Aircraft carriers are so big they are capable of undergoing UNREP operations from four ships at a time; two on the starboard side (one ahead of the other) and two more on the port side. Its not just fuel that is transferred, but diesel fuel, jet fuel, lubricants, as well as solid goods, like pallets of aircraft bombs, missiles, shells, and spare parts. Even people can be transferred from ship to ship, in special chairs!. The carrier not only takes these supplies aboard from other ships, it can also provide fuel and food for its escorts as well. We refueled from carriers as often as we did from oilers, because sometimes it was more convenient for the supplies to be UNREPed to the carrier, when the weather was foul for air ops, and then its escorts could be supplied whenever it was convenient. Even nuke-powered carriers carry bunker fuel so they can supply their escorts when they run low. We spent a lot of time operating with carriers on Yankee Station (just off the DMZ in Vietnam)taking turns doing radar picket duty, anti-submarine or anti-aircraft screening, search and rescue work (we rescued 5 pilots, and our helicopter rescued several others, lifeguard duty (steaming behind the carrier in order to rescue any person or plane that might fall in the water). Carriers cannot suspend flight operations to rescue an overboard sailor or a ditched pilot. We also directed air strikes and traffic into North Vietnam because we were also equipped as a floating control tower. When the Pueblo Crisis broke out in 1968, we steamed to Korea alongside a cruiser, which also supplied us with fuel as we steamed North at top speed. We were a flagship, and 4 older destroyers in our squadron were tasked to provide gunfire support to US troops on land. They, and the carrier's planes did all the fighting.

It was all great fun, especially for a 20 year old kid, but I never forgot that we never fired our guns in anger, and no one ever fired at us. I spent the war on an air conditioned ship, with a working laundry, a warm fartsack to crawl into every night, 3 square feeds a day, and a hot shower and shave every morning. We got helo mail delivery from the carriers, we had ice cream and we had movies and rock and roll over the ship's entertainment system, and we cycled back to Japan and the Philippines periodically for R and R. (Hey sailor, I love you no shit, buy me dlink.)

I had it easy, I was never really scared or uncomfortable the whole time I was there. At worst, I was homesick. And I still feel guilty about that.

It hit home on Thanksgiving, when we were all on the fantail eating our turkey with all the fixin's off paper plates, and my buddy pointed west at Asia, over the horizon, and said "Just think, Charlie's out there, squatting in the bush, eating a bowl of cold rice with his fingers."