BROOKINGS – “Join the Navy and see the world.” 

It’s a well-worn recruiting pitch. It appealed to 19-year-old Joe Gilpin, living in the Detroit area in summer 1968. He enlisted in August.

It was a time when every young and fit American male owed Uncle Sam six years of military service. Gilpin was classified 1A under the old draft system. 

You could be drafted and serve two years or enlist and serve four years. He opted for the latter, noting that the Vietnam War was going on and he felt it was “a little safer to serve in the Navy.” On one occasion well into his enlistment he found that was not the case.

Before that, however, the Navy lived up to its end of the see-the-world bargain.

Straight out of boot camp, Gilpin was sent to the destroyer USS Manley (DD-940), which was homeported in Charleston, South Carolina. Having had no service-school assignment out of basic training and going straight to a ship, he was assigned to the deck department and basic maintenance duties related to painting and upkeep of the ship’s external structure. That was not exactly to Gilpin’s liking, so he became a “striker” – a hands-on-training way to earn specialty skills – for radioman (RM) duties.

“I was basically self-taught and worked my way up from there,” he said. He was an RM3 (petty officer third class) when he was released from active duty. Meanwhile, he made a cruise to the Mediterranean Sea.

From the MED to WESTPAC

“I was a young man and really enjoyed seeing all the unbelievable sights of Italy, France, Spain, Africa and Greece,” Gilpin said. “It was just fabulous. So I figured this is really interesting; I get to tour half the world at the government’s expense.” 

Then the other half of the world beckoned; he would now put behind the Mediterranean and find the Western Pacific.

Gilpin could have likely spent his entire Navy career on ships home-ported on the East Coast.

“That was my intention when I went in at age 19,” he explained. “However, to fulfill my goal of seeing the entire world, at my request I transferred over to a ship that was heading toward Vietnam.”

While the Manley was homeward bound to Charleston from the Mediterranean, Gilpin “decided I might volunteer for Vietnam – on ship.” He did and was transferred to the USS James C. Owens (DD-776), a World War II vintage destroyer that was changing homeports from Charleston to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

After arriving in Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal, the Owens deployed in 1969-1970 to assist Army ground forces in Vietnam by patrolling the coast and providing gunfire support with its six 5-inch guns.

“The ground forces would notify us and give us quadrants to take out a certain area,” Gilpin said. “And we did. We won many certificates for the amount of firepower and ammunition we expended in supporting the ground forces.”

However, Gilpin added, “This ship was so old that this was its very last cruise.”

Following that deployment, the Owens returned to Pearl Harbor and was readied for decommissioning. The crew was transferred to other commands.

Gilpin went to the USS Worden (DLG-18), a guided missile frigate much newer and more modern than the two destroyers he had previously served on. (A few years later the Worden would be redesignated a cruiser, CG-18.)

The Worden was home-ported in Long Beach, California. However, shortly after Gilpin went onboard, the ship was assigned to a new homeport: Yokosuka, Japan, about an hour south of Tokyo. When the ship was in port, he liked spending time ashore in Japan and absorbing a new culture. He spent the rest of his enlistment on the Worden. And again Vietnam was the driver for the ship’s change of homeports.

“The reason for that move was to be closer to Vietnam and be able to react in a quick manner,” he said.

 ‘Just a tough day’

With its main weapons system being anti-aircraft missiles rather than guns, the Worden had a different mission than the Owens. It vectored American aircraft in and out of a quadrant area off the coast of Vietnam and escorted an American aircraft carrier, trailing behind as “plane guard,” ready for search-and-rescue efforts should an aircraft go down. Additionally, the Worden was capable of anti-submarine warfare missions.

In April 1972 in what could be called a fog-of-war incident, the Worden was hit by what would later be identified as “friendly fire”: two anti-radiation missiles from U.S. support aircraft. One crewman was killed and nine were wounded.

“The war was kind of winding down in 1972,” Gilpin said. “Our ship was hit. It was a terrible day.

“We got hit about 2 o’clock in the morning. We were called to general quarters for real for the first time. Thank goodness we had practiced many, many times prior to that, so everybody knew their battle stations.

“I happened to be on watch (in the radio shack) when we got hit. We didn’t know where it came from or how it got there, whatever.

“It was just a tough day.”

Because of the extent of the damage, the Worden returned to Subic Bay, Philippines, “for repairs and analysis of what all occurred.”

By now Gilpin was nearing the end of his four-year enlistment. He was transferred ashore in Subic Bay. From there, he went to Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, for a military flight to Travis Air Force Base, near San Francisco. 

Finally came a commercial flight to Long Beach, where he was released from active duty. While he still owed Uncle Sam two years, he was able to serve them on inactive-Reserve duty.

He would return to the Detroit area for work and additional education. In 1975 he married Kathy, whom he had met in college. In August 1990, they moved to Brookings County on what Joe called “a business venture.”

“Unfortunately the business venture went sour,” he added. “But we found a place that we were going to live in and raise our family.” He went on to work in sales and remodeling.

The Gilpins have two sons.

Gilpin has been an active volunteer in no-fee community service: in the fall as part of the SHIINE (Senior Health Information and Insurance Education) program he helps people explore their options during the Medicare Open Enrollment period; in the spring he offers free assistance to seniors preparing their income-tax returns; and he presently serves as a mentor in the BCYMP (Brookings County Youth Mentoring Program).

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.