Gemini 5 - USS Waldron's Mission

Gemini V Recovery Mission – 1965

The USS Waldron was assigned as one of the Atlantic recovery vessels for the Gemini V recovery mission. It was equipped with a special crane (starboard side aft) to lift the capsule from the water and we had a boilerplate mock-up of the capsule for practice runs. The mock-up was dropped over the side and the Waldron's deck division practiced the recovery evolution. Fire hoses were required for the real recovery as the rocket fuel was quite caustic.

The Waldron’s "stealth" orders were revealed after departure from Norfolk. These special orders were conveyed by Capt. Baxter in a wardroom meeting. The orders directed the Waldron not to allow any Soviet vessel to recover any part of any component of the launch rockets, meaning put the Waldron between any Soviet vessel and the object. Although families and friends knew the Waldron was to be at sea for the recovery mission, when the TV news teams displayed maps of the Atlantic and all the recovery ships, the Waldron was not shown as the Navy kept the ship’s presence “secret” from the media. All were upset that the Waldron was not listed and calls to NOB (Naval Operating Base) Norfolk produced no information.

But the presence of the Waldron was exposed to the media, though its mission was not revealed, as the Waldron went alongside the Champlain for fuel, ice-cream, movies, etc. The crane and mock capsule installed on the starboard side stern quarter were a dead giveaway.

The original launch was scrubbed so the Waldron proceeded to Bermuda for a few days of R&R. There was a second visit to Bermuda after the launch as the orbits placed the Gemini V capsule away from Waldron’s assigned patrol zone.

There was another notable event which while dire at the time did emerge OK for the sailor. The afternoon quite while patrolling under the Gemini’s orbit was shattered by the ship’s announcing system: “Do not move the rudder under any circumstances!” Strange, but soon we learned that the engineering roving patrol (looks for leaks and anomalies in below waterline compartments) had fallen into the steering gear and he suffered a compound fracture of his leg. Some fortuitous events occurred. We had a doctor (Dr. Green) assigned for the recovery mission should we recover the astronauts. And, just about the same time, the USS Roosevelt came over the horizon in its transit to GTMO. We raised them on fleet common and a medevac helo was soon above our stern with the injured sailor in a stretcher to be carried to the hospital bay aboard the Roosevelt.

On the day of splashdown, the Waldron was about 25 miles from the Champlain with all four boilers on-line - max speed = 33+ knots. At max boiler power (four with super-heated steam), we could throw-up an immense rooster tail with our two screws. Our Waldron's CIC team, with our Lockheed SPS40 air search doppler radar was the first of all ships to “see” the astronauts’ capsule after it passed through the atmospheric “blackout” and our CIC team clocked the Gemini capsule at 3,000 MPH in the first minute and in the next minute the atmosphere slowed the capsule to 1,500 MPH. The CIC team vectored the Champlain's recovery helos to the splashdown site as we raced to the splashdown at 33+ knots. The capsule landed between about 25 miles from the Waldron and about 50 miles from the Champlain.

Two reasons have emerged for the “miss”: (1) there was a computational error in the landing calculations, (2) NASA brought the astronauts down deliberately out-of-sight of the media as the astronauts were literally air sick. You pick it!

There was a Recovery Mission Comm Plan and a list of plaintext codes to be transmitted to NASA Houston should the Waldron recover the capsule and the astronauts. (All ships had the same codes.) The voice radio plaintext codes were as follows:

• If both astronauts were healthy and fully conscious, the code word was: "Cadillac".

• If both were conscious but air sick (e.g.: sea sick, barfing, etc.), the code word was: "Buick". (just drag out the pronunciation = B u u u u u u u i i i i c k.)

• If both were unconscious but alive, the code word was "Plymouth".

• If both were unfortunately and sadly dead (guess?), the obvious code word was "Edsel".

Obviously, the creator of the master Comm Plan had a off-beat sense of humor.

Additional
For clarity, because the Waldron was the stealth ship, the postal clerk aboard the Waldron, who reported to me, did not have the “stamp” to create the cachet.

Thus, if anyone wanted a souvenir, they were instructed to write a name and address in light pencil and then the envelopes would be processed by a sister ship. In this case all the Waldron’s “souvenir” mail was processed via the USS Weeks, DD701.

Therefore, there should be NO Waldron cachets anywhere in circulation for the Gemini V mission.

And, kindly note the USS Dupont was not equipped with a helicopter, thus any helo in the area was from the USS Champlain. As one can see in this picture: http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/pix2/0594130.jpg the Dupont was not equipped with a helo deck. The Waldron on the other hand did have a helo deck for drone anti-submarine helicopters.

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Regards,
Ted T. Business
Fort Lee, NJ