I was the OOD on the Battleship New Jersey during that transit. We had to stand off ahead of the Astoria bridge for what seemed like hours because of the protestors hanging from the bridge. The local cops couldn't/wouldn't pull them up and we did not know what they had on/with them that they might try to drop on to the ship, so we had to wait until they got tired and climbed up and out of our way. From there, it was a v-e-r-y long sea detail up the Columbia River to the Portland Rose Festival. Once in Portland, we had to keep our Marine guard on station during visiting hours, in case any of the local chuckleheads decided to make some sort of statement, which they did. You can always tell when protestors are about to do something because the local TV camera crews show up unannounced (the long-hairs call them first, to ensure coverage.) When the TV crews showed up, the Marines leaned forward, and when the long-hairs splashed a red liquid on Turret #3, the Marines immediately blocked them off with portable screens so the TV crews couldn't film them, then whisked them away and cleaned up the area before anybody could get a shot of it. Interesting fact: on the transit home from the Rose Festival, as we sailed back under the Astoria bridge, we were filmed by a movie crew and th footage was used in the opening scenes of the Schwarzenegger movie "Kindergarten Cop."
I remember this when we couldn’t go up the river because of Green Peace. The sea and anchor detail was forever going up river I was working in 2 engineroom aboard the New Jersey.
