I came on
board the Twining as a greenhorn Ensign, called up from the reserves,
on August 18, 1951, and was detached on December 29, 1952. I was the
1st Division Officer for a while, and then was in the 2nd Division, as
the assistant gunnery Officer. I also served as an OOD, gunnery liasion
officer in CIC, acting Chaplain, Public Relations Officer, Education
Officer, and Special Courts Martial Defense Officer.
I appreciate your maintaining this web site. I just learned about it
after all these years. There are some minor errors in the web site: the
Twining pictures were taken in 1952, not 1953, as I was in the pictures
and I left the ship before 1953. My name was also misspelled in the 2nd
Division picture. The correct spelling is Chansler.
I have a lot of sea stories I could tell, but I will send you the two
following:
Sea Stories
On
January 20, 1952, The Twining was on harassment fire in Wonsan Harbor.
About 3:00 PM, a boat carrying several wounded ROK soldiers came
alongside. They had been on patrol on a "friendly" island when one of
them stepped on a land mine. One died, another received severe head
injuries, and two others received moderate injuries. The three were
brought aboard, and the one with the head injuries was laid on the mess
table in the officers' wardroom. While the ship's doctor was preparing
to give him a blood transfusion, he died. As acting ship's chaplain, I
was asked to prepare the body for burial on the "friendly" island. He
was no more than 17 or 18 years old, and I thought of his grieving
family who would never know where their son was buried. As far as I
know, he was the only person who died on the Twining during the Korean
War.
___________
We were at GQ in Wonsan Harbor the morning of February 10, 1952, moving
slowly back and forth in the "slot" (an area in the harbor swept
clear(?) of mines). I was the Air Defense Officer in charge of the 50
caliber mounts, 20 mm mounts, and 40 mm mounts, so my battle station
was behind the gun director. A week or two earlier, while on GQ, I had
reported a possible mine floating about 200 yards off the starboard bow
to the OOD. He looked at the object with his binoculars, and saw it was
a black duck. I became the laughing stock of the wardroom for my
mistake.
On this GQ, one of men with me thought he saw a mine floating about 300
yards dead ahead. Since we didn't want to be ridiculed again, we
continued to observe it even after GQ was over. When the ship was about
200 yards away from it, I was certain it was a mine and reported it to
the OOD. I could hear the OOD and others laughing as he looked at the
object through his binoculars. All of a sudden, he yelled, "Oh, my God,
it is a mine! All back full!" The ship stopped about 150 yards from the
mine. As we later learned, it was black, 34 inches in diameter, filled
with 253 pounds of explosive, and had two contact horns. The OOD took a
rifle and exploded the mine. A tremendous explosion rocked the ship.
Probably, the ship and the mine were near each other in the "slot" all
during the night before. I shudder to think what might have happened
had we struck the mine. I am enclosing a picture of the explosion. (A
gunner's mate took the picture through the top hatch in the gun
director, and he made me a copy.)
Ltjg G.I. Chansler
Wonsan Mine Explosion
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