USS Leahy*(CG-16) Drag Racing The USS Horne1(CG-30)
*(Bath Builds Best - Bath IronWorks - Bath, ME)
This page has resulted from the comments made by Dallas Bethea (Captain, USN, Ret.)
Date: 2003-07-29 18:42:37
cruisercapt@cox.netDallas Bethea wrote:
I was Ops Officer and Senior Watch Officer in USS Leahy from 1977-79. We fired 19 surface-to-air missiles during that period, and there wasn't a cruiser in the Pacific Fleet who could keep up with us. We even blew USS Horne out of the water in a 15 mile drag race. Wasn't even close. I had the priviledge of commanding an Aegis Cruiser, USS Cowpens, in the Kitty Hawk Battle Group when USS Leahy made her final deployment in 1992-93. She never looked better or more proud than she did during that final deployment and because of that Captain Bill Smith and her magnificent crew won the Battle E as the finest ship in the Cruiser-Destroyer Group for 1992. A fitting final tribute to a splendid warship with a proud history! It broke my heart to watch her get decommissioned in 1993. While I was operating off the coast in Cowpens, I sadly watched from five miles away as a Navy tug towed her slowly north to San Pablo Bay in San Francisco to her final resting place. I had my crew render honors to starboard as we passed up her port side. Sweet 16 - what a ship!Dallas Bethea will now call the race!
There's a bit of a story behind this race. Horne & Leahy had both gone through a major overhaul (ROH) at Long Beach Naval Shipyard at the same time, between 1976-77, and there was a blistering competition between the two San Diego based ships. During Horne's sea trial their engineers claimed
they had done 36 kts without the aid of a tail wind. Those of us on Leahy knew that was a pile of bunk and we set out to "nail her" at a time that was opportune to both. Coming home to San Diego from Hawaii at the tail end of RIMPAC 78 (April), some seven months later, when the CO of Leahy was the Task Group Commander and Horne plus 10 other ships were in the task group, we knew we could throw the gauntlet down and make Horne show us her stuff. We would settle this thing once and for all. We also knew that we got a better overhaul than they did and that our engineers were better operators, we were better organized, and we took great pride in our plant. Our propulsion plant was as tight as a well tuned violin and we aimed to prove it. Since both ships had a requirement to run a Full Power Trial as part of their annual competitive exercise schedule, this was the perfect time to do it.
The challenge was issued by me, as Ops Officer, three days before the event and we called it The Great Race. Fifteen miles, non-stop, and the first one to cross the finish line won - no excuses, a full blown pedal to the metal full power run. One of our hydrofoils in the TG would mark the finish line. The seas were absolutely crappy the day of the race and there was at least 25 knots of wind across the deck before the race even started.
Our engineers went to work prepping for the race. They tuned our Automatic Boiler Control (ABC) system within an inch of it's life. We would race the plant the way it was designed to operate because we knew the systems worked and we had great faith in our people. Horne, on the other hand, decided to use manual control on their boilers and bypass the ABC system because they basically didn't have any faith in it operating properly & within specs. Now if that doesn't speak volumes, nothing does.
Just before the race our bridge must have had at least 80 people on it including Commodore Jimmy Hogg, COMDESRON 7, former CO of USS England, who was embarked, and would later go on to four stars. During the race, he sat in the XO's chair on the bridge and wore an old automobile racing
hat from the 1930s. He was ready for the race.
The gauntlet was thrown and the race started. The multi-purpose replenishment ship shown in the photos below ( USS Wabash AOR-5 ) started the race by hauling down her flaghoist. The Leahy crew was pumped and great cheers then erupted! The two ships were nose-to-nose through the first two miles, then black smoke erupted from the stacks of USS Horne and she started slowing. Leahy, in the meantime, was gaining speed and
momentum as she continued to plow through the State 3 seas with more than 45 knots of wind across the focsle. Horne kept falling back as the black smoke poured from her stack. Then it turned white and she fell back even more. We knew there was big trouble aboard Horne, and at that point we knew we had the race in the bag.
At approximately the 10 mile mark, we were at least five miles down track from Horne and we were running at a steady 31.5 knots according to the pit log. Operating full bore and racing like a well oiled machine. Soon Horne called us on secure voice and said because of an engineering casualty to one of their boilers, they were unable to complete the race.
And with that, USS Leahy settled the issue of who had the best engineering plant and the best engineers once and for all.
Dallas Bethea
06 October 2003
Dan Day Has the proof from race day:From: dk.day@excite.com
Date: Saturday, October 4, 2003, 12:55:16 AM
Subject: Race picture
I read the comments by Mr. Bethea about the race between the USS Horne and the USS Leahy. I had to scan in the pictures I took. As you can see we used the tanker ship (AO) as the start line and the Horne was smoking black. I don't remember how much time had elapsed, but the last picture is of the Horne smoking white. This is, as any boilerman will tell, the death of the boiler. As I remember, she ruptured tubes and fell behind. This is a good testament to our crew, that we kept all boilers and burners going the full distance.Dan Day BT3
(click on any image to enlarge)
1 USS Horne(DLG-30/CG-30) Website
