Arlington, TX 76010
1971-1972
Some Berry History
We arrived in Subic Bay on Dec. 17, enroute to duty in the south China Sea off the Vietnam coast. We were at sea for 32 days in that stretch over Christmas 1971 and New Years Day 1972, before docking in Singapore for our first liberty port on the 25th of January 1972.
We made a detour enroute to cross the equator on the 19th of January, so a large number of us could enjoy the shellback initiation ceremony.
The ships that collided were the "Gay Phoenix" a small tanker and the "Sweden" a large freighter. This collision resulted in our operation "Forward Pass", where we hand-tossed canned goods to the crew of the tanker. Vance Burris
