John Santopietro This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. USS Clarion River LSMR 409

   our409.home.att.net/vietnam.ht - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/24/2005   Last Visited: 5/7/2007

   John Santopietro came aboard the Clarion River in late 1967, just as I was departing. He stayed with the ship until it's scrapping in 1970 in Japan. He was then the leading gunnersmate as a GMG2. John went on to continue with the Navy and retired as a Senior Chief with his last tour in Mechanicsburg, PA where he currently works for the Navy as a Program Manager. Married with four children he still has two teens at home. Thanks to John for keeping track of the "Family Grams" that charted the ships activities.
   
   Night Combat - John says was shot by a photo journalist aboard the ship.
   
   The pictures appeared later in an edition of the Altoona, PA Mirror
   
   Day Fire by the same newspaper reporter
   
   This is a copy of a ship's patch that was made up at the Diamond Patch Company in Japan after John came aboard. Also during that time John says they put rocket can cover lids on the launcher tubes with eyeballs painted on them and make the launchers dance when they pulled into port! Caught quite a lot of attention!
   
   dude.jpg (9365 bytes) US Navy Photo by PH1 Jon Sagester
   
   Although he appears to be launching his own personal rocket, GM2 John B. Santgopietro, 25, of Altoona, PA is actually discarding a "dud" ... a rocket which misfired.
   
   John says if the Clarion River would have been three feet shorter the Navy would have classified the "ship" as a "boat". He says the LSMR's were the smallest ship to have a 5" 38 caliber gun mount. He says most of the time reduced charges were fired in the mount. Everytime they tried to put full charges in the mount cracks would appear across the main deck from the recoil! On several occasions, John remembers covering the 5" rockets stored under the main deck with tarps while welders went to work on repairing the cracks!
   
   There were also twin 40mm guns fore and aft of the LSMR 409. Some called them pompom guns.
   
   John can be contacted at: John B Santopietro@icpmech.navy.mil
   ...
   I knew John Santopietro quite well.
   ...
   It really put a smile on my face when I saw E-mail from John Santopietro and William Martin as they were both on board when I was.