USS IWO JIMA dead in the water with GRIDLEY preparing to take her under tow. This was during our transit from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in Jan. 80. We towed the IWO for about 2 days until a fleet tug from Pearl got out to us.
THE PICTURE ON THE USS GRIDLEY WEB SITE SAYS THAT DURING THE 1980 DEPLOYMENT SHE TOWED THE IWO GIMA. THIS IS FALSE ,SHE TOWED THE OKINAWA. MY NAME IS JERRY W. SUTTLES I WAS ON THE GRID DURING THAT CRUISE AS A BT3

A LAMPS Mk 1 helo on deck during the '80 deployment.

The motley Terrier gang playing tourist in Kamakura Japan. That is the ancient capital with the Giant Buddha an hour train ride or so from Yokosuka.

FTMs Josh Kelly, Jim Mathews and Mark Pearson living it up on Grande Island, Subic Bay P.I.

FTM3 Mark Pearson on the forward launcher pierside in Yokosuka Japan

FTM3 Mark Pearson and FTM1 Jim Morris looking too darned happy in the aft 55 radar room.

FTM2 Dave Springer, FTMSN Steve Lawrence and FTM3 Mark Pearson topside as we pull in to San Francisco in May '79.

Dave Springer topside as GRIDLEY gets ready to go under the Golden Gate Bridge for a San Francisco port visit May '79