Question from Daniel Mobile
Question from Daniel Mobile
I want to know about you almost falling in the Indian ocean.
Your answer
So, the way that story goes is that we were in the Indian Ocean, uh, my destroyer DDG 20, USS Goldsboro, and I was a. And I see 2. We were doing night uh OPS refueling and I was taking photographs for our cruise Book. I was out on the deck. Umm, where the ship was. Connected to. The supply ship with large cables, so we were running side by side or in parallel and. A big wave came through and out two ships pulled against each other pretty violently and suddenly. I was looking through the camera lens so I did not anticipate a problem. I began losing my balance and leaned toward the ocean and expected to find the cables and the railing stanchion. nope, they had been taken out so the ASRocs (anti-submarine rockets could be loaded where ai was sitting). I began falling overboard and looked far below at the dark Indian ocean... then another jerk and the ship moved underneath me just enough for my legs to counterbalance my torso, and I barely managed to gain traction and scoot onto the deck. I was a moment from being lost at sea and never found. Those ships would take many, many, miles to even unhook, and the guys on the fantail were usually smoking (dope) and not watch for an overboard sailor. Yeah, that was pretty close. I was 21, I think. I didn't see my life flash before my eyes. All I remember was that there was very little moon light, and the phosphorescence from the bow wave was pretty noticeable, as were the red lights between each of the ships with cargo in mid-transit to restock our supplies. I would have been one less guy in the chow line the next rotation. End of story. But, here I am - and I'm grateful... for hundreds of other more terrifying cairns that I built. And just for the record, this is the very first question that I am answering from. Myself in the reader using the microphone. Pretty cool, right?