Welcome to the Web Page for

USS ENDURANCE (MSO 435)
"Citrus Juliette"

This web site is a work in progress.  The WebMaster was on board in the Spring of 1960 and has tried very hard to get names of personnel and places accurate.  In his age befuddled mind, it is possible that some time reference, person's name or location has been misslabeled.  Please click on the eMail button at the bottom of this paragraph and forward ANY corrections or changes that you might wish to recommend.  I thank you in advance.  It is okay to just drop a note "HELLO" if you wish.  I strongly encourage ANYONE who was on board Endurance to say "HELLO".
Send comments & recommendations here.

USS Endurance (MSO 435) WesPac Tour, 1960



Other ships in the division

Click on any picture to see the full size photo.

Bruce Riley's pictures from early 1960

More photos added Sep't. 2007


 

 


 

BM2 Michael Wark's Viet Nam Memories

Endurance receives and returns enemy fire.

 

Do you remember this man. Tony Segarra thinks he is an ET. Please eMail his name to me.
I received an eMail from Roger Wilson:
"Clark Craig ET my best friend on the Endurance. Thank you Roger Wilson"



USS Endurance (MSO 435) Photo Gallery

Courtesy of Tony Segarra


Vietnam Navy buddies reunite in the Village after 40 years. Written by Lu Stitt

Thursday, 24 June 2010 08:00

When four U.S. Navy Vietnam war veterans all came together in the Village of Oak Creek recently after nearly 40 years, those years quickly melted away.

They were in their early 20s again and resembled kids in a toy store as they talked, laughed and teased each other.

Rocky Cline, Dennis Rhoades, Tony Segarra and John LaFalce
reminisced about the time they spent four years together aboard the USS Endurance, an Aggressive class minesweeper, from 1967 through 1970.
"I tried Google and all the other search engines to find these guys, then I keyed in the name of the ship and there they were," Rhoades said.

"And we've been looking for him," LaFalce said and pointed at Village of Oak Creek resident Rhoades. "When we finally found each other we knew we had to get together, soon."

LaFalce lives in Latham, N.Y.; Cline lives in Highland, Calif., and Segarra lives in Surprise.

"We lived together in close quarters for four years. We were always together, the four of us. We're like brothers," LaFalce said and waved his arm to indicate the other three. "We have a strong bond. When I got here and saw Tony, it was like no time had passed. He looks the same."

There were 65 men on the Endurance and the four had never met before, but quickly gravitated toward each other. Rhoades and LaFalce were boatswain's mates. Cline was a seaman and Segarra was in supply. However, the other three said Segarra actually did many jobs. He carried ammo, stood watch, and performed a helmsman job among other duties.

"Tony was the JOT [Jack of all trades] - he did everything," LaFalce said.

The main job of the Endurance crew was to seek out Chinese junks, go aboard and look for contraband. If found, they would take the crew prisoners and confiscate whatever was on board.

"We had a Vietnamese liaison on the boat so he could talk to the guys on the junks," Cline said.
Since the Endurance was a minesweeper, Segarra said they often performed duty looking for submersed mines.

The four men sat in Rhoades' living room wearing matching Navy blue polo shirts with an insignia of the ship and its name embroidered in gold thread on the left chest. They all brought their personal albums to share photographs and memories. When one mentioned an incident, the others piped in with their view.
"The photos brought us all back, including the cruise book everyone on the ship received," Cline said. "There were some tough times, even though we remember the good stuff."

A British Porpoise class submarine, the HMS Rorqual, accidently rammed the ship in the Philippines June 13, 1969, and left a big hole in the side of the Endurance. There was also a small fire in the engine once, Cline said.

"On leave we remember going, but not coming back," he said, which caused a burst of laughter around the room.

Cline pulled out one photo that showed the USS New Jersey in the distance with a fireball bursting from the side.

"It was five miles away. When it fired, it shook our boat," Cline said.

Other pictures showed the four during work and playtime. The only difference between then and now was a little age and, for some, a little less hair.

During their two tours in Vietnam, Rhoades, Cline, LaFalce and Segarra supported a 6-year-old Filipino orphan girl.

"We provided her with a Christmas and rebuilt the house she was living in," LaFalce said.

"I wish we could find her now. We don't know whatever happened to her."

The men brought their wives with them, and Lyn LaFalce said she was the fifth onboard the Endurance the whole four years. John LaFalce carried her photo. They started dating in high school.

In conclusion, LaFalce said, "We cruised a lot of miles together then. Now we have a whole new life to share." The other three nodded.

Courtesy of John LaFalce, Latham, NY. through Tony Segarra

Photo courtesy of Kerry Wymetalek

 

Sunday afternoon picnic on the fantail.  This was half way across the Pacific, Spring of 1960.  The Captain had requested permission to pull ahead of the formation.  We steamed at one knot faster than the Division and had the picnic while we opened the distance from them.  After the picnic the skipper stopped all engines, placed the gunner on the 04 level with an M1 rifle and declared "Swim Call".  One of those days that stick in your memory.

Picnic on the fantail. Calm day in mid-Pacific. Barbecue grill made from a 55 gallon drum just forward of the Mag Tail fairlead chock.
Picnic on a Sunday afternoon in mid-Pacific.  Lt. J. G. Schumacher and the GM2 are sitting on the Port Sweep Locker hatch. The Captain, LCdr. Fleeger, and the XO are leaning against the Port rail.
Photos by Mike Goss

This picture was taken when Ron Dailey was on the ship (left Ron Dailey) (right Sanderval). It does not show much of the Endurance but in the background you can see the Implicit 455 and directly behind it is the Fortify 446.
Ron Dailey EX-BM2

Getting mail somewhere in the South China Sea
Courtesy of Tony Segarra

 

Courtesy of Tony Segarra

 

Courtesy of Steve Stratford

 

Photo; about June, 1966; Courtesy of Bill Matthey


 

All of the above stories and pictorials are subject to change as former crew members and other interested parties contact the WebMaster.  To send me additions, recommendations for changes and photos, my eMail is:
eMail Here


Please Sign My Guest Book

Read my Dreambook guestbook!
Sign my Dreambook! 		Dreambook

 


Thank you for stopping by.

 


Please visit my other web site USS Leader (MSO 490).

 

 

Wooden Ships and Iron Men

By
David D. Bruhn

Wooden Ships and Iron Men
David D. Bruhn Home Page
From 1953 to 1994, sixty-five U.S. Navy ocean minesweepers (MSOs) swept mines; searched the seafloor for downed aircraft, sunken ships, and lost munitions; “showed the flag” throughout the world, even sailing up the Congo and Mekong Rivers, calling at dozens of the world's seaports; and carried out patrols and special tasks off strife-torn or hostile countries. Some participated in the 1962 nuclear test program in the Pacific and in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. Others, as part of a U.S. armada of military and civilian research ships at Palomares, located a nuclear bomb lost on the seafloor off Spain as a result of a midair collision between two U.S. Air Force aircraft. Iron men in wooden ships were with the Fleet in hotspots around the world, including Lebanon and the Quemoy-Matsu islands of Taiwan in 1958; the Dominican Republic in 1961 and 1965; and the Cuban Missile Crisis and Haiti in 1962. During the Vietnam War, minesweepers participated in Operation MARKET TIME to prevent the infiltration of North Vietnamese soldiers and munitions into South Vietnam. Leader received the Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism in Operation SEA LORDS; Endurance engaged in close gun action with and helped destroy an enemy armed trawler in a sea battle; and MSOs cleared mines in Haiphong Harbor, which aided in the negotiations in progress for the return of U.S. prisoners of war. During the twilight of their service in the late 1980s and early 1990s, aging sweeps cleared Iranian- and Iraqi-laid mines in the Persian Gulf.

 

 

Click on the photo or the caption to go to the story of the sea battle ,

Richard DeRosset's "Sea Battle off the Cua Co Chien River Mouth" depicts the heroic sea battle in 1970 between the USS Endurance (MSO 435) and a larger, faster and more heavily armed Viet Cong steel-hulled vessel. A copy of it will be used for the dust jacket of Cdr. David Bruhn's forth coming book "Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The U.S. Navy's Ocean Minesweepers, 1953-1994" Persons interested in obtaining a reproduction of the painting may contact the artist at the below address for details:

Richard DeRosset

1914 El Prado

Lemon Grove, CA 91945

USS Pirate (AM-275) and USS Pledge (AM-277), Loss of; 12 October 1950
(From Naval Historical Center at http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq103-1.htm)


On 14 August 1950, the U.S. Navy recommissioned USS Pirate (AM 275) to serve in the Korean War, which had begun the previous June with the North Korean invasion of South Korea. During her service in the war, Pirate served as a minesweeper off the east coast of Korea. On 12 October 1950, Pirate and Pledge, along with several other ships, were sweeping the area of the Wonsan Harbor near Sin-Do island. During their sweeping activities, Pirate and Pledge were alerted of the presence of several mines and that the first confirmed mine position was close to them. As Pirate was turning to change her course, she struck a mine. Then several moments later the same fate befell USS Pledge (AM 277). Although they sank, Pirate and Pledge helped to clear the waters allowing the UN ships better access to Wonsan harbor and the continuation of their attack on North Korea.
The above painting "Hidden Death at Wonsan" by Richard DeRosset will be on the cover of David Bruhn's new book "Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The U. S. Navy's Coastal and Motor Minesweepers, 1941-1953."

While the AMs were not wooden hulled vessels, their loss, along with the loss ROK YMS-516 and Japanese minesweeper No. 14 in Wonsan Harbor, prompted the U. S. Navy to construct the post-Korean War mine force of wooden hulled MSOs and MSCs..

 

 


Free counters provided by Andale.

Find out about 102 Minesweepers

Look in the Chain Locker


Free search engine submission and placement services!