- Name: USS RICHARD L PAGE
- Ship Class: Guided Missile Frigate
- Ship Number: FFG-5
- Date Commissioned: 1967-08-05 00:00:00 UTC
- Status: Sold March 29, 1994 and broken up
Ship History:
USS Richard L. Page Specifications
Type Guided Missile Frigate
Class Brooke
Nick-name the “Dickey P”
Displacement 3015 tons
Length (at water-line) 390 feet
Length (over-all) 414.5 feet
Beam 47 feet
Draft 23 feet max.
Speed 27 knots
Crew 258± (normally about 235)
Engineering plant two 1200 psi pressure-fired boilers, 1 screw
Radar AN/SPS-10F surface search
AN/SPS-52 3D air search
Sonar AN/SQS-26 AX/BX
Guns Mk 30 5 in./38 cal dual purpose Gun Mount
Missiles Mk 22 launcher for SM-1 Missiles (x16)
Fire Control Mk 4 Weapon Direction Equipment (WDE or “Weedy”)
Mk 56 Gun Fire Control System w/ Mk 35 radar
Mk 74 Missile Fire Control System w/ AN/SPG 51C Digital radar
Mk 114 ASW Fire Control System
Helicopter SH-2F LAMPS 1 Seasprite
ASW Weapons Mk 16 8-tube ASROC rocket-thrown torpedo launcher
Mk 32 triple tube launchers for Mk 46 torpedoes
Battle History:
***What a Surprise....I went aboard the Page in late November, 1969 (just
after getting of Radio Schools (A & C) in San Diego),
and worked with Howard Voight (who was a plank holder); Ken Cavanaugh
(reservist out of New Orleans, who I later visited at
his home in Metairie, LA...!!Super Bowl Sunday---it was being played
elsewhere...so he gave me a "Cook's Tour" of town...;), and an
old lifer named Avery (last name), who chewed tobacco all the time; Ken
Koski (from Wisconsin or Minnesota--tall blond guy); and three or
four others...one of whom had a guitar on board.
Comm. Officer was Lieutenant Brooks, I believe, one of the few officers on
board who could actually dock the damn
ship, (remember, she was single-screwed!)....He had a slightly
pock-marked face, but had a terrific-looking wife, whom
he kept away from most of the other officers.
X.O. was an older German Navy Officer who smoked the most rancid-smelling
short cigars...called "crooks," I think; and our
highly-respected Captain was replaced while we where out doing target
practice near Culebra Island....the nethers would pull their money and order pizza
from the closest place that delivered....or got some of the best smelling
fried chicken I've ever been able to smell....; speaking
of smells....the area around the mess-deck, especially when underway, had
the most peculiar, dense, humid and rotting food
stench that took your breath away, and/or made you choke...or run to the
head, if really heavy-duty....actually, that section
of passageway was near radio, and was our responsibility to keep
"ship-shape..."...remember..."Sweepers, Sweepers, Man
Your Brooms; Give the Ship a Clean .... Fore and Aft.."...??? happened
two or three times a day, right?
A strange happening seems to have affected my brain to this day...When we
came back from our Caribbean Cruise, late at night, somebody
hooked up the steam line from the shore into the hot water line. When I
went to take a shower the next afternoon, (had to pull mid-watch...and
get some sleep) hot water did come out for 45 seconds; then straight steam
came blasting over my face and head before I could jump back into
the corner of the shower stall and flip off the knobs....My brain
temperature shot up; I struggled into my skivvies and was going down into our
sleeping compartment, when Howard Voight came by, looked at me, and said,
"What the hell happened to you.!!??? (Half of my forehead
was tomato-red at this point...). He didn't even wait for an answer; it
was Sunday, and he demanded that the Commodore's staff car take
me over to the hospital at the Navy Base....and all they did was say,
"Well, stay from hot water, and take this little tube of salve with you..."
There was no hot water on the ship for a couple of days; ...everyone kinda
gave me the eye when they realized I was the one had been involved
in the infamous "steam shower incident"...Yessir, those were the days!!!
