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The night is dark and dreary, there's no moon up in the sky,
The wind is cold and howling, and the shells are whistling by,
Our guns are mad and angry, firing since first we arrived,
Here in deadly Wonsan Harbor as part of Ninety-Five.The engineers are steaming on boilers two and four,
And the Captain is shouting, "Come on let's shoot some more,"
The generators running, are number one and two,
While the radars all are turning, bringing many things in view. The OTC this evening is ComDesDiv Seven-Two,
He's riding on the Mackenzie, who has a fighting crew,
The Commodore on board with us is Commander DesRon Nine,
He's SUPA for this area, and says we're doing fine. Condition Modified "Able" is set throughout the ship,
We are completely darkened and our speed is a mighty clip,
This mighty clip I speak of is only three slow knotts,
And our courses, through changing often, serves to keep us off the rocks. Our sonar is echo ranging, and keeps us up to date,
Of objects under water that might spell out our fate,
Our ammo's in the ready rooms, our watch is standing by,
We'll open up with all our guns in case we see a fly. Our operations these last six months, have kept us long at sea,
They told us ever now and then we'd get some liberty,
But unsuspected things have happened that changed their plans a lot,
They sent us out to sea one day, and then we were forgot. We chased subs an Okinawa, as training so they said,
When we were through with that short tour, we felt like we were dead,
They sent us up to Seventy-Seven to screen the carriers there,
That duty wasn't quite so bad, but still we pulled our hair. We took a trip to the Formosa Straits to patrol the China Sea,
And then on down to Hong Kong to by some jewelry,
That tour of duty, way down there, was mighty tough on us,
The roll, the pitch and the mountainous seas made everybody cuss. Our forty-eight days a Wonsan will soon be at an end,
And then our course is eastward to take us home again,
This is our prayer for all aboard throught the coming year,
"Please keep our duty Stateside, and not back over here". H. L. BAKER
LTJG, U.S.N.R.
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