posted 01-22-2022 08:56 AM
   
Recently Joseph Volutza sent me scans of Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) recovery ships from a collection he had purchased. Amongst a number of gems there were a number of what appeared to be from ships not involved in the operation such as the one below. This ship is not mentioned in any source that I had seen so I decided to investigate. Can you imagine my surprise and delight when I found than an entire Destroyer squadron was put on alert off Bermuda and that this was not recorded anywhere I could find except for a publication from August 1962 called "All Hands." Basically, the Destroyer squadron DesRon 36 was deployed to Bermuda for an early MA-6 flight attempt. After the attempt DesRon 36 was put on tender availability until the actual launch when the squadron was recalled to just off Bermuda where it was available if required for the recovery of MA-6. There were nine ships in the squadron and the list can be seen partway down here. It is amazing that such important information is still coming to light. I'll be adding extra cover scans in the next day or two. | 
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