| USS Little Rock's Commanding
Officers who were NOT Captains !! |
| Normally
a heavy or light cruiser, or a guided missile cruiser would have a
Captain as its commanding officer (CO). This was typical for the USS
Little Rock during her two careers, except in two instances.... As CL 92 the Little Rock had a total of six commanding officers (click HERE for a list of those individuals) and as CLG 4 / CG 4 she had a total of fourteen (click HERE to see a list of those individuals). Of these twenty CO's, all were captains except two. The two CO's of Little Rock who were not captains at the time of their command were Commander Richard S. Craighill (CO of CL 92 from 13 May 49 to 24 Jun 49), and Commander Kent R. Siegel (CO of CG 4 from 20 Oct 76 to 22 Nov 76). Note that both these gentlemen were later promoted to Captain, with Craighill eventually attaining the rank of Rear Admiral. It is significant to note that both Commander Craighill and Siegel relieved the prior CO's (Captains Henry G. Moran and William R. Martin respectively) about one month prior to the Little Rock being decommissioned. As a result Commander Craighill was the last CO of CL 92 and Commander Siegel the last CO of CG 4. |
| Who attended the original
christening of the USS Little Rock as CL 92 and also attended the re-commissioning of the Little Rock as CLG 4? |
| It
is unusual for a ship to have two lives, and perhaps even more unusual
for someone to attend two of the significant ceremonies celebrating the
two lives of a given ship. But that is exactly what happened in the
case of the USS Little Rock as CL 92 and later as CLG 4. On 27 August 1944 then junior Arkansas Congressman J. William Fulbright attended the first launching and christening of U.S.S. Little Rock (as CL 92) in Philadelphia, PA. Arkansas Congressman Brooks Hays provided remarks during the ceremony. Apparently Congressman Fulbright was there as an invited guest. Nearly sixteen years later, on 03 June 1960, Senator Fulbright gave the keynote speech at the re-commissioning ceremonies for the U.S.S. Little Rock (as CLG 4) in Philadelphia, PA. Click here to read the speech. |
| U.S.S. Little Rock's 1963
Mediterranean Cruise
Facts |
This information sheet accompanied the "Going Home" Talosman in December 1963 following an eight month cruise of the Mediterranean. - - - - - - - - - -
Normally, the public information office does not publish a Talosman or information sheet the night before entering a port. We are making an exception this time because through the hard work of many others, we compiled some interesting statistics of our past eight months as a flagship for COMSIXTHFLT. There are a number of statistics here, yet it only touches the surface in our attempt to show you the great amount of work that has been done. If we have missed your particular department, please don 't be disappointed. Everyone realizes the terrific amount of effort each other has put out during eight months. The only reason we cannot publish all statistics is that we don't believe there is enough paper or time to do so . During the past eight months the Little Rock refueled from the AO's 41 times. We had seven major replenishments and made 55 high line transfers. Both anchors were dropped 27 times and we moored to the buoy eight times. Aside from this, we fueled destroyers three times and broke the rig time of the USS Pawcatuck, rigging in four minutes and 15 seconds. With all this, we only had one casualty. The helicopter detachment that is leaving us today is leaving with a grand record of accomplishments . They have made 627 flights in more than 256 flight hours. They have transferred 705 persons and lifted 7,500 pounds of U.S. mail and 3,000 pounds of general cargo . They made one ship's company rescue, and, of course, none of us will forget the heroic rescue made while in La Spezia, Italy for which three of them were awarded medals. The laundry worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a total of 35,680 hours. During this time they processed 235 personal bags weekly, and pressed an average of 8,860 articles weekly. They washed 4,800 pounds daily for a total of 556 tons. The cokes the crew drank totaled 376,245 which added up to $17,359.10 in nickels. The soda fountain dispensed 75,000 dishes of ice cream. Ship's store sales added up to $149,527 of which $77,000 was for foreign merchandise. The crew didn't do so badly in putting away the chow either. We ate 19 tons of chicken, 347,760 fresh eggs, 10 tons of butter - not the imitation stuff either, 406,500 cups of coffee, 175 tons of potatoes and 13 tons of fresh fruit. During our Mediterranean deployment, Little Rock spent $194,769 for repair parts and $92,799.38 for consumables. In addition, the S-I Division made a total of 9,006 issues of material. Do you still wonder where your taxes go? As far as personnel is concerned, 118 were received since our deployment and 155 were transferred. Thirty men re-enlisted and 433 men are going home a rate higher than when they started. Shore patrol was stood 2,655 times under 393 different sets of orders. During the Med cruise, the sick bay has been a very busy place. 2,416 officers and men reported to sick call. A total of 57 operations were performed, of these, 30 were minor and 27 were major procedures. Aside from normal routine, 6,388 shots were given and 137 routine physical examinations were made. The dental department has had 1,227 sittings. 177 were extractions, 134 required cleaning and the remaining total were restorations. Not included in this figure are X-rays, temporary restorations, repairs to dentures, and many other routine treatments associated with dental care. The "front porch" of Little Rock has shot up $40,000 of Uncle Sam's ammunition. Of the total of 1,257 rounds expended, the six inch guns accounted for 292, the five inch 455 and the saluting battery 510 rounds. We don't think you'll forget the 179 rounds fired by the saluting battery in Istanbul and Izmir, Turkey. Correcting a figure that appeared in the Talosman distributed yesterday, the ship traveled an estimated 42,029 miles, using 4,843,373 gallons of oil and 9,002,559 gallons of water. And this is just a sample of the amount of work done during the past eight months. We have every reason to be proud. - - - - - - - - - -
Reprinted from the Fall 2004 LitComs |