A shipmate recently forwarded to me copies of some of our deck logs for some dates during 1972. He had acquired these through either the National Archives or the Naval History and Heritage Command. Deck logs are the Navy’s way of documenting ships movements, weather conditions, musters, gunfire, casualties (both material and personnel), readiness status and any other notable occurrences. The entries during a watch are signed by the OOD at the end of his watch on the bridge. Included here are only for a few select dates. The latitude and longitude logged on any page can be plugged into Google Earth to see our location at a certain time. The only editing I did to them is on 2 occasions where casualties/injuries were logged with the crew members social security number, so I obscured those for their security. The handwriting is hard to read on some of these, but will give some insight to just what we were doing during that memorable summer of ’72.
NOTE: Thanks to Stubby (CPO Daniels) for providing the deck logs. The transcribed version is much easier to read than the original handwritten deck logs. The only omission in the transcribed version is the name and signature of the OOD at the end of each watch. Reading these sure shows me how the memory fades with time. I cannot believe how many vertreps, unreps, refueling and re-arming we did! That spring and summer of ’72 had us quite busy! In reading this, I was also surprised how many times we shut down for a gun malfunction in Mount 51. Those Gunners Mates always found a solution to get it back online. The transcribed versions are not to be used for any legal purposes, but rather to ease reading and using a search capability to find any certain events or activities. The scanned logs ARE admissible in any military or VA proceeding as evidence.
Deck Logs Scanned
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| April 1972 | (4/8-4/21/72) | June 1972 | (6/19-6/30/72) | July 1972 | (7/1-7/11/72) |
Deck Logs Transcribed
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| April 1972 | (4/8-4/21/72) | June 1972 | (6/19-6/30/72) | July 1972 | (7/1-7/11/72) |
Dennis Clevenger's Blog 
Dennis Just happen apon your blog my first time in the O was November 1972 USS Leonard F Mason DD852. Thanks for the memories.
Bill Chapman EN3 71 to 75
Deck logs DC. Good reading. Do you have any more? take care.
Sorry Jeff, those were all that I had that Stubby sent me.
I have a flag from this ship. It’s unigue if anyone interested.
I was on Quartermaster team, reporting to QM1 Paul “Mitch” Mitchell during this period on Hammond and responsible for many of the log entries during this deployment to Vietnam. We conducted two 6-month tours during this 2-year period. The ship was hit by artillery from the beach and subsequently awarded a combat action ribbon. We were on station when the war was declared over and I recall making the log entry memorializing the announcement over the PA system.