Required reading: Eagle1’s tale of the “MoBoard”
, the indispensable tools of officers and enlisted alike, who made a profession of handing ships at sea and Fred Fry’s Maritime Monday 102 @ the gCaptain Maritime site.
BT
Arthur J. Elliot was born April 9th, 1933 in Maine. The oldest of three boys in the family, and a sailor at heart, having grown up in and around the family owned shipyard Dunn and Elliot in Thomaston, ME. Completing his Bachelor’s degree in 1955, he applied several times to the Navy Officer Candidate Program and finally was accepted in 1956.
Arthur was began his commissioned career in the Engineering Department of the USS LYMAN K. SWENSON (DD 729) in 1956, where he also served as Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer and Gunnery Officer. After this tour, he resigned from active duty, but retained his Naval Reserve commission, only to volunteer to return to active duty in 1960, when he was assigned to the USS LITTLE ROCK (CL-4). Other assignments followed as the Flag Aide for Commander, Service Forces, Pacific Fleet, and then Operations Officer aboard USS JOHN KING (DDG-3) (One of my sea stories about my interactions with USS JOHN KING (DDG-3) during my career is
here). LCDR Elloit volunteered for duty in Vietnam and in 1968, was assigned as Commanding Officer of Patrol Boat Squadron 57. On December 29th, LCDR Arthur Elloit was killed in action in the operations in the Mekong River Delta area. He received the Bronze Star with Combat “V” for heroic achievement in coordinating suppressing fire and personally directing his patrol boat to provide covering fire for the other units during the action in which he was hit by enemy rocket fire.
In honor of LCDR Elliot, the fifth ship of the
SPRUANCE Class destroyers was put to sea: USS ELLIOT (DD-967).The USS ELLIOT was assigned to the Pacfic Fleet and conducted 12 forward deployments after her commissioning on January 22nd, 1977.One of the highlights of the ELLIOT’s service was the detection of the newly built Soviet aircraft carrier, the
MINSK
in the Indian Ocean. In addition to just locating the ship, ELLIOT’s embarked SH-2F Sea Sprite helicopter was able to photograph the MINSK and a Soviet frigate conducting alongside underway refueling operations. The method of refueling while alongside and underway had long been the domain if the US and Allied Navies, but was still in it’s infancy in the Soviet Navy at that time, so this was quite an intelligence gathering opportunity. More details of that story in the Ship’s history are found here.The USS ELLIOT (DD-967) was decommissioned on December 2nd, 2003 and sunk in the Coral Sea as a target for US and allied forces on June 24th, 2005.Update 3/25/2008: RMCM Robert Grey, USN (Ret) left me a note about RIVDIV 572’s web site Just Buried ipod , where LCDR Elliot served as Commander of River Squadron 57. Get over there and read and see more about the Navy’s “River Rats” in Vietnam.