photo courtesy Bill Cook, ET2 USS Tidewater 1962-1965

ow many times did you see Tidewater's gun fire? Not many, we'd expect. But every time we made the trip to the Med there were exercises at sea. Here we see the AD31's 5-inch gun firing on the bow. They are shooting at a drone aircraft being pulled by another plane about a mile away.

The USS Tidewater was not considered an offensive ship. Skirmishes and sea battles were the job of destroyers and cruisers. But the Tidewater was required to keep an big gun at the ready in order to maintain its "Warship" status. When going into port, ships were required to be searched by local Customs Officials unless they had Warship status. This Warship designation allowed a ship the opportunity to decline permission to foreign customs agents for boarding onto the ship. Should a ship decline, they would, of course, be required to leave the port, but at least, by maintaining this status, they were not boarded by foreign agents.

Naples was a friendly port, as were all the others that we entered (Toulon, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca) and so we were never asked permission to board by foreign customs.