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TANKER NECHES ARRIVES AT TOKYO TO FUEL HALSEY'S
WHITE HORSE By H. W.
MILLER, ENSIGN, U.S.N. NECHES:
"REQUEST PERMISSION TO FUEL YOUR WHITE HORSE BEFORE YOUR SCHEDULED RIDE." ComThirdFleet: "AFFIRM X USE STERN METHOD." The above exchange of messages took place on August 11th off northern Honshu where the USS Neches (AO47), pride of the tanker fleet, was fueling Admiral W. F. Halsey's Third Fleet. The fleet all tensely yet jubilantly awaiting the
Unites States reply to the Japanese surrender offer. Today Commander H. G. Hansen, USNR, and his officers and crew are the proudest men in the tanker fleet. They are the 11th major fleet unit and the first tanker to put into Tokyo Bay, August 29, four days before the surrender ceremonies, and have anchored in company with Admiral Halsey's
flagship and other selected ships of the United States and British Navies. For a time it looked like the Neches would lose out on her special assignment. Following the exchange of messages with Admiral Halsey she had to return to port to reload. However, the same luck that followed her through nearly every major campaign from Guadalcanal to Okinawa carried her on to Tokyo. It was natural that one of the first tankers in the China Sea, the first tanker at Iwo Jima and the first tanker to shoot down a suicide plane at Okinawa should be the representative of the tanker fleet at the surrender of Japan
at Tokyo. On rejoining Rear Admiral D. B. Beary's logistic support group the Neches lost no time in requesting assignment to the coveted duty at Tokyo . Rear Admiral Beary thrilled every man aboard when he replied, "BE PREPARED TO PROCEED ON A SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT THIS AFTERNOON IN REGARDS TO FUELING ADMIRAL HALSEY'S WHITE HORSE BY THE STERN METHOD." Then with the entire logistic group of dozens of ships listening in he sent us on our way with, "GOODBYE X GOOD LUCK X YOU ARE OUR REPRESENTATIVE AT THE SURRENDER X WE WONT BE THERE X BE SURE TO TELL US ALL ABOUT IT WHEN YOU COME BACK." "WILCO X WE WILL DO OUR BEST." Replied the Neches. Rear Admiral Beary: "MAKE SURE THAT HALSEY'S HORSE IS PROPERLY FUELED 100% BY THE STERN
METHOD." Neches: "WILCO
X WE'LL BLOW HER UP." To those unfamiliar
with navy fueling at sea methods it should be pointed out that the common method is the "alongside", one in which ships to be fueled come alongside the tanker. In the seldom used "stern" method the ship being fueled lies astern of the
tanker. With the fueling of Admiral Halsey's white horse already a tanker legend, the crew of the Neches have lost no time in painting a proud new insignia on her bridge - a frightened buck-toothed white horse being chased by a winged oil can, obviously about to
make contact by the "stern method." |