Emergency Sortie
Here's a photo of an unidentified Los Angeles-class submarine pulling out of Norfolk yesterday ahead of Hurricane Irene:
(Official Navy information on the storm can be found here.) Have you ever had to do an emergency sortie for a hurricane? Or been kept in port because your boat couldn't move and had to ride out the storm?
[Admin note: Expect light blogging for the next few days. I'm celebrating four dozen years on earth today, and switch back to day shift at work after that, so I'll need to get re-acclimated to a normal schedule.]
posted by Bubblehead at 11:40 AM
52 Comments:
Had just pulled our boat into Guam a few days earlier for a major upkeep while deployed on a WestPac. Typhoon coming causes us to rush preparations to get underway. Had to start up and heat up the tea kettle and get back all of the equipment that had been sent to the tender for calibration.
Our boss helpfully suggested that we get underway on the diesel, go out to sea in the face of the typhoon on emergency propulsion, and--when we were far enough out to sea--we could finish the start up and heat up without worrying about problems associated with being too close to land. Our CO's response to that bit of wisdom is not printable, but whoever made the suggestion should have been fired on the spot.
Interestingly, 100% of our TLDs came back from the tender that day with calibration stickers (normal pass rate was about 70%), but almost half of them failed their next calibration back in our homeport (almost exactly equal to two successive 70% pass rates). Apparently it doesn't take very long to date and initial a sheet of calibration stickers--that's why ELTs call it "radio" chemistry.
8/26/2011 12:17 PM
1960, Hurricane Donna at Groton. All boats in local waters brought back to port, fork-truck lifts of mooring lines from the warehouses brought down to the piers and all used so that everyone was lashed from every deck fitting to every hold-fast on the pier. Then all submerged at the piers and sat on the bottom as the Thames put water about 3 ft over the piers and well up the sandbags at the powerplant on Lower Base. My boat (SS-244) was north-side Pier Ten, with NAUTILUS on south side.
We were moored, so just needed a below-decks watch. CO Yogi Kaufman, noting the arduous strain on the crew, broke out all the medicinal brandy aboard and passed the word Splice The Mainbrace.
Would love to know if this is the only time boats have chosen to ride out on the bottom moored in port. Is only time I know of...
8/26/2011 12:47 PM
Late '96, early '97 we were transitting from San Diego to Bremerton on a CGN when a pretty hefty strom came up. Since we weren't willing to do our single possible dive on the ship, we instead chose to pull into Alameda for a couple of days to weather out the storm (more like avoid it... in San Francisco bay we didn't see any problems with the seas). Got a nice couple of days of shore leave out of that experience!
8/26/2011 1:29 PM
Believe NARWHAL submerged at the pier in Charleston. Dan Whitford in command.
HYMAN G. RICKOVER was the last sub to leave Groton for Hurricane Gloria in 1985. RICKOVER transited the Long Island Sound on the surface from one side, through the eye, eventually diving with the hurricane in her wake. I remember well, I was the OOD (conned from periscope stand). Long dance with the one eyed lady. One wild ride.
8/26/2011 1:33 PM
Ducky: Narwhal rode Hugo out in Charleston harbor tied to the dock and then after breaking free on the bottom of the Cooper River.
8/26/2011 1:36 PM
Duck as much $hit as I've given you over the last couple of years, I have to admit, you've got a ton of good stories. You should put them down on paper. Seriously.
8/26/2011 1:45 PM
To add one more...
TROUT was transiting the Bashi Channel surfaced. Our destination was Kaohsiung, but we were down to one engine and might instead head for Subic as better able for repairs (one engine down hard; then flooded the centerline generator and had a zero ground - fixed it by putting soapy water in the generator, roll the diesel slowly with air, draining, flushing, and forced hot air drying - broke the ground and got the engine back - call it pigboat innovation).
Biggest waves I've seen. Surfaced, they were higher than TROUT's high sail. Were getting beat so bad in our forward motion that took to charging surfaced with bare steerageway and then running submerged standard until the can went empty. Repeat. Got to Kaohsiung on time, my late wife on pier alongside the COB's wife waiting for the boat to come in. Big ship's party at Nancy's, a good time had by all.
8/26/2011 2:49 PM
RD, you were lucky to have served under a legend like Yogi Kaufman. During my JO tour, I recall hearing a story regarding an SS that rode out a hurricane inport, perhaps in GITMO or Port Canaveral. The best part of the story was that when the eye of the hurricane passed over them, they surfaced long enough to send out a message requesting to exchange movies because the crew was tired of reruns.
8/26/2011 2:52 PM
1991, Hurricane Iniki is rolling along south of the Hawaiian islands. I was the SDO and the Cavalla was in the floating drydock in Pearl. At around midnight the storm turns north and will eventually bullseye Kauai. the squadron wakes me up: "You need to do a full crew recall." Lovely. with no shaft and just a big hole in the back we do what we can to make the ship watertight.
At first light every ship is moving out to sea, and we were flooding the drydock to put 10' of water on the keel and reduce drydock freeboard. It was pretty weird feeling the ship shudder on the blocks as the 70mph winds went by. That evening I went home, enjoyed a meal and beer in the dark, and the power came on before I went to bed.
8/26/2011 4:49 PM
I was on the USS Bremerton sitting on keel blocks in PHNSY when Hurricane Iniki threatened. Iniki took a westerly turn and wasted Kauai. Even if it didn't, we weren't going anywhere.
8/26/2011 5:50 PM
USS Buffalo was in a unique situation when Hurricane Iniki rolled through the Hawaiian Islands in 1992. Still in the shipyard, but sitting pierside in the water and with the reactor untested, but ready to be started up for the first time in almost two years. Steel cables were used as outriders and two NR reps came onboard to ride out the storm.
If the boat had started to break loose from the pier, the crew had already discussed how to start up the reactor. Theoretically, the NR reps were there to prevent such a thing, but if the manure hit the ventilator, they may have helped the crew expedite the startup. In any event, there were only two of them, so they weren't actually in a position to stop anything.
8/26/2011 6:03 PM
Huuricane Iwa creamed Kauai in 1982. Hurricane Iniki creamed Kauai in 1992. If you're thinking about retiring to one of the Hawaiian islands, consider some trend analysis before choosing Kauai.
8/26/2011 6:06 PM
Yes, Narwhal did ride out Hugo on the bottome of the cooper river.
http://www.esryle.com/coblinks/tdish/0922.htm
1989 - USS NARWHAL (SSN-671) sustained minor damage during Hurricane Hugo while submerged at the Charleston Naval Base, SC. The ship was moored with nine double wires and two three-inch ship's lines, all but one of which were ripped loose during the first half of the storm. During the eye of the storm, the captain discovered the submarine had drifted to the center of the Cooper River. Tugboats and NARWHAL's crew unsuccessfully tried to move the submarine back to the pier. As the storm began again, the captain submerged the submarine in the river and NARWHAL rode out the remainder of the hurricane with only part of her conning tower exposed.
Everyone else both surface and sub got out of dodge before that. After Hugo passed the Coast Guard closed the port because the buoys were blown off station, they said. It was ten days before I found out if I had a house or not.
8/26/2011 6:20 PM
WestPac 93 in Guam, I had rented a car when I got the word we get underway in a few hours. No time to turn in the car, no time for guys to check out of the barracks. I make multiple trips bringing guys back to the boat and finally just leave the car with the keys in it. The plan was to go out for a couple of days and then come back. We got a message saying change of plans, we've got tasking for you. We sent a message with a list of the barracks rooms and what kind of stuff was in there (including uniforms at the dry cleaners) and that a couple of cars were parked on the pier. After the storm, we did a BSP and picked up some food and all our stuff. Nobody lost anything of consequence, except some missing poopie suits. Those boys in Guam really took care of us. I tried to remember that when I was at squadron and guys asked for some seemingly off the wall things.
8/26/2011 7:37 PM
Rode out Hurricane Gloria in 1985 on the Philly while we were moored to the pier at PNSY. I had duty so spent the day on the ship. The rest of the crew went to the "snake ranch" where a huge hurricane party was held - singles, husbands and wives. Lots of stories were generated from that party
RIP P. Studley
8/26/2011 7:48 PM
Hey Srvd. I was on the USS Honolulu at the same time. We were the last operational boat that was to get underway. But the visibility was so bad at the mouth of Pearl Harbor we got to stay in. Our surface transit was going to be 5 hours before we could dive. We were all pretty happy about staying it. Except the command decided that all of the single guys had to stay and man the boat and let the married ones go home. I did not care because it was going to be my duty day anyway.
8/26/2011 8:28 PM
On Skate we left PI after a month upkeep, poked some holes then went to Thailand. Leaving Thailand we got smacked by a typhoon while still in the Gulf...to shallow to dive. Eventually made the dive point and headed to Korea, our next port. The boat was a rattle-trap and we figured a linelocker was open (the old S-girls had a topside superstructure akin to the WW2 boats). Surfaced off Korea to find the entire superstructure from the sail aft was gone. Cleats, air bottles, all the hard mounted gear was in place and usable. Just no place to stand or walk.
Back to PI for 6 more weeks to get a new aft deck built on the ship.
Yee-Haw.
8/26/2011 11:53 PM
Iniki, new check-in to CSS-1. I
got the duty. First time I'd ever
seen coconuts fly. As cleanup volunteers in the Wainae area we where digging sand out of condos with grain shovels. We just happened to find an entire RPM set in the living room of the radcon barge LPO. Can you say buh, buh, bye nook?
8/27/2011 1:52 AM
BH,
Congrats on four decades!
8/27/2011 4:59 AM
We were in Subic in '68 when the New Jersey and her Task Force came off the line for some R&R just as a massiv e Typhoon forced us all to get underway. We were taking 15 degree rolls at 400 feet but those guys topside took one hell of a pounding.
8/27/2011 6:39 AM
Hey Joel,
Happy Birthday and many returns!
8/27/2011 10:07 AM
KellyJ, were you a nuke EM? If so, we've stood watch together many a time.
8/27/2011 10:29 AM
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8/27/2011 11:42 AM
"Unidentified Los Angeles-class submarine"? Please, that's child's play to figure out. Only two boats left in Norfolk with fairwater planes, and only one has VLS. That means it's the Newport News.
8/27/2011 11:46 AM
USS Boise: Fall 1996. Leaving Rotterdam on a surface transit down the English Channel out to the dive point. Problem was that the leftovers of Hurricane Lili were there as well welcoming us.
Flying bridge... ripped off.
Radio mast... bent.
Periscope... bent.
At least we got to see Plymouth England for two weeks. It had at that time one of the best looking Woolworth's I had ever seen. 2 KFCs and a Toys R Us as well. I think we took over this pub called Two Trees.
8/27/2011 11:46 AM
Several times out of Charleston. Lot's of puking.
8/27/2011 12:05 PM
In September 1979, GATO in O/H at Ingalls SY in Pascagoula, MS. GATO had just undocked a few weeks before. Hurricane Frederick made a bulls eye on the Gulf Coast. We were on the diesel and double moored to the pier. We fared just fine but the LPH under construction across the river broke her lines and started drifting in our direction. The Yard tugs made a stop just in time. Judging from the pictures, Frederick's damage was nothing compared to Katrina.
8/27/2011 1:18 PM
@ Anon 11:46
Not true. HELENA is now homeported in Norfolk as part of CSS 6. I'm pretty sure NEWPORT NEWS is deployed, so it is likely HELENA.
8/27/2011 2:02 PM
Recent one. SSBN out of KBAY had *just* completed Exchange of Command when CSS-20 determined that the boat (which had just returned) had to get underway to avoid the possibility of getting decked by an approaching hurricane (Hanna IIRC).
We even got permission from God and country to startup and do everything without doing FC. Fun time, that one, we did angles and dangles ourselves, the hurricane helped ensure our stow-for-sea was proper by continuous rolls even at 350' and deeper.
8/27/2011 4:47 PM
Been at sea during many storms over the years. Two more memorable events:
Left Sasebo at midnight to avoid an approaching typhoon. It was an interesting trip out of the harbor avoiding all of the merchants that had come in to port to avoid the storm. There were thirty foot waves on the top sounder that morning.
Surfaced to go into to Tokyo once in a nasty storm. Bent the radar mast and couldn't lower it to submerge when we learned that Tokyo Wan was closed due to the storm.
8/27/2011 4:55 PM
Well so far this storm is sort of a bust as I sit here near Hartford. No rain, no wind and the lights are on - all of those are in the good direction!
8/27/2011 7:38 PM
Don't hold your breath. It's moving slower now, which means you will get lots more rain, and some more wind.
8/27/2011 9:11 PM
Anon: Not a nuke...I was a Seaman ST Striker (back when you could do that...took me years to make 3rd).
8/27/2011 9:26 PM
Twice: First on Buffalo in 1989 (Pacex) for a typhoon that chased us out of PI (second day of a seven-day port call.) CO was still hung over coming down the pier after Maneuvering Watch stationed. 55 days at sea, 2 days in port--yeah, good deal.
Had to shut down the hot rock because of RC-Div issue on the way out and restart. Snorkeling on surface with typhoon coming in and everyone puking their guts out in a hot-ass engine room while we're trying to fix gear.
To top it off, was notified that we had been selected for "surprise" ORSE on way back. Hit DD4 in Pearl, did the ORSE, dropped them off. Commodore is on the torpedo retriever with the lei when the CO says, (and I quote) "GET THAT GODDAMNED LEI OFF MY BOAT!" Commodore's face was priceless. Ah, good times.
Second time was on Holland in 1992 for Typhoon Omar. We get to sea and raining like a SOB and blowing worse. Hatch in the NSF wasn't torqued down, and was literally raining on the PET tank and filling the NSF sumps. I went out alone with a socket wrench and cheater bar. Did NOT apply proper PVO or torquing techniques. Leakage stopped. White Plains didn't get underway. They got blown across Apra Harbor and ended up on a reef. Best way to start a fight with any of those guys is to walk into a bar and order a "White Plains--ON THE ROCKS."
8/28/2011 5:38 AM
BILLFISH (SSN 676 not SS 286) was in drydock for Hurricane Hugo. I was in Orlando for power school at the time, so I don't have any details of that one, other than to know it happened.
8/28/2011 6:21 AM
I think a few boats from Groton and probably Norfolk have some Hurricane Bob stories. No major events with my boat, just went to sea and "Bobbed" like a cork until the 100F curve. Naturally right through the eye. It's nice to see that the Navy seems to be doing more to take care of dependents left onshore with this one. FB page is looking for families to check in and give status: I assume they would lend a hand if some folks were in trouble.
8/28/2011 7:18 AM
uss nyc in opareas out of ph. went to pd to get more water. couldnt contact anyone local. got sucked to surface and rolled heavily. hung off conn from hydraulic piping with weps on scope while we got comms with san diego who then called pearl on phone to relay more op area. went home later. my apartment never lost power, but buddies house on other side was w/o power for a week.
8/28/2011 10:10 AM
sheesh,was during iwa on nyc in above comment
8/28/2011 10:11 AM
Was on USS Savannah AOR-4 during the 1993 nor'easter called the snowicane. Involved in a shipboard collision while tied to the pier. The MSC ship on the next pier, commanded (but not for long) by a grizzled old merchant captain who knew more than NAVSEA, tied up completely wrong, with wire rope, intead of manila, etc. etc. That vessel got loose, and hit us.
Got tied up astern of us as the eye passed over- with manila and nylon. And a civilian tug between her and the pier- which sat there for several days getting paid by the hour for its services.
8/28/2011 9:01 PM
Dateline: November 1977, North Atlantic during storm conditions. The USS Omaha was out on her 2nd sea trials cruising at 150 ft with almost 200 souls aboard, ship's force plus 80 yard workers from Electric Boat. We spent days doing regular 30 degree rolls with the occasional 45, not to mention pitching and yawing at the same time. Yes, a three-axis barf-fest. 2nd sea trials means it was our second time out on the ocean, and we could not dive deeper than 200 ft until we had done a controlled descent test depth. Too many people, and too shallow was not a fun combination. We had the entire Torpedo Room full of bunks, including next to the Subroc shields. During one especially good roll the Starboard lower shield (700+ pounds of steel-cased lead) broke loose and pushed a guy's bunk pan clear off the rails. Poor Mad Dog was in it, and the 12 inch drop to the floor was enough to send him sprinting for the head. There were five of us and all we could do was hold it in place during the rolls to Port, then push it back a few inches during the rolls to Starboard. After about five cycles the TM managed to pound the ball-lock pin back in place to lock it in position. I was a trainee Nuc operator, so Timmy, my instructor, was *supposed* to be escorted at all times when I was on watch in the Engine Room Lower Level but he was hunched over a trash can the whole 6 hours we were on watch. Well, I learned to walk on pumps, pipes, and walls pretty quickly and never had a problem. The first, and only, time I really felt queasy under water was during a movie that cruise in Crew's Mess. Wall to wall bodies, and half of them smoking..... I decided to get some fresh air so I just headed to the Forward Escape Trunk and headed up. Four steps up the ladder and I almost hit my head on a hand wheel. Oh S***, the lower hatch is down and dogged. That meant that 7 feet above the outer hatch was down and dogged. And *that* meant I had another 120 feet to go to get to fresh air. I headed to my bunk....
8/29/2011 7:06 PM
2nd story for the Omaha...
Dateline: Summer 1980, South China Sea during the typhoon season. We were tied up to DD out in the quarantine anchorage and we were running amok on liberty. A storm blew up out of the west late in the evening, the water taxis stopped running about 2200 (as I recall). Then things started going sideways in a big way. We started surging against the DD and crushed the after camel, then mashed their gangway flat between the ships. Then we got enough water in the aft escape trunk they shut down the “shore” power feed and we lit off the Emergency Diesel (and started douching down their pretty topside with diesel exhaust. By dawn we had started rolling and had pounded a hole in their superstructure with our port fairwater plane. Now life started to get interesting. We had a bunch of guys stranded on the beach, and another dozen or so on the DD. They tried to set up a highline to get our guys aboard but the first man down (a fat ensign) got bounced off the hull hard enough we though he broke his leg so they gave up on that idea.
About 0800 the CO called back to do an Emergency Startup using the new procedure they trained on before going on the West Pac. Yes, “They”. I was ERUL watch for the actual event but was on leave when they did the dry runs. We got the reactor ready in about 20 minutes and I had an SSTG on line and was Ready to Answer All Bells in about 25 more. Then we waited... Getting the forward ballast tank vent covers off was no big deal, but nobody could stay attached to the boat long enough to remove the last two pairs, they kept getting washed off the stern of the boat. Everybody was wearing a harness so we just pulled them back on board. After 8 hours of dinking around, including crushing the forward camel too. We beat feet on the surface and headed back to Subic Bay. We were seriously short handed, 1/3 of the ward room and about 1/2 the crew was aboard. We had a bunch stuck on the DD that had been our shore power supply in the harbor, and the rest stranded on the beach in Hong Kong, they ended up flying to Subic Bay on commercial airlines. With the last 4 covers still bolted down we were stuck on the surface, and there were storms a ‘plenty that summer that we had to dodge. The officers were Port and Starboard for OOD and we were all Port/Starboard as well, we even had a Chief standing one of the Engineering Officer of the Watch shifts in Maneuvering. We had an A-ganger cooking breakfast (Bear's Breakfast Beans) and other unmentionable things going on. We pulled in to Subic about 0800 the third day out and *finally* got those damn covers off. The Omaha Skimmer Society came home from the destroyer, and the 692nd Airborne got home as well. Our CO counted noses, checked the weather reports, and we beat feet out of Subic Bay around 1600, just before a storm (which may have been Typhoon Joe) came across from the east and beat the ever-loving snot out of Luzon island and Subic Bay.
No, submarines (and submariners) do NOT like the surface.
Final story. We were in Cocoa Beach for sound trials and a Fleet Oiler was moored behind us. We got to talking to the bridge crew, and they told us about their Captain. He was a submariner who was getting his deep draft surface command experience. When he had been on board a month or so they were out at sea during a storm, bouncing around like a large ship will. The CO came on to the bridge and rapped out "Officer of the Deck, submerge the ship, make your depth 200 feet and maintain present course." Now, the OOD looked at the JOOD, who looked at the Helmsman, who looked at the Messenger of the Watch, who looked back at the OOD. "But, sir..... This is a surface ship, we can't submerge." With those words the CO turned a brighter shade of green and wasn't seen again until the storm was over.....
8/29/2011 7:24 PM
1983, PI, USS Hawkbill. Typhoon rolls in and chases away USS Midway/USS New Jersey battle group and leaves Hawkbill, Grayback, and Darter in port in Subic. Ten thousand sailors left, and the Subic Bay area just has three submarine crews to entertain. Ummmm, ever wonder what if feels like to be the King?
8/29/2011 8:20 PM
One or two while on the USS Louisiana in Kings Bay during the Hurricane season of 1998 (or was in 1997?).
The real ball buster if you will was the sub tender Frank Cable during the 2004 Typhoon season. I think we sortied at least 4 times, and all were false alarms except for Super Typhoon Chaba. Passed 150 miles north, but still gave the little island a beating. If it had been a direct hit, Guam would have never been the same. It was that strong.
http://youtu.be/2TomFEKvQK0
8/29/2011 10:28 PM
Just stopping by to say hello.... HELLO!!!! lol...
AubreyJ.........
8/30/2011 12:22 AM
1993/94. Sea trials on 763 out of pcan. Boat tied up with most of the crew lodged in the cheapest hotel on the beach next to Ron Jon's surf shop. Hotel is now a park. Bath tubs full of cheap beer and the duty van arrives to pick up the chosen few at about 0430 to go to the boat for a SU and UW to dodge a TS coming up the coast. The one and only time I was ever sea sick, hugging the trash can next to the still while heading out in huge seas. At the dive point we tried to lower the radar, but couldn't because it was bent from taking waves. We sent a big ELT up with chain falls and tried to un-bend. No luck. We turned around and went back with everyone puking everywhere. An a-ganger (can't remember name) walks through the middle level head and sees a nub scooping his puke out of the sink into a bucket because the drain was clogged. He snatches a piece of puke out of the bucket and eats it. Nub starts again. Tied up, shut down, and got the same room with beer still in the tub. Took 2 weeks for EB fly-away team to replace mast.
8/30/2011 4:42 PM
Maybe 61/62, 347 boat. BIGGG blow coming up the coast. Everyone who can get underway, does. Storm changes course to the east and hits the fleet flush. Two days of hell. Tremendous seas, 30ft.+. Snorkling on the surface. Over one, under the next one, cycling the head valve on occasion. Worst storm I was ever in. Lookouts and OOD double lashed in, holding your breath when we went under every other wave. A growing-up experience for everyone, even the old salts. Second day, CO starts to worry about the lookouts/OOD. Moves everyone below. Double perescope watch. Only time I was ever seasick. Everyone on scope watch had a can tied around their neck and trust me, those cans got used. Storm finally blew over and we got a look at topside. Five line lockers and lines gone, radio antana, after messenger bouy, several large chunks of deck gone. What really let us know how bad that storm was, was going back in we were ahead of the
Rosevelt in the channel. This was the storm that rolled up the front of her flight deck. Everyone topside just stood in awe.
Forward about 8 yrs. Back in Norfolk about 3 wks. off of shore duty. New boat, new wife and baby. First time away from home for wife, and you guessed it. Another storm ablowin. Out to sea we went to ride it out, leaving wife and child at home to fend for themselves. Not a whole lot of family support in those days. In about 5 days we were back. She was on the pier with the other wives, but she was not happy at all. She could not believe that was the way things were, and was ready to go home. She didn't, and we've rode out a lot more storms in the last 46 yrs.
OLD TM
8/30/2011 8:29 PM
I'm guessing there will be a few extra commissary runs for reading material before emergency sorties in the near future.
8/31/2011 8:09 PM
I was on SSN-751 in the early 90's. Can't remember which hurricane it was but we were already out to sea. CO was determined to get the message traffic every hour despite the fact we were feeling waves at 400. PD was fun - Hi/low alarms for pzr and sg's were constantly going off. Shaft RPM shooting up everytime the screw came out of the water. It was the only time I actually wore my RO seatbelt. After two excursions to PD the CO gave up on the message traffic.
PB Sterling ET1/SS
9/01/2011 9:14 AM
Yup, when I was on the Pintado in Pearl there was a pacific earthquake that sent out tsunami warnings. The entire fleet left pearl and went to the northern side of the islands. We were one of 2 submarines left in port. In our case we had no drain pump installed at the time. Just a giant blank flange were it belonged.
9/01/2011 11:04 AM
Just to confirm for everybody, that IS the Helena (725). We have the best parking spot on pier 3 and that's us heading out for sortie.
9/02/2011 3:39 PM
in my 20 years did numerous emergency sorties two of note We (Aspro)were in Japan with the scope being repaired and had to sorte out because Typhoon I cann't remember (40 years) but I think we were required to stay on surface and avoid because we had a DC plug in hole not scope) This as I recall was the same typhoon that two othe r boats got unit citations for rescuing B-52 crew The other emergency sorte (Aspro) was when it was announced that we had Mined Haiphong (we were inn preps for WestPac) sea bag almost packed 72 hours later we were fully loaded and WestPac bound (one of the last boats out of PH } 98 months later WestPac ended Bear MMCS(SS)
9/02/2011 5:24 PM
In my view everybody must go through it.
10/02/2011 6:52 AM
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