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The E-mail
Subject: USS Patterson (FF-1061) Former crewmember of Patterson during hostage crisis in Persian gulf in 1981. Would like to find former shipmates addresses or e-mail addresses. I have pictures of a pallet of beer being loaded on board in Bahrain Sauidi Arabia
Tim Huffstickler
Subject: USS Patterson (FF-1061) Made 2 med cruises and 2 Gitmo stops. I remmeber the cruise to Nova Scotia when we talked with Russian sailors...all the Nato ops in the Med. Still looking for crew members.
Subject: USS PATTERSON (FF-1061) Dear Catherine, I realize you are not the designated POC for Frigates, but felt I needed to pass on some (sad) news about the now ex-PATTERSON. She is doomed for the breakers this November. She will be towed from Philadelphia to Baltimore where Baltimore Marine Industries will scrap her. I contacted BMI and will be allowed aboard one last time (was Executive Officer from Jan 1987-Jul 1988). If you are interested in any final activities please feel free to contact me - mbraunbeck@aol.com. There isn't much left aboard her, I'm told. Also, there may be some form of ceremony that includes Senator Barbara McKulski. Mike P.S. I plan to take some pictures even though she isn't as pretty as I once rememberd her (I saw her in Philly a couple years ago - along with other frigates, including BLAKELY, which I served in as Engineer Officer from 1979-1981).
Subject: USS Patterson (FF-1061) I've spent over a month searching for information on the Patterson and her crew. I finally came upon the Navy website, found out where the "Pattyboat" was, and what was to become of her. I served on the Patterson from 1976-80, and once I started reading some of the e-mail in this section, it all started coming back to me, like it was last week. It's funny how I can look back, and remember my way around the ship. The Boatswains Mate berthing quarters in the forward part of the ship...tripping-over John Cardenas after spending a "night on the town"! I can remember "Treetop", Jerry Termin, a guy named Keith, a "Boats" whose last name I can't remember. I can recall our "Med" trip, our trip to the Bahamas, GITMO, Jamaica, the North Atlantic, has it really been 24 years? I'd like to hear from some of my shipmates-if you're out there!
Subject: USS Patterson (FF-1061) I was a member of the pre-commissioning crew for the USS W.S. Sims (additional info at that webpage) and served in New Orleans with member of the Patterson's crew. How many of the Patterson's crew can tell me where the design for your ship's crest originated...I know, I was there.
Subject: USS Patterson (FF-1061) Just got back from Baltimore where I can safely say that I was the last of her crew to see the "Patty Boat" in one piece. By now the breaking up has begun, and any possibility of visitation is over. She was moored port side to the pier. Even though she was almost lost among the larger ships around her, she still had a sleek, defiant Knox Class look which belied her flaking paint and rusting weather deck fittings. She knew her time had come, and waited with her old familiar dignity. I wandered into places I had not seen in 21 years, yet knew as well as my own living room. When, I wondered, did they subdivide the crew's ballroom for a CPO Berthing space?? Where did the old A-Gang Shop go? My old filter cleaning shop, JP-5 Pumproom, the old M & B Division Berthing areas had not changed. I sat on my old dust-covered rack and remembered the time I was thrown violently out of it in a storm. As I looked in on the mess decks I remembered a cruise where we seemed to eat a hell of a lot of frozen rabbit, none too happily. I heard voices around me. Guys I miss and some I don't. Guys I worked 20 hour days with in the hole, got drunk with, smoked and talked about life, leaning on a handrail. MM3 Whitesell ( Markie Maypo ), MM3 Fox (Wrongway), MM2 Dunkerley, Chief Boswell, MM1 Cleon Baer, MM2 Peart, Tree Top and the BT's. Remember when we left GITMO, kicked her in the ass while the loudspakers blared "East Bound and Down" from Smokey and the Bandit. No, that ship is as alive today as she was when I first laid eyes on her 23 years ago. And she always will be.
Subject: USS PATTERSON DE-1061 MARK IT WAS GREAT TO FINALLY LOCATE SOME INFORMATION ON THE PATTERSON. I HELPED COMMISSION THE PATTERSON IN 1969 AND SERVED ABOARD HER UNTIL MAY OF 1973. I MAY HAVE BEEN THE LAST PLANK OWNER TO LEAVE HER, THIS I AM NOT 100% SURE OF. I HAVE A NUMBER OF ITEMS OF MEMORABLIA SUCH AS THE CRUISE BOOK FROM OUR NORTH ATLANTIC CRUISE, THE COMMISSIONING PROGRAM, AND A "PLANK OWNERS CERTIFICATE" ALONG WITH A NUMBER OF OTHER ITEMS. I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO HEAR FROM OTHER PLANK OWNERS. I WOULD BE VERY WILLING TO HELP ORGANIZE A REUNION IF WE HAVE OTHER INTERESTED CREW MEMBERS. I CAN BE REACHED AT NUTS928@AOL.COM OR VIA LAND LINE AT 615-650-8927. THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR GREAT WORK ON BEHALF OF THE PATTERSON. BT2 JERRY NUTTALL
Subject: USS Patterson Mark, I can give you a brief history of the first four years of the Patterson. I was a member of the commissioning crew that took her over in Charleston, SC. Bear with me because after almost 30 years the actual dates and sequence of events are fuzzy and I didn't keep a written record. The pre-com crew met at the Navy base in Newport, RI in the late winter 1969. About 50% of the crew had just come from "A" schools or "C" schools. The other half of the crew had been drawn from different ships in the fleet. We spent some time in Newport going through the various schools offered there by FTC. This was the Navy's way of getting the "salts" working with the new guys. The crew was shipped to Charleston, SC to meet the ship after it had been brought up from Avondale shipyards. We spent time there doing the final outfitting and adding personal touches to our workspaces. We added things we could scrounge from the various base warehouses such as extra safes, file cabinets and whatever we could get the yardbirds to build for us. They were nice enough to build us our coffee center just to the right of the stairs coming down from the bridge, and wooden covers for the DRT and NC2. I painted the ships crest on the DRT cover and the Radarman insignia on the other. When I left the ship they were still in use. After commissioning we headed north to our homeport, Newport then up to the Boston Navy shipyards to have some specialty work done on the boilers. If I'm correct we were then tasked to go to Gitmo for our acceptance trials. We spent the minimum time in Cuba and passed our trials without a problem. I believe the USS Connole was there at the same time. The Connole became our sister ship. I remember spending a little time in the Caribbean then up to Port Everglades,FL then back home. It might have been around this time the decision was finalized to install the CPP ( Controllable Pitch Prop). This work was also done in Boston, although I believe instead of the Charlestown yard we went into drydock in South Boston. The work was scheduled to take 12 months but that ended up taking almost 18 to finish. The ship the went to Rockport, Maine for sea trials. Again the ship passed. The Patterson set records for things such as going from All Stop to Full Ahead and also the opposite. By changing the pitch of the screws you could almost stop that ship on a dime. After we dropped off the tech reps we returned to Newport for a short while and then headed to the Andros Islands via Port Everglades for the AUTEC range. The Patterson then left the Caribbean and went North to Newport. Sometime during the years '71 - '72 we were sent on a goodwill tour of Northern Europe. Our track included Halifax, Nova Scotia; Sandefjiord, Norway; Bergen, Norway; Copenhagen, Denmark; Kiel, Germany and Liverpool England. Kiel was the major event. The city of Kiel was having a week long celebration and there were ships there from Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, England and of course us. We stayed a full week. The ships were of all different types and all held open houses during the week. We headed home after Liverpool. We did take part in a few operational exercises during those four years. We were in Norfolk to take part in, I think, Operation Springboard and a few operations controlled out of Newport. The ship was in Port Everglades in Feb 1973 when President Nixon made some drastic personnel cuts. The Patterson had just arrived to take part in an exercise that was going to take place in the Caribbean. The Presidents announcement stated that "All personnel scheduled to be released between that day and June 1, 1973 would be released within two weeks." The bad part for the Patterson was that all the personnel that had come to the ship from"A" and "C" schools fell into that category. The Patterson lost 20 or thirty personnel that day. I know 7 members of the radar crew left and a similar number from radio and sonar. We were transferred from the ship to Orlando and processed out in the following weeks. The ship had been scheduled to change home port from Newport to Mayport in 73 due to Nixons cuts at the Newport Navy base. The next I heard of the ship was during a conversation with a Major in the Maine Army National Guard. I was in the Rhode Island Army National Guard and the Engineers were doing AT in Maine. This Major worked at the Bath shipyards and told me the ship was up there as a Navy Reserve vessel. This was sometime in the 80's. I spotted the ship completely by accident on my way back from Virginia. I was on Rte 95 heading North through Philadelphia and happened to pass the mothball yards. I immediately spotted some Knox Class destroyers and started reading hull numbers and spotted 1061. End of story. I have just moved to the Memphis area of Tenn, and believe it or not I think during the move I threw out the Commissioning book that listed the crew and history of the ships name and vital stats. I will check through the stuff I haven't unpacked but I believe it is gone. I didn't find this website until I got down here. I do have still a Zippo with the ships crest and some other items that I had ratholed away. Hope to hear from you or anybody from the original crew.
Bob Dunn
Subject: U.S.S. Patterson FF1061
HI Mark, I was the old Patty-Boat from July-74 through June 79. Three years as "M" division Chief and two as the 3-M Coord. There were good times and bad and a lot of time at sea. I would like to hear from old shipmates, if any are out there. Thanks again for the site,
Tony Boswell
Subject: USS Patterson (FF-1061) I am trying to email information about the USS Patterson FF 1061. I was on the ship from 87 to August of 91, right before it was decommissioned. I have a crew book. If I have time i will scan some of the images. I also go to Philly often. The ship is still in the Philly shipyard and can be seen from I 95 North. By the way my name is John Sullivan. I was a MM and then crossed over to MS. When I left I was a MS3.
Subject: USS Patterson (DE-1061) Hi Mark, Great job with your website. I served on the U.S.S. Patterson (DE-1061) from 1973-1975. I can confirm that she was fitted with a variable pitch screw, which failed in Mykonos, Greece in the Summer of 1974. She was subsequently towed to shipyards in Athens and was undergoing repairs when the Cyprus crisis of 1974 broke out (see photo). After return to the states, she was refitted with standard fixed-pitch screw (early 1975). Charlie Derrick (OS3)
 USS Patterson (DE-1061) undergoing repairs to her variable-pitch propeller. Contributed by: Charlie Derrick
Subject: USS PATERSON FF-1061 DEAR MARK: HERE IS SOME INFO CONCERNING USS PATERSON FF-1061:
BUILT: AVONDALE SHIPYARDS INC. SPONSOR: MISS LAURA WINSLOW
Subject: USS Patterson : FF 1061 This is some information given to me by my father about the USS Patterson, FF 1061. He was on the commissioning crew and is a plank owner of the Patterson. The Patterson was experimented with and had several changes from the original outfitting. It had a single speed turbine outfitted to it with a variable pitch prop. This allowed the ship to keep a constant speed propeller so submarines could not tell the speed of the ship at any time. Several other modifications were made to this ship but I am not aware of them all. I am interested in finding more details about the history of this ship. Thank you, Ted Dottle
Subject: USS Patterson FF-1061 Hi Mark, Great job on the site. I was on the USS Patterson 1985 - 1987 and it was a great time in my life. I don't know much about the history of the ship, but I did post a picture of it on my web site. If you know any info about Patterson you think I should post on my page, please let me know. I was a BT2. I look forward to hearing from you. Regards, Bob Mauldin |
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