Over 4,100 times the Viet Cong felt the fire power of our 5 inch gun. Hurling a 57 lb projectile at a distance of 7½ miles with an accuracy of ±50 yards, our gunnery consistently scored "excellent shooting" as awarded by our spotters in tiny, low flying single engine observation aircraft.

Shallow waters surround Viet-Nam on the Gulf of Siam side (where most of our missions occurred) necessitating careful watch  over our depth of water as we moved to close off-shore positions for launching our attacks. With Swift Boats leading the way through the deepest water, and our lead line soundings and fathometer watch, we would shoot at the VC with as little as 3 feet of water under the Andy's keel!

After the bombardment comes the official score from our spotter - the material damage and personnel casualties that we inflicted on the enemy. Since only those Viet Cong actually seen killed or wounded are credited to us, it is estimated that our total count was actually six times what the spotter plane could see.

Bobby Hanner and Bill Rogers catching powder cases from 444444

4444 SA Jack Pinnell and SN Walter Haught working, while SN Dennis Hughes andSA Jerry Fitts supervises. 

 Now comes the cleanup. Burnt cork wadding which covers our deck must be hosed off and the empty powder cans scattered around our forward deck must be collected, placed in shipping containers, and stored for transfer back to the Navy for reloading at our next underway replenishment.