Does anyone remember that on the 1965 cruise the Cochrane left Pearl Harbor in January or early February on a West Pack cruise with the USS Coral Sea going to the Coral Sea Festival. Before arriving in the Coral Sea, our ship got orders to go to Australia to take on ammunition and proceed to Viet Nam. We did not recieve liberty while in Australia. The Cochrane crossed the equator for the first time on that trip. Does anyone have the exact date that the ship crossed. I have a card from the next crossing which was October 9, 1966; it was typed by the ship's clerk for anyone who requested it.

I would like to have the exact date of the 1965 crossing because that was the ship's first crossing of the equator.

By the way, on the way to the Coral Sea, we stopped on Wake Island where we were given 6 hours of leave; Several of us got a taxi going to the Navy Exchange and had a car wreck. Bill Wilson and Bill Brock from Radar, Willie and another person or two was with us. No one was hurt but it caused a lot of excitement with the natives.