IDES: Reason to worry

The United States Navy Cruiser — Destroyer Flotilla Three deployed from Long Beach, Calif., on the Ides of March, Friday the 13th, 1964. It was composed of six destroyers in Destroyer Squadron 19 and another six in Destroyer Squadron 13 and one light cruiser.

It is bad luck to start a cruise on a Friday, bad luck on the 13th, and throw in the Ides of March. Then 13 ships of the flotilla and part of them from Destroyer Squadron 13.

Guess what?

The USS Maddox DD-731 and the USS Turner Joy DD-951, two of the 13 ships sailing on the Ides of March, were the American contribution to the Tonkin Gulf Incident giving rise to the start of/and massive expansion of the Vietnam War. My ship, the USS Preston DD-795, was in Hong Kong at the time of the attacks. We were ordered by shore patrolmen to return to our ships because a typhoon was coming our way.

I stepped aboard the Preston and saw the ready service ammunition storage areas for the big guns were being loaded. You don’t break out ammunition for heavy weather. Thirty-six hours later or so and we were in the Gulf of Tonkin where we became Charter Members of the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club. It grew to be the biggest club in the world.

If we had left port on a Thursday just imagine how different history might have been. It just goes to show that expanded phobia disorders (superstition) should not be idly ignored.

BOB HUNT

QMC, USN, Retired

Post Falls