Dick Whetstone, on Diodon 
in '66

Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 11:57 PM

Subject: Diodon

Jim,

Hi, my name is Dick Whetstone. I just found your website for the Diodon.  What a flash!

I rode the Diodon on a TDY mission in April of 1966. We left out of Okinawa and stayed submerged for 30 days, except for a side trip into Sasebo to drop off the corpsman, who had come down with hepatitis.

Everyone had to get gamma globulin shots and we had a beer party at the dock. Seeing your WestPac67 photos took me right back aboard. When I saw the picture of the crew's mess, I could feel it as a shock to my body.

The trip was an experience I will never forget. I worked in the radio shack and bunked somewhere between the radio shack and the galley. We were hot racking. I hung out in the forward torpedo room and sonar shack when I wasn't on watch or sleeping. I remember my ears popping as the air in the boat would compress and decompress from the waves washing over the snorkel. A lot of excitement on that trip.

I'm sorry that I don't remember any of the names of the people on board, but I do remember very much liking the submariners: they knew their shit and knew how to party.

Thanks for a great web site. Email me if you would like to communicate more.

Dick

Lanty E. (Tom Thompson)

Thanks for the reply Dick, has enough time passed so you can tell us about the nature of your assignment on the Diodon? After the publishing of "Blind Man's Bluff", I can't imagine we have many secrets left.

Your description of your "hide-away" in the Forward Torpedo Room sounds like my old bunk location. I was the upper bunk right across from the Sonar Shack. My bunk mate was a MK14, and although she never put out, she was never disagreeable.

Roger

-----Original Message-----

From: raw@mcn.org [mailto:raw@mcn.org]
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 10:26 PM
To: Roger Stern; Jim Santos
Subject: Diodon

Hi, Jim and Roger,

Well, you guys don't waste any time, so I'll write to both of you. TDY was Temporary Duty, but it occurs to me that the proper naval expression was TAD for Temporary Additional Duty. I worked so much with other services that I get the terminology mixed up.

Of the four years, one month and five days I spent on active duty in the Navy, most of it was on Army and Air Force bases. Ironically, the only Navy ship I was on was the Diodon. I was promoted to CT2 while I was aboard, so I had to extend my enlistment for a month as to have a year in grade.

I worked for the Naval Security Group and was stationed in Okinawa, Taiwan and Japan. When we went on the boats, we wore work uniforms without ratings and the crew called us Secret Sams. There were six of us on that trip so things were a little crowded.

There was an old Sonarman aboard who claimed to have been in the China fleet before WWII. I guess it was possible, if he was in for 30 years. He had great stories of Shanghai and the East China Sea. I was young and all ears. I liked the forward torpedo room because if I wanted to be alone (ha, ha) there was a place up over the torpedo tube where I could crawl in and read a book.

It's great to talk to you guys, my ride on the Diodon was one of the more incredible experiences in my life. I live in Fort Bragg, up in Mendocino. If you ever get up this way, I'll buy you a beer and we can swap sea stories.

Dick