Mike, your right his name is Ron Gorton from some resort town in Florida, I think Everclear. While onboard he and I hung out together. He was an in OPS. Along with Bill Despain, we reaked havoc in most of the ports.

I remember Ron walking down the pier, butt naked. A few of us were watching the topless girls, Ron figures he would go skinney dipping. Ron was a pretty well built guy, I guess the cooler water must have got to him if you know what I mean(Hope he reads this).

Ron was a great guy and when I bartended at Lil Orphan Annies, he would work the girls like no one I had ever seen. The guy was a master at talking girls out of thier pants.

I wish that more of our shipmates from our era onboard would find this site. I sure would like to know what became of Ron and Bill.

Hey Bill, thanks for that reply. I knew his name was Ron, but for the life of me I couldn't remember his last name. And yes I have an
idea of what you are talking about with the cool water having an
effect on him, lol!
I also remember Lil Orphan Annie's, remember that alot of the guys
from the ship use to party there. Also remember we use to go in there
and be able to smoke joints. Also recall that they use to have that
Jimi Hendricks impersonator perform there, Randy Hanson or something
like that wasn't it? He was great at performing as Jimi, even played
his guitar with his teeth and everything just like Jimi did. Also
recall that the bar was right by that drive-in fast food place, Zippy's or something it was called. Remember that we would go to bar
drinking and smoking. Would get the munchies, and stumble to the drive-in to get something to eat. Boy, did we even have a great time
there in Hawaii! And what a great bunch of guys to be stationed with!
And like you Bill, I wish that more of our fellow shipmates would
find this site. It has put me in touch with guys that I thought I'd
never hear from again. I helped do my part, have told two old shipmates about this site, Steve Grovom and Jim Mintel.

Mike Gray
HT3 U.S.S. Cochrane 1977-1979

Mike, the drive through was "Byron's", famous for Teriaki Beef Sticks and Siamin Soup.

Your right we did get to party a lot at Lil Orphan Annies, Machine Gun Randy Hanson, Jimi Hendricks impersonator. Only difference, he played with his right hand, Jimi played with his left.

Do you remember when the bands Steppin Wolf and Grass Roots played at Lil Orhan Annies. I was the driver for Steppin Wolf and when I picked them up from the airport all they had was a case of warm Heineken...until I showed them some local "pacalolo". We fired up and partied all night. They told the owner of the club that I had to be their driver.

Then there was the night that Chuck Berry came in, on December 27, 1978, he was in looking at the club. He was going to be performing on New Years Eve. Well, Tom Grasiozi and I were bartending and a fight broke out, we jumped over the bar, knocked a bar table over and grabbed the two sailors that were fighting, broke up the fight. By the time I turned around, all I saw was the back of Chuck Berry, leaving in a hurry.

I have contacted Don Faxlanger (OS) and Tom Grasiozi (Deck), Tom has spoke with me and I lost his e-mail and phone number, so Tom if you are reading this call me again.

One of our shipmates was Gene Mitchell. He is a musician and has cut a few albums/cd/tapes. If you like Jimmy Buffet, you will like him. I reveived an e-mail from him and he is performing regularly in Florida. You can find him on the internet if you search for him by name...Gene Mitchell.

Hopefully the more memories we put in this forum the more memories we will jog in some of our shipmates heads.

Just came across my cruise book front cover USS COCHRANE SOUTHPAC 1979, mint condition. I am going to figure a way to get this entire book on this site. I have a brother that I think has the smarts to do it.

After looking through it, the sad part was no names were put under group pictures. Too Bad! Only the officers had their names by thier pictures, the chiefs just a list of names, after 23 years, yes 23 years it is kind of hard to put a name on a face.

I hope that when the entire Southpac 1979 is on line, some of us can identify who the hell is who. I have a good idea for a lot of them, but then again I drank and smoked a lot.

Some faces, Jerry Suydam, J.J. Johnson, Mike Gallerano, Dan Kelly, Jack Brians, Mark Lemeux, Reggie Pipkin, Stan Engelsma, Bill Despain, JOhn Minto, Carl Dribeliss, Roger Pacheco, Don Faxlanger, Gene Mitchell, Nestor Lintag, Jimmy Evans, Dwight Mangum, Shaggy, Tex and Jay Featheroff, to name a few. A lot of faces I remember but can't put a name on them.

Anyway if I can ever get the book on the web it will be great.
Mike if you have a cruise book, is that you on pages 121 and 123?

Hey Bill, yeah that's me on pg. 121. The lower left picture of the HT Gang. I'm the third from the left kneeling down in the cutoff coveralls. Also pg. 123, center photo grinning with Cochrane ballcap on sitting next to EN3 Barry Privatt. Bill, if you need any help identifying any of the guys let me know. Still have a pretty decent memory after 23 yrs. Also have been in pretty steady contact with a few of our old shipmates, so they may be able to help also. Just recently started Instant Messenging BT3 Jim Cooper and BT3 Mike Adams,
so they may be able to help with the Engineering guys. And have also been in contact for awhile with HT3 Steve Grovom. You can contact John
Freeman and he can probably help you out and tell you how to get our cruisebook on this site. After all, he is the one that started this great site for us in the first place. Need anything, give me a holler.

Mike Gray
HT3 U.S.S.Cochrane 1977-1979

HAY I DID NT TAKE ENY CARVEINGS FAT FREDDY SAID THAT IF I GIVE THEM BACK IT WOULD BE OK BOY DID I GET MESSED UP THAT 4 HR LIBERTY AND SLEEP THE WHOLE MID WATCK IT ME BTC FRENCHY <BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
Hey Jim, I remember that the two BTC's that were onboard were BTC French and BTC Wallace. Don't know which one you were with in Tonga, but must have been one of them, lol. The thing that I remember most about Tonga were those grass shacks that the local hookers used to do their business in, lol. Also recall the last night there, going out drinking with HTC Garber and FN Ron Talbert. Remember that Ron and me ended up having to carry HTC back to the liberty boat and back onboard
the ship. Also remember you having to leap to the ship in Perth seeings that R-Div. always lined up on the 01 level for sea and anchor
detail. I know for a fact that there were quite a few people that almost missed the ship during that cruise, me included! Funny how when
you have a nice warm body next to you, getting back to the ship was the last thing on your mind, lol! Happened to me in Tasmania, along with Tom Fitzsimmons and a few others.

P.S. Hey Bill and Jim, us R-Div. guys didn't have any problems with showers either. We just went down in Aft A/C and took a shower using the expansion tank down there. The water was cold, but being in the South Pacific it didn't matter. At least it was freshwater and cooled you off in the process.

HTC Mike Gray USN Ret.
HT3 U.S.S. Cochrane 1977-1979


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