After reading your "Sea Stories", it reminded me of the fireball situation that I had experienced just after I finished writing the engineering log on the mid watch one night. I don't remember much about it except that it scared the living hell out me and others on watch. I don't recall what we discovered as the cause, but it kept me awake for the rest of the night and was the talk of the ship around the mess decks for awhile. That happened just a short while before we went South to participate in the Cuban missile crisis at Guantannamo Bay.

After the 1960 yard overhaul and shakedown cruise, we once again departed for the Med. Somewhere in between the time of the various cruises, we were sent to Guantonamo Bay, Cuba to participate in the Cuban blockade. That pumped us up a bit. We affectionately called the "D" a high speed, night attack cargo reefer, even though things didn't get all that exciting.