Little Rock Official Communications

U.S.S. Little Rock
CL-92, CLG-4, CG-4

Page last updated: 26 July, 2018

Official Communications and Letters

Date	Event	Received from	Subject	Go to?
07 Jun 1961	Commissioning of U.S.S. Little Rock	Sen. J.W. Fulbright	"Thank You"	Yes
27 Oct 1961	SecNav's Visit to U.S.S. Little Rock	Robert S. McNamara (SecNav)	"Thank You"	Yes
06 Jul 1975	U.S.S. Little Rock's Anniversary	James L. Holloway III (CNO)	Anniversary Greetings	Yes
11 Jun 1975	Re-opening of the Suez Canal	American Embassy Cairo	USS Little Rock Visit to Egypt	Yes

Hundreds of official communications were received (and sent) by the U.S.S. Little Rock every day.
These communications varied from mundane to critical, and from unclassified to "crypto".
Below are copies of some of the official "comms" to Little Rock that we have come across.
We are always on the lookout for additional input.
Feel free to contact the web master if you have something of interest.

(Wonder what all the numbers and letters in a Message mean? Click here.)

Click Here to check out the Radioman rate

"Thank You" letter from Senator J.W. Fulbright

"Thank You" letter from SecNav John McNamara

U.S.S. Little Rock's 30th Anniversary

VZCZCMAD2I4

PITUZY11W RUENAAA5784 1571631-UUUU-RUFRMAA.:

ZNR UUUUU

P R 061534Z JUN 75

FM CNO WASHINGTON DC

TO RUFRMAA/USS LITTLE ROCK

INFO RUCBSAA/COMVANSURFLANT NORFOLK VA

RUFRMAA/COMSIXTHFLT

UNCLAS //N05750//

ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS

1. IT IS A PLEASURE TO EXTEND BEST WISHES TO CAPTAIN MARTIN AND TO ALL WHO WILL JOIN IN OBSERVING THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF LITTLE ROCK. THIS MEMORABLE OCCASION IS A TRIBUTE TO THE DEDICATION AND SKILL OF THE OFFICERS AND ENLISTED MEN WHO HAVE SERVED IN LITTLE ROCK OVER THE YEARS. COMMISSIONED IN 1945, LITTLE ROCK WAS CONVERTED TO A GUIDED MISSILE CRUISER IN 1960. LITTLE ROCK HAS OPERATED OFF THE COASTS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA AND NORTHERN EUROPE AND IN THE CARIBBEAN AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. SHE HAS SERVED AS FLAGSHIP FOR BOTH THE SIXTH AND SECOND FLEET. IN 1961, LITTLE ROCK OPERATED OFF THE COAST OF HISPANIOLA DURING THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC CRISIS. TODAY, SHE SERVES AS A MAINSTAY OF THE UNITED STATES PRESENCE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. BEST WISHES FOR CONTINUED SUCCESS. J.L. HOLLOWAY

PAGE 02 RUENAAA5784 UNCLAS

III, ADMIRAL U.S. NAVY.

#5784

U.S.S. Little Rock's Participation in Opening of Suez Canal

NNNN

VZCZCMAE276

RQTUZYUW RUEAMAF0153 1621621-UUUU—RUFRMAA.

DE RUEHEG #5776 1621621

ZNR UUUUU

ZZH

R 111353Z JUN 75

FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO

TO RUHGSGG / USS LITTLE ROCK (CLG-4)

INFO RUFRMAA / COMSIXTHFLT

RUDONBACINCUSNAVEUR LONDON

RUSNAAA/USCINCEUR VAIHINGEN

RUENAAA/CNO WASHDC

RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4488

UNCLAS CAIRO 5776

1.O. 11652: N/A

TAGS: MILI FG

SUBJECT: USS LITTLE ROCK VISIT TO EGYPT

1. ALL THOSE WHO OBSERVED LITTLE ROCK’S PERFORMANCE IN THE CEREMONIAL CONVOY WHICH MARKED THE REOPENING OF THE SUEZ CANAL, AND WHO HAD CONTACT WITH YOU DURING YOUR VISIT TO ALEXANDRIA, HAVE COMMENTED MOST FAVORABLY UPON THE SHIP’S EXCELLENT APPEARANCE, THE IMPECCABLE CONDUCT OF THE CREW, AND THE SMARTNESS AND SPIRIT WITH WHICH ALL FUNCTIONS WERE EXECUTED. VISITS SUCH AS THIS CONTRIBUTE IMMEASURABLY TO THE CEMENTING OF RELATIONS BETWEEN OUR TWO COUNTRIES. YOU HAVE ONCE AGAIN MADE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TOWARD ONE OF OUR PRIME NATIONAL OBJECTIVES – THE ATTAINMENT OF PEACE AND STABILITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST. MY THANKS TO ALL HANDS FOR A JOB WELL DONE.

HERMAN FREDERICK EILTS, AMERICAN AMBASSADOR. EILTS

#5776

What do all those numbers and letters mean?

John Meyers asked on the Association Message Board:

"Maybe someone from the RM group can add a line or two of explanation and add to the story telling....
1. Why does a radioman always talk Zulu?
2. Why all that mess at the beginning of a message? Looks like the “Rumplestiltskin” writer was in charge.
3. Why all the high blood pressure over “missing numbers?”
4. Why was it always the fault of some hapless ET if numbers went missing?
5. Why was someone always searching for “good” frequencies? And how does one know what a good frequency is?
6. Why get upset when a gum wrapper lands in a burn bag?
7. Why did radiomen throw a party whenever the KWR-37 synchronized?"

To which Tony La Tourette answered:

1. All naval communications is (sent) in "Zulu" which is Greenwich Mean Time ("GMT", or basically the time in London). It gives a common point of reference.

2. The jumble at the beginning of the message is its routing information. It is formatted for the autodin system which the navy used at the time. It basically tells where the message is going and the classification of the message.

3. Missing numbers refers to numbers missing on the fleet broadcast. All ships at sea copy the fleet broadcast and if you miss numbers due to any sort of reason, you do not have a complete broadcast, and thus you may have missed a message to your ship.

4. Mostly it was not the fault of an ET if a number was missed, but it was a good place to place blame. While the KWR-37 could be a temperamental machine the main cause of missed numbers was bad frequencies.

5. You need to have good frequencies to copy the fleet broad cast. The frequencies change with the time of the day. A good radioman would always be looking for a good frequency to change to when the frequency he was on started to go to hell. There are many ways to tell if the frequency is good. A good radioman could look at the URA-17 or URA-8 and tell if the freq was good. Also you had to keep your receiver at 0db. Another way was to have the frequency patched through a distortion analyzer.

6. This one I have no idea, but I figure it was better than finding a cigarette in a burn bag. Maybe if all contents were to be shredded, gum could be a problem.

7. A KWR-37 could be knocked out of sync for many reasons. the longer it was out of sync the more messages you would miss (see missing numbers) A common way to retrieve messages was to look at the broadcast recap that was sent every hour. The other way was to draft a service message which had to be released by the comm officer and by doing this you alerted him to about how long you were out of sync and he would start to ask all sorts of questions.

On another note, a good aggressive operator would not miss too many numbers by utilizing several forms of diversity. Frequency diversity, space diversity, running two tty's on the broadcast, and always having a backup freq ready to go

Hope that helped

Yes I am a retired radioman, but never served on the Little Rock

Ed. Notes:
1. A big "Thanks" to John Meyers for posing a question most of us would be afraid to ask!
2. And "Thanks" also to Tony La Tourette for a clear answer.

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