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communicators symbol for
zero---the brand indicating an impressive pronouncement: TOP GUN BAR NONE.
That brand was submitted and accepted by the office which monitors brands
for the State of Wyoming. Therefore, since early August 1968, the
USS RANGER has been the authentic, and original, TOP GUN of the PACIFIC
FLEET—with an official brand to seal it!
The USS RANGER’S Commanding Officer, Captain William H. “Tag
Livingston, did indeed accept the invitation of The City of Landers,
Wyoming to serve as Grand Marshal of their 1968 Frontier days Parade
and Rodeo, and a plane load of RANGER personnel (including the sailor who
conceived the TOP GUN BAR NONE brand and slogan) attended the
festivities. The city of Landers really rolled out the “Red
Carpet” for the Rangermen, and all were treated like royalty! It
was a wonderful tribute to a great fighting ship from a warm and wonderful
city!
The story of “TOP GUN and RANGER’S Great White Horse
hardly ended with the Frontier Days Rodeo. In fact, the legend was
just beginning, and for the years of the Vietnam Conflict the “Great
White Horse” complete with our own “Lone Ranger” (the Public Affairs
Officer, who, if memory serves me correctly, was Ensign Mike Bardin, and
later Ensign Jim Block), dressed in black from boots to kerchief and
sporting a white stetson western hat, “rode” the USS RANGER’S Flight
Deck during most underway replenishments. For those not familiar with
Carrier Battle Group at sea operations during the Vietnam Conflict, the
Carrier would rendezvous with a Oil Tanker, and Stores Ship or Ammunition
Ship (or a massive AOE Ship which is a combination of the three) each day
after flight operations, and the two ships would steam alongside each
other (at a distance of about 150 feet) for three to four hours
while jet fuel, food, bombs and rockets, and other necessities for 5000
men and 100 aircraft were transferred on board RANGER. Also, when
necessary, the Destroyers and Guided-Missile Cruisers of RANGER’S Battle
Group would come along side the USS RANGER to take on fuel, food, stores,
and to exchange movies. During the latter minutes of all these
underway replenishments, the personnel of the ships along side the RANGER
would see the Lone Ranger on his white horse moving up and down the
starboard (near side of the Carrier’s Flight Deck. Due to the
additional height of the Flight Deck of an Aircraft Carrier, the lower
portion of the horse could not be seen from the ship along-side, so hey
could not observe that the horse was mounted on one of the low tractors
used to tow aircraft. To the sailors on the other ships, they only
saw a masked man in the black riding a white horse on the Flight Deck
(forward of the RANGER’S super structure and the number one
elevator)—complete with two chrome-plated six-guns firing blanks.
This phenomenon usually occurred during the last five minutes prior to the
end of an underway replenishment, and as the two ships commenced their
break-away, the moving and rhythmic music of the William Tell Overture,
(broadcast over the Rangers 1MC public address system and punctuated with
gun-fire from the masked rider on the white horse), created a vision not
to be soon or easily forgotten by those sailors of the SEVENTH FLEET who
had occasion to observe the event!
I am not aware of what happened to the horse and Lone Ranger ensemble; it
was intact and in use until RANGER completed her combat cruise and entered
the Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard for minor work in the summer of 1969
(when I left the ship). However, when I next embarked on the USS
RANGER (in 1981) the Lone Ranger and his ‘Great White Horse’ was
unknown to those RANGER officers and men assigned at that time with whom I
spoke. Fortunately, the TOP GUN OF THE PACIFIC FLEET title stuck as
did the “TG bar zero” symbol for the TOP GUN BAR NONE, although during
the intervening years between 1969 and 1981, the knowledge of the origin
and purpose of the “symbol” was lost to the crew of the USS RANGER.
For me, I shall forever proudly treasure the sight and sound of a rider
dressed in black and wearing a big white cowboy hat, firing and waving two
silver pistols in the air while sitting astride a full-sized statue of a
white horse-while the entire production moved up and down the Flight Deck
on a small yellow tractor-as the familiar Lone Ranger music blasted out of
the 1MC public address system. The sight of the sailors on the ship
along side the USS RANGER, crowding the rail and pointing to the Lone
Ranger, riding and shooting, was something to see and remember and I am
sure that many of those seafaring men still recall the event with
nostalgia and smiles.
Now, the “harpies of the shore shall pluck the eagle of the sea” and
sadly, the USS RANGER is scheduled to be ‘moth-balled’ upon
completion of her 1992-93 WESTPAC Deployment. Nonetheless, the USS RANGER,
with all her pride and glory, will always be known as the TOP GUN OF
THE PACIFIC FLEET, and she was truly the TOP GUN long before the term
became the slogan for the Navy Fighter Weapons School at NAS MIRAMAR (now
NAS FALLON), and Long, Long before the movie was produced. In fact,
the movie “TOP GUN” was filmed, in part, on the Flight Deck, Air
Operations, and Combat Information Center of the USS RANGER, the real and
authentic TOP GUN OF THE PACIFIC FLEET!!
Many special events, aspects, and the history of the great ship RANGER
seem to be fading from memory. Since 1980 (in talking to many
members of the officers and crew) I have not found one Rangerman who knew
the story of the Lone Ranger and his great white horse. So I decided
to write it for posterity. The same should be done to detail the
beautifully dressed mannequin who often graced the wing of the Bridge
during UNREP operations during the 1966-68 time frame.
By Captain John G. Duncan, USN (Ret.) |
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