USNS Joseph E. Muller, TAG-171
by Bill Baer
WVBaer@aol.com
I first heard of the Muller on a Saturday evening in June 1963. My wife Sue
and I were having dinner with Pat and Patricia Ulmen. Pat worked in DCSOPS
at Arlington Hall Station. I was working as an Intelligence Analyst at NSA.
Pat told me about how the Muller was being outfitted at New Orleans for its
specific Cuban mission. He said that the NSG did not have 05K personnel
trained to operate some of the equipment being installed, so it had been
agreed that ASA would provide these personnel. In return, the Operations
Officer's billet would be filled by an ASA Officer. The fellow in question,
whose name I don't remember, broke his leg during a softball game, just
before the ship put to sea. Larry Moberly, had been picked to temporarily
fill the job, but Hq ASA was looking for a permanent replacement. I jokingly
suggested there were plenty of people like myself, working at NSA who would
jump at a chance to get out of the office and work in an operational
environment. Pat said, "like who", and I replied, "like me."
The next Wednesday, I had orders.
The Muller was a USNS ship which meant it had a civilian crew. The Navy had
long had NSG detachments on ships of the Fleet, but was just getting around
to designing platforms dedicated to SIGINT. In the interim the Navy had
taken ships out of the Reserve Fleet, such as the Muller and the Valdez, and
set them up. The Muller's home port was Port Everglades, Florida, the
commercial port for Fort Lauderdale. When I first saw her, I could tell she
was a queer sort of a ship. The Muller was about 335' in beam with
superstructure aft. She had been built as a coastal freighter, but was now
carrying a weird group of antennas on the forward end of the deck. Because
she wasn't carrying any cargo in the forward holds, she rode low in the
stern, drawing about 8 feet less in the bow.
In contrast to a lot of USS (Navy) ships of the day, the Muller was very
comfortable. She was completely air conditioned. The enlisted spaces were
relatively spacious and I was assigned a spacious cabin. I soon found out it
was directly above the compressor for the ship's air conditioning. I don't
think I really slept that first night out, but I never heard the noise again.
The food on this ship was wonderful. I have never eaten so well in the
military since. When we went into port for a few days at Christmas, the chef
asked me how I had liked the food. I jokingly replied that we did not have
lobster with the prime rib for Sunday dinner. When I returned, we started
having lobster.
The operational cycle for the Muller was generally 25 days a month at sea
with 5 or 6 in port. The evaporaters we had, which made fresh water, did not
work as well as they were supposed to. Therefore we had to leave station
each Sunday and go to Key West to fill up our water tanks. This allowed most
of the crew a break on the beach. It is interesting to note that at that
time, the Muller spent a greater percentage of time at sea, than any regular
navy ship.
Duty station for the Muller was seven miles off Havanna, Cuba. We and Castro
recognized the 6 mile limit, so 7 miles was a small safety valve. We
traveled back and forth on a 6 mile track parallel to the coast. The major
reason for this particular spot was a multi channel UHF national
communication system that RCA had installed. It ran from Havanna, east and
west, along the spine of the island and connected Havanna with each city in
the country.
One of the tasks the military department had was defense of the ship. We
only had a selection of small arms including M-1 rifles, carbines, shotguns,
etc. We took this responsibility very seriously because we knew the Cubans
knew who we were and they used to do things to harass us. We used to have
weapon familiarization on the fantail of the ship and decided, the NSG
sailors should not be part of the defense force. They were not at all
familiar with the weapons we had and in fact, were intimidated by them. The
Army NCOIC, an SFC Art Sawyer and I took over the responsiblity for the group
and worked with the other ASA troops.
Life on the Muller was interesting. We had a good operational mission. We
had a wonderful group of enlisted men, who enjoyed their work. Because we
were not a USS ship, we could have a sun deck, where everyone could use a
deck chair and soak up some rays. We had movies every night. They were
usually bad, but most everybody went.
We got pretty near a hurricane, which did a lot of damage to Cuba. The
Captain was concerned because the hurricane had a great forward velocity that
the Muller's top speed. While the storm stayed far enough away from us, it
did churn up the seas for about a week. As I said, the Muller rode low in
the stern, so the bow was sort of like a sail. When we were on station,
going back and forth, we had to make a 180 degree turn at the end of each
leg. With the wind and seas, we really wallowed during each turn.
Everything loose was put away and people slept strapped into their bunks.
At lot of people got seasick during that week.
We were scheduled to finish our tour of duty in April, go into dry dock to
have the bottom scrapped, and be replaced my a refurbished USS. Well, the
first time the USS left Norfolk to come down the coast, it broke down. A
bearing on the mail propellor shaft burned out. Out civilian chief engineer,
told us that the Navy could never leave well nought alone. He was familiar
with that type of ship and you never touched the mail propeller shaft. Well,
the replacement got fixed and left Norfolk again only to break down in about
the same place. The required us to extend our stay on station. I believe we
were out for almost five weeks waiting for our replacement to arrive. We
were finally allowed to come into Port Everglades for Easter weekend, for
three days. The local authorities were very concerned that the troops would
clash with the college kids who were there for Spring Break. We cautioned
them. When everyone assembled on Sunday night we talked to them about what,
if anything, happened. They were amused. They said that they had been
coming into Fort Lauderdale for almost a year and were well known in the
spots they frequented. The troops could, in fact, get girls into desire able
establishments more easily that the young college men.
When we finally were replaced by the USS Liberty, it turned out the extension
of my tour had been a good thing. I had been on the ship for just over 10
months and this qualified for an overseas short tour.
I believe the Muller tour was a good experience for all concerned. The NSG
and ASA people worked well together. We accomplished the mission.