1 November 1984: The frigate Moinester and the guided missile destroyer USS Richard E. Byrd (DDG 23) participate in a composite training unit exercise. (U.S. Navy photo DVID #DN-ST-87-01934 by PH3 J. Alan Elliott from the DVIC)
Most of the pictures I have of USS Moinester, the ship in which I served most of my active duty navy time, are undated, so I usually don’t know for sure if I was actually on board at the time it was taken. Not so with this one! I don’t remember the specific exercise, but this picture is definitely dated 1 November 1984—not only was I on board, there’s a good chance I was on the bridge at the time the photo was taken.
In the days of surface ship combat, destroyers fought in “divisions,” in tactical formations like line-ahead, line-abreast, and so on. These formations were tightly spaced and ships were expected to execute high speed, complex maneuvers with crispness and accuracy. These maneuvers were known as division tactics or “DivTacs,” and although long since obsolete in modern naval tactics were still practiced by destroyers and frigates to hone seamanship and ship handling skills, especially for junior officers.
The picture you see here was taken during a DivTacs exercise; probably, Moinester had just been given a change-of-station signal and was in the process of increasing speed and turning out of her line-ahead formation station towards her new station. Perhaps I was the conning officer!
