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The Night of the Appliance Luau

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Cliffy B:
Alright, here's one I've had floating around in my note/sketchbook for the better part of a year and it's almost done now so here goes!


--- Quote ---The Night of the Appliance Luau

North Vietnam
March 18th, 1969 0232 Hours

   "Mr. White to Ukulele, the crowd is all here."
   "Ukulele copies.  Will advise when fat lady is on her way."
   "Copy, crowd is raring to go," answered the young radioman, his voice barely above a whisper.  His twelve man special operations squad was arranged around him on the high outcropping.  Their ghillie suits allowing them to melt into the jungle.  This far north they weren't taking any chances.  Their team leader laid behind a powerful, starlight spotting scope giving him an excellent view of the valley below them.  Almost three miles away lay the reason for their two week trek into the north.  Built into the side of an unassuming mountain was an arch of concrete and steel allowing for the passage of a key rail line to cross the valley and continue on into Laos.  Tonight would mark its last night in operation, hopefully.
   Desperate to choke off the supply lines into the North this target was considered too far behind the lines to strike, until recently.  Tests had been conducted furiously on a new kind of guided weapon, one that was perfect for such a target.  After some promising results were obtained in the deserts of southwest America, it was time for the real thing.  An old Cold War weapon that had been surpassed by technology had been given a new lease on life.  Carrying 3,000 lbs of conventional high explosive in lieu of its former two megaton nuclear warhead, the re-birthed Regulus II was shades of things to come.  When the USS Hawaii (CBG-3) was commissioned in May of 1962 she was built was two launchers and magazines for four such missiles in their original guises.  She never carried them in this form though as the project had been shelved months earlier.  Her roomy above deck magazines converted to storage and magazines for torpedoes, their armored plating providing ample protection.  Her launchers were removed and placed in storage ashore.
   As Vietnam intensified and everyone was looking for ways to reduce to the high attrition for aircraft and crews The Navy had already found one solution; naval gunnery.  Many cruisers and even battleships were returned to service or were given overhauls to extend their service.  Their positive effects were quickly felt and a multitude of World War II veteran ships were once again plying the waves and remodeling an enemy shoreline.  The troops on the beach wouldn't have it any other way and slept easier at night knowing the Navy's "dinosaurs" were watching their backs.  The diminutive slight given by critics didn't faze their crews nor the troops they were supporting.  In the days of fancy new jets, missiles and technology, there were something to be said for "old world" simplicity.  Nothing could soften up a beach better than naval artillery and with the vast majority of Vietnam close to shore, there was no shortage of targets.
   Still, some remained off limits or were out of range for the ships offshore even with their new extended range ammunition, especially in the heavily fortified north.  Continuing the search for solutions LTV and the Navy began to re-examine their old missile program.  The timing couldn't be better.  With Hawaii dry docked in Long Beach for an overhaul prior to another Vietnam deployment modifications could be easily performed.  Her launchers were removed from storage, reconditioned and reinstalled in short order and her magazines reconfigured once again.  After some bugs were worked out during her post overhaul shakedown Hawaii received the green light and steamed for Southeast Asia, collecting supplies and escorts along the way.  With only room for four missiles the initial targets would need to be chosen carefully but there was no shortage of viable candidates.  More weapons were already en route to the Philippines but numbers would remain low until LTV could ramp up production pending a successful combat debut.  Upon arriving in theater four choice targets with eight backups had been selected and Hawaii went to work.  Within two days her magazines would be empty, in more ways than one.

   Hawaii had led a charmed life so far.  Originally laid down back in December of 1943 at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, NJ she would languish for almost twenty years before finally going to sea.  Victim of the post war draw down, construction was officially halted in February of 1947, a mere fifteen percent away from completion.  Technology had surpassed her original role has a big gun cruiser.  Missiles were now in the forefront and these early models required large platforms for their utilization.  Hawaii and other large ships was held in incomplete states while designs were drawn up and decisions made.  Following Korea the Navy realized that large caliber naval guns still had an important role to play in the modern fleet even with the advent of jets and missiles.  Combined with the brand new and unproven nature of the technology they were hesitant to go with designs that traded all a ship's guns for missiles and compromise designs were chosen.  Known as "single enders" these early conversions retained their gun batteries forward and amidships while gaining new missiles aft.  By late 1958 Hawaii's new design was proposed and during the following year the detailed plan was finished and construction begun a new.  On a cold March day in 1962 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Hawaii was finally commissioned.
   From her bridge forward she looked roughly as her designers has originally conceived her.  Six heavy 12"/50 Mark 8 rifles in two triple turrets occupied her bow with three twin 5"/38 dual-purpose mounts and ten twin 3"/50 anti-aircraft mounts rounding out her gun batteries.  All her guns save two of the 3" mounts were cited in the forward half of the ship.  Aft in place of the original third 12"/50 turret now rose the massive deck house for her Talos surface to air missile system.  The after part of the ship was festooned with guidance and search radars associated with this new system.  Designed to defend the ship and her escorts against long range air attack, each of her 52 missiles could reach out 100nm.  Only able to guide two missiles at once she had two twin launchers for the Tartar missile system for shorter range engagements.  Arranged in "waist" positions near her funnel she could guide four of her 84 Tartars at once.  To control these weapons, no less than four search radars, six missile illuminators and six gun directors would work together to locate and lock their respective weapons on targets.  To protect against the growing submarine threat an ASROC "pepper box" was installed aft of her mainmast and additional rockets stowed in a magazine below the launcher.  Two triple Mk-32 torpedo tubes mounted on the main deck combined with a powerful SQS-26 bow mounted sonar rounded out her anti-submarine armament.  Hawaii joined the fleet as a truly awesome and far more capable warship their her original designers could have ever dreamed.

   "Everything checks out sir, we're ready to launch," announced a talker in Hawaii's CIC.
   "Very well, begin the countdown," replied the TAO.  As a ten count began all involved watched a small television set displaying the close circuit feed of the missile on its launcher.  As zero was heard the screen flashed and all was obscured.  Despite being three decks below the launcher the CIC watch still felt their ship shudder as the big missile left its launcher, bound for the jungle over 200 miles away.
   "Ukulele calling Mr. White, fat lady is en route."  A muffled "roger" was the only reply.
   "Four for Four on launches.  Let's see if we can keep up our hit streak as well," announced the Missile Officer.  Over the last day and a half Hawaii had fired three of her four missiles and all had successfully hit their targets or had come close enough to destroy them.  With 3,000lbs warheads "close enough" counts.  With her fourth successful launch her magazines were now empty.  Missiles were not scheduled to arrive in Subic Bay for another week but that didn't mean Hawaii would be idle.  It was now time to unlimber her gun batteries and do things the old fashioned way.

   "This is always the boring part...waiting for the thing to show up," remarked one of the squad.
   "Keep your pants on Evans.  Enjoy the rest, it'll be here before you know it.  Then we can get back to slogging through the bush," replied the team leader.  After what seemed like an eternity later they began to hear the shrill whine of the missile's turbojet engine.
   "Here she comes..."  They all watched in silence as the missile roared towards the mountain and impacted against its side about one hundred feet above the tunnel entrance.  The entire valley was briefly lit up as the fireball sent an eruption of rocks, soil, and foliage in all directions.  When the smoke had cleared and the debris had settled the team was able to observe that half of the mountain had now slid into the valley, taking part of the tunnel and the bridge with it.  Shock waves had caused a collapse of what remained of the tunnel, blowing debris out the other end for hundreds of feet.
   "Well damn...  Charlie won't be using that ever again that's for sure!"
   "Mr. White to Ukulele, consider the crowd very pleased with the fat lady's performance.  Bravo to all," called the radioman.  With that he packed up his gear and he and his squad melted back into the jungle.  They'd be back at their operating base inside of a week.

--- End quote ---

Drawing of the Hawaii in her much altered Talos fit will be soon to come.  In the meantime however enjoy a sketch of one of her whiffed escorts; the USS Hilo (CLG-154) named for Hilo, Hawaii.  She's a completely custom deigned Tartar armed 1960's version of the CL-154 class AA cruisers (cancelled in 1945) that were meant as successors to the wartime CL-51 class.  A better drawing of her will follow as well as some more to the story possibly.  The title of the story will make sense later  ;)

Any and all feedback so far would be appreciated as always.

-Mike

DFZ:
Great story! :)

Kerick:
Sounds good to me! Now build it!

Cliffy B:
Glad you like it guys.  Still ironing out some kinks with the Hawaii but the Hilo I'm calling done for now.  Did a quick and dirty color rendition too.

I did learn about the draw backs of using tracing paper though...  I'll be going back to my original method of using Layout Bond instead.  Forgive the roughness of this sketch  :-X

Volkodav:
Outstanding, love the Hilo!

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