Last updated January 26, 2012
I probably owe much of my happiness to this one ship more than the others. Shortly before I shipped out to this ship I received a letter via Jack West's pen pal list from the beautiful Filipina girl that became my wife. It was enclosed with pictures that kind of displayed her in a different way each time. She denies it today but in that very first letter to me she said "Hi, I'm your new pretty girl friend". The first Diehl assignment made it possible for me to meet my intended for the first time on October 16th 1990.
I think that there may have been seven of us that flew out on the same day in September of 1990 to meet the Diehl in Sasebo, Japan. Among the group was a black woman joining the steward department. Her entire purpose existed to have fun at the Yokosuka Naval Station. Her attitude concerning the current conflict with Iraq was irresponsible, she made it clear to us guys joining the ship that if Diehl was going to head toward war she would feign a back injury to be declared unfit for duty. Bound for Desert Storm is exactly where the Diehl would be heading but not without making some stops along the way. True to her word once the Diehl arrived in Yokosuka for a two day visit to take on fuel and provisions before joining the USS Midway Battle Group that lady had herself declared unfit for duty. To be blunt, anyone who believes that a job aboard a vessel tasked to serve the military is just a peace time job is a complete and utter fool. Perhaps this is why that former enlisted personnel are sought out for these jobs. I never once thought of duty aboard these ships as a strictly peace time job. I understood plainly the risk involved. This is why I had studied naval history for so many years even while ashore.
After attending to affairs at Yokosuka Naval Base the Diehl set sail. We made that stop at Subic Navy Base in Luzon which allowed me to meet my intended ride for the first time. There are so many fond memories of that time. I had taken the Victory Liner from Olongapo to the Caloocan terminal and took a cab to the Santa Cruz and Tanbunting area which is a subdivision of Manila. Rizal Avenue is the main road running through that area. I got out of the cab and used a local pay phone to call the number that my new girl friend had given me. It would take almost two hours I think before she finally arrived with two chaperones. The chaperones were her niece Rubylyn and nephew Roland. Those two have always had a place in my heart. After meeting we spent the day going to the Luneta which is in Manila proper and went to a nice steak restaurant. At the restaurant it was obvious that Ruby was not so used to the amount of food. These days she is the mother of twins and works for the Duty Free Shop at the Air Port in Doha Qatar. I miss her very much I have not seen her since one of the ships called on Manila in 1996. Ruby's husband works for the Starbucks at the Air Port.
I met many of Sally's family and really received my first insight into Filipino culture that I had never learned in my active duty days. Who knows if it was just a practice brought by the family from Cebu? The custom of seeking a blessing from elders was standard in the Sestoso family. The blessing entails taking the hand of the elder and placing it to ones forehead very much as if a devout Catholic were greeting the Pope. I had never seen this practice during my regular navy days. I would also come to follow the custom which endeared me to the family. When I had to return to Olongapo Sally agreed to keep me company without the company of a chaperone. The next day would be when the ship sailed and I would not see her again until April of 1991. We spent our first night together and our engagement to be married was set. Sally did not give herself to me on that night, that would not occur until I returned after Desert Storm.
We called on Singapore and Diego Garcia before arriving on station in the Arabian Gulf AOR. For a time the carrier would arrive alongside every three days for fuel. The average person will not know this but I will share it here. When the Navy is on a war footing and in presumably hostile waters or during what is termed as high ops tempo its vessels are required to maintain an 80% fuel status. This is in case the supply line is out of commission so that the ship has enough fuel to accomplish its mission and remain on station until relieved at which point it will call on a friendly port to take on fuel or meet another underway replenishment vessel. The requirement is not so for the tanker providing the fuel. At first we would depart the gulf and meet a conventional chartered tanker that had taken on fuel at a friendly port. We termed this to be a conventional replenishment. The detail would run anywhere from 18 to 32 hours depending on the capacity of the spot tankers pumps. We would take on DFM (Diesel Fuel Marine) at one station and JP5 at another or as was the case during one refueling one product at a time. One other product which we began to distribute was lube oil. The primary means of transporting this fluid was by drum via VERTREP or the high wire stations during UNREP. A method was also developed to deliver the product via a QRC ( Quick Release Coupling ) hose during delivery of DFM. The primary customers for lube oil were the Gator Navy which primarily employed the use of Diesel engines just as the Walter S. Diehl. Another heavy consumer of lube oil would be the Gas Turbine powered ships. An engineer might explain that these engines burn a part of the lube oil during combustion whereas this problem is not frequently seen in the transfer and gear cases of steam engines.
When we arrived on station in the Arabian Gulf the first port time we saw was at Fujairah. Fujairah is one of the smaller Emirates within the UAE and for all purposes one would think of the main town as being a rural country town. The amenities found in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are not to be found in Fujairah unless things have changed since the late 1990's. From then on any port time would either be in Port Rashid in Dubai or Jebel Ali . Port Rashid is close to the area of Dubai that I like to frequent. There is a Mission to Seafarers Club within walking distance of the piers in Port Rashid that contains a Pizza Inn. The Mission to Seafarers is a missionary outreach of the Church of England ( Anglican Church for the folks in Rio Linda). There was no McDonalds in Dubai. There was a TGIT ( their version of Thank God its Friday), KFC, Hardees and Wendy's . There was a hotel that had a restaurant that served Spaghetti Bolognaise which I would normally frequent instead of eating the food on the ship. It was always the same cheerful Filipina waitress that served me and I suppose that is what kept me returning. Perhaps this is a trait that I inherited from my father, he always had his favorite waitresses that he liked to flirt with. Who would not be inspired by a young lady sporting the likeness of Kelly Hu?
When we departed Yokosuka I believe we were in support of the Midway battle group but some time in January of 1991 we detached and began to anchor until called upon and if I am not mistaken we began to support the MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit). The MEU of course meant providing fuel to the Gator Navy. I believe it was February of 1991 when the Diehl was tasked once more to the Midway Battle Group out of theater and back toward Japan. We stopped at Singapore for a day then spent perhaps a week off of Pattaya Beach, Thailand. A little about Pattaya, in the 1950's the place was just a rural fishing village with a population of about 500. During the Viet Nam war under agreement with Thailand the US Armed Forces set up a camp there to provide rest and relaxation (R&R) for the troops. As a result of that cultural exchange Pattaya became a metropolis with a population in excess of 100,000. One can only guess the amount of damaged caused by the tsunami that struck the coast after an earth quake in Indonesia . After our bit of R&R at Pattaya we set sail for Subic Bay.
When the ship arrived at Subic my relief was waiting on the dock. I wasted no time in getting over to Manila to find my fiancé. Sally and I had a civil ceremony dated the 19th of April 1990. We went to Hong Kong for our honeymoon which is where I met sister in law Carmen, Niece Marsha and Niece Susan..
I would find myself aboard the Diehl again in 1992 under not so pleasant circumstances. I seemed to be making a lot of mistakes for some reason that did not sit well with the Chief Engineer. This was the year that I had moved my wife and baby daughter from the Philippines to Florida.. Hurricane Andrew struck that year and the cultural shock that my wife felt contributed to very much mental anguish. A junior engineer came to get me out of the pay line which upset me, I got angry and punched one of reefer containers on deck breaking the fifth metacarpal in my right hand.. This incident occurred during a repair availability in Yokosuka Naval Base. I was held hostage on the ship for two weeks just so the orthopedist could reduce the fracture. I was sent home unfit for duty but with no coverage from OPM because of the self inflicted nature of the fracture. When I flew back to the states for the healing process I had to deal with buying furniture for the new apartment that my wife had found near University Square Mall in Tampa. When I returned to Oakland for reassignment two tragedies struck. First my mother was run off the road by a hit and run driver and then a week later my best friend John Frikstad had died in his sleep from a massive heart attack. His wife distanced herself from anyone who knew them as a couple this was a painful stab in the heart, not only did I lose my best friend but his wife whom I also thought as family..