Missions Completed:
Sgt. Thomas B. Turner Jr., 31, of Cottonwood, CA. Received home at Redding Airport, 7/20/06

Army Spec James A. Kasper, 25, Weaverville CA. Escort from Susanville, CA to Weaverville, CA. 8/17/06

2006 Wreaths Across America, California Veterans Cemetery, Igo, CA. 12/14/2006. I carried the Navy wreath and placed it on the stand. Quite a proud moment for me!

Welcome, if you're here I hope you were part of the crew, or know someone who was, during the time I served aboard the King.

Hopefully you can hear the song playing in the back ground. Of course it's "King of the Road" by Roger Miller, the ship theme song.

My name is Tim Witting and I was an FTG (Gun Fire Control Technician) with 2nd Division. I was aboard the King from the early part of 1965 till I was discharged August 19, 1968.

I have a lot of great memories of that time but as I look back I realize how much of it I wasted. Wasted by not getting to know more of the men on board and by not getting to know the countries we visited better.

I've scanned the pictures of the men on the King during the 1967 Mediterranean cruise and I hope you spot yourself or someone you know.

I remember one time during underway re-arming I was in line to be handed one of the 5" projectiles our guns fired and as I was carying it forward up the starbord side I slipped on the wet deck. I was 5 foot 2 and about a hundred pounds soaking wet and the projectile weighed 75 pounds. I landed flat on my back with the projectile on my chest. I hit the deck hard and the projectile got jolted pretty good. I can still remember the look of horror on everybody's faces as they all stopped in their tracks and looked down at me.

I knew it couldn't or at least it wasn't supposed to go off but that was scary. I got up and got that projectile and a few others to the forward gun. I'm sure somebody decided I should not carry a big bullet that weighed almost as much as I did and from then on my job was changed to "phone line tender."

Whenever ships were alongside each other as they were underway a phone line had to be hooked up between them. I really enjoyed phone line tender because I quickly realized that communication between the King and the other ship depended on me alone and I remember thinking that was pretty neat. If I let the line drag in the water between the ships as we steamed along it would get ripped out of the connections on each ship and communications would be lost, not to mention equipment destroyed. If I let the line get too tight and it snagged on a part of either ship as they rolled away from each other it would snap and maybe hit a man on the deck.

As the two ships maneuvered alongside each other a small line was fired from a "gun" over to our ship. It was grabed by me and I started pulling it as fast as I could. The thin line would change to a larger line and then larger until I had the phone line and connector in my hand. I'd plug in the connector and hand it to an officer waiting for it. Then I had to concentrate on keeping it taut or slacking it off.

Here's a picture of ships approaching to refuel.

My GQ (General Quarters) station was in the director, visible in the above picture. It has the small radar on top of it. Can you find it?

Commander Deming W. Smith and Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander W.F. McCaulley

Department Heads

1st Division-Page 1
1st Division-Page 2
1st Division-Page 3

2nd Division-Page 1
2nd Division-Page 2

AS Division-Page 1
AS Division-Page 2

G Division-Page 1
G Division-Page 2

M Division-Page 1
M Division-Page 2

Cruise Statistics

The following tells you who the King was named for and why.

John King (7 February 1865 – 20 May 1938) was a sailor in the United States Navy who was twice awarded the Medal of Honor.

Born in Ireland, King enlisted in the Navy as a coal passer in Vermont 20 July 1893. He served on board Massachusetts in the Caribbean during the Spanish-American War, and in 1900 was transferred to Vicksburg for service during the Philippine Insurrection.

King received the Medal of Honor while in Vicksburg "for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession at the time of the accident to the boilers... 29 May 1901." Eight years later, while a water tender in Salem, King received a second Medal of Honor during another boiler explosion 13 September 1909. Advanced to Chief Water Tender 1 October 1909, he continued to serve at sea until discharged in 1916.

The beginning of World War I, however, brought Chief King back on active duty; he served at New York until 20 August 1919.

He lived in retirement until his death 20 May 1938.

Here's a link to a Med Cruise Book for late '64 to early '65. This was sent to me by Dan "Tom" Thomas FTM2 after he saw this page. Thanks Dan!!
http://www.danthomas.com/JohnKing/