U.S.S. Allen M. Sumner DD-692
Vietnam Deployment General Quarters Log

The following table displays a record of each of the 115 combat General Quarters occurrences during the Sumner's deployment to Vietnam.  Times displayed are military time and as you will notice we spent many a night at GQ and not sleeping.  All of our food, fuel, ammunition and supplies came via underway replenishment and this too usually occurred during the night and required most if not all of the crew.  It must also be remembered that each crewman still had a regular job to do as the ship required endless maintenance and upkeep.   The Location column indicates the Latitude and Longitude where these actions took place.  The positions were taken three times per day at 0800, 1200 and 2000.  I have indicated the Location to the closest position in time taken by the Navigator.   The Target column indicates what was being taken under fire.  A Water Borne Logistic Craft was a seagoing vessel that was 50 feet or longer, headed in a Southerly direction and self-propelled.  NGFS indicates Naval Gun Fire Support, usually called for by the troops ashore.  The indication CB indicates that Sumner was taken under fire by North Vietnamese shore batteries. We were taken under fire on 12 separate occasions, receiving approximately 750 rounds of enemy fire with the closest being within 10 feet. The symbol NBC indicates the  two days an NBC camera crew came aboard and filmed a segment for the Huntley-Brinkley Evening News and the Today program.  The 5" Rounds Fired column indicates the number of rounds actually fired in the engagement.  Entries which read NL were not entered into the Ship's Log which was the basis for this table.  All of the entries for April, May and June took place off the coast of North Vietnam while those for July and August were off the South Vietnamese Coast.  The total rounds fired displayed in the table is 7,003, if the 27 GQ's indicating NL could be included, the total certainly exceeded 8,000.

Confirmed Target Damage
107 waterborne logistics craft destroyed or damaged
10 coastal defense sites destroyed or damaged
16 buildings destroyed or damaged
2 bunkers destroyed
10 trucks destroyed

The National Archives has online Record Group 218: Records of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff;  Series: Combat Naval Gunfire Support (CONGA) File, 3/1966 - 1/1973. This file is presented as a listing of all missions during the period Sumner was in Vietnam. The file does not agree with the Official Deck Logs and contains errors and gaps. An example would be the gunfire support provided during Operation Beau Charger, May 18-19 1967, is not included for the Sumner while it is for other ships in support. It is almost impossible to tie this file with actual targets, times, rounds fired or results. While the Deck Logs are incomplete they more accurately depict the actual combat missions encountered by Sumner.

Also online is the Hostile Fire File (HOSTA) 10/25/1966 - 4/5/1970 from Record Group 38: Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations; Naval Bombardment File.  This file compiles a listing of the ships taken under enemy fire and the extract presented below indicates those Counter-Battery incidents for the Sumner.  As with the CONGA File described above there are omissions from this report including Counter-Battery occurring on May 11, May 18 and a second occasion on May 21st.  Many of these online files, which provide the basis for what Sumner is officially credited with, contain not only omissions but outright errors.  This is the case with the Navy Online Unit Awards which lists the Sumner as credited with the Vietnam Service Medal for the period February 17 to February 19, 1967.  At that time the Sumner was sailing from the Panama Canal enroute to Pearl Harbor many thousands of miles from the Vietnam Combat Zone. The following pages are from the HOSTA Report with the first displaying the column headings and the subsequent pages showing the entries for the Sumner.