is exactly what he experienced in 2 short years of his life, an experience that will live within him forever.

Robles is a firm believer in the Navy slogan: "The Navy, Not Just a Job, but an Adventure!"