***What a Surprise....I went aboard the Page in late November, 1969 (just after getting of Radio Schools (A & C) in San Diego), and worked with Howard Voight (who was a plank holder); Ken Cavanaugh (reservist out of New Orleans, who I later visited at his home in Metairie, LA...!!Super Bowl Sunday---it was being played elsewhere...so he gave me a "Cook's Tour" of town...;), and an old lifer named Avery (last name), who chewed tobacco all the time; Ken Koski (from Wisconsin or Minnesota--tall blond guy); and three or four others...one of whom had a guitar on board. Comm. Officer was Lieutenant Brooks, I believe, one of the few officers on board who could actually dock the damn ship, (remember, she was single-screwed!)....He had a slightly pock-marked face, but had a terrific-looking wife, whom he kept away from most of the other officers. X.O. was an older German Navy Officer who smoked the most rancid-smelling short cigars...called "crooks," I think; and our highly-respected Captain was replaced while we where out doing target practice near Culebra Island....the nethers would pull their money and order pizza from the closest place that delivered....or got some of the best smelling fried chicken I've ever been able to smell....; speaking of smells....the area around the mess-deck, especially when underway, had the most peculiar, dense, humid and rotting food stench that took your breath away, and/or made you choke...or run to the head, if really heavy-duty....actually, that section of passageway was near radio, and was our responsibility to keep "ship-shape..."...remember..."Sweepers, Sweepers, Man Your Brooms; Give the Ship a Clean .... Fore and Aft.."...??? happened two or three times a day, right? A strange happening seems to have affected my brain to this day...When we came back from our Caribbean Cruise, late at night, somebody hooked up the steam line from the shore into the hot water line. When I went to take a shower the next afternoon, (had to pull mid-watch...and get some sleep) hot water did come out for 45 seconds; then straight steam came blasting over my face and head before I could jump back into the corner of the shower stall and flip off the knobs....My brain temperature shot up; I struggled into my skivvies and was going down into our sleeping compartment, when Howard Voight came by, looked at me, and said, "What the hell happened to you.!!??? (Half of my forehead was tomato-red at this point...). He didn't even wait for an answer; it was Sunday, and he demanded that the Commodore's staff car take me over to the hospital at the Navy Base....and all they did was say, "Well, stay from hot water, and take this little tube of salve with you..." There was no hot water on the ship for a couple of days; ...everyone kinda gave me the eye when they realized I was the one had been involved in the infamous "steam shower incident"...Yessir, those were the days!!! 2008-12-10T22:28:35Z 1967-08-05T00:00:00Z USS Richard L. Page Specifications Type Guided Missile Frigate Class Brooke Nick-name the "Dickey P" Displacement 3015 tons Length (at water-line) 390 feet Length (over-all) 414.5 feet Beam 47 feet Draft 23 feet max. Speed 27 knots Crew 258± (normally about 235) Engineering plant two 1200 psi pressure-fired boilers, 1 screw Radar AN/SPS-10F surface search AN/SPS-52 3D air search Sonar AN/SQS-26 AX/BX Guns Mk 30 5 in./38 cal dual purpose Gun Mount Missiles Mk 22 launcher for SM-1 Missiles (x16) Fire Control Mk 4 Weapon Direction Equipment (WDE or "Weedy") Mk 56 Gun Fire Control System w/ Mk 35 radar Mk 74 Missile Fire Control System w/ AN/SPG 51C Digital radar Mk 114 ASW Fire Control System Helicopter SH-2F LAMPS 1 Seasprite ASW Weapons Mk 16 8-tube ASROC rocket-thrown torpedo launcher Mk 32 triple tube launchers for Mk 46 torpedoes 55 USS RICHARD L PAGE 2 FFG-5 Sold March 29, 1994 and broken up 2008-12-10T22:28:35Z 1