Getting King Ready For Commissioning

[Stan]

I also was on board ai 1960,17 and right out of bootcamp boy did i learn fast.lots of rain of course I was in wd div.so we had alot of deck time.I was on the bridge the night we lost the 45 deg.bubble over the door,it was quiet the shakedown cruise that night I was also on bridge watch the night in the fog when we were almost hit by the Oriskeny,I could go on forever on my sea stories of my 4 yrs on the King.

[Dave Nesbitt]

In a lost article written by Jerry Cook, Jerry wrote about the work that was done prior to King's Commissioning 17 November 1960. We moved aboard her on the 10th of November, which gave us one week in which to make her look like a combatant ship of the US Navy. As a Sonarman, we had no topside spaces to take care of, but our division had the ASROC Deck and Torpedo Decks (Port & STBD), but with the big day closing in on us, the sonarmen were pressed into service wrapping and frapping Life Lines, tying turks heads, polishing the brass turnbuckels to a bright gleam and in general, carrying out the morning watch routine, until King was Commissioned. We were all assured that this was just a temporary situation and once the Commissioning was over, these tasks would be taken over by the "Square Barreled Gunnermates" and Torpedomen. I left King just over a year and a half later and guess what? Yep, we were still up there, and they (the Sonarmen) stayed up there for the next three years