Read and be entertained... I was the person on the flight deck manning the 2 1/2 inch hose.
- Martin Jones after reading all these comments and ideas let me give my story on what happened that morning. as we all know the boiler casing had a leak in it and we were already down one generator. that evening on the 3rd the temperature started to rise in the bo...See More
Martin Jones following that DCFN Kelly Aguero came down and woke me and John Evans up and told us what was going on while that was going on it flashed into a fire. we went to repair 3 and got some gear and headed up to the aft decon area and manned a fore hose and checked it and we went around the corner toward the stbd torpedo mag and saw flames shoot through the overhead. some how we had no fire main pressure and backtracked to the fantail to see flames coming out through the boiler room door and into the passage way. we grabbed a 2 1/2 inch hose and started to bounce it off the bulkhead into the boiler room while the flames were shooting out. shortly after that the torpedo mag sprinkler heat sink in the p-way at the end of the horseshoe passageway melted at 165 deg if i remember right and filled the mag and the ship started to list to the starboard side.- Martin Jones once that happended some of the fuel started floating out of the flooded p-way and over the side. then we felt hot water falling on us from up above on the missle deck. we dropped the 2 1/2 hose and found the air detatchment spraying foam on the glowing missle deck. they gladly gave us that hose and kept feeding us foam till we were relieved by the fire team from repair 5. John help me out if I missed any details. i used to have a copy of the safety report where we got slammed for how we did it, but at the end it said if not for the first responders the damage would have been much greater. i am not bragging in any way but it is an event and details i will never forget. what a way to start off a Sunday morning holiday routine. the most comforting thing to me was the teamwork of the crew and as we were on the fantail we saw two red lights moving quickly towards us and next thing you know the USS Yorktown was next to us ready to assist. That is the event as I remember it.
- Martin Jones then later in the day CO CDR Barber came over to me and John and thanked us for all we did. I don't think he knew the grave danger that was going on. we were just tring to put out the fire and save our house. thank you and God bless.
Chris N Tammy Penning ^^Good shit. I got there in Aug of 95 and many of the CTs in our berthing back aft probably owe you their lives. I heard about that fire often. To the day he walked off, Ray Patterson would grab his EEBD the moment they lit off NR 3 and walk out of the berthing. He'd sleep in SSES until they shut it off. He'd say "I got lucky once, not chancing it again".- Chris N Tammy Penning And for what it's worth, "Trip" made some SIGNIFICANT contributions furthering the interests of the U.S. Navy (and still does). Just like Martin pointed out, it's easy to arm chair QB an event. I could never be a CO of a ship. I'd wake up and throw up every morning knowing my career is in the hands of a group of 18-23 yo's on the bridge. That shit ain't easy. And by the way, "Trip" is a member of this page so I think it's probably rude to speak of him in the third person.
Ken Oliver Martin - Thanks for the rundown, thats what I remember as well....I was running Repair 8, us "topsiders" never had much action, so being for real on smoke boundaries, and sending teams to man hoses was something I'll remember forever; I have a ton of p...See More
John Evans In the end after all is said and done this chain of events changed the way other ships conduct training they include more fire fighting drills from repair 3 and it caused fleet wide inspections of boilers so that something like this doesn't happen agai...See More
Maogwai Cat I was the airdale on the nozzle of that 2 1/2" hose on the flight deck. Facing the Sea Sparrow Mount... The torpedo mags were flooded at one point and one of the torp's started running. Scared me into praying for all those down below, doing the hot work. I remember some pressure tanks (Acetylene?) going off, too. Not trying to correct Martin's narrative, but it was the Cruiser Dale that pulled alongside. Thanks for telling the tale, Martin!
Robert Craig Always letters and metals for being placed in a position where you have to fight for yo life then get called a hero. There is realitively no difference between what happened thatday aboard the Deyo and what happened on the beaches of Normandy with the exception of the number of people doing their best to do what was needed to survive.- Maogwai Cat Yes, Robert, I think that fire was when I became proud to be a Tin Can Sailor and I never wanted to be on a big deck ship again. ('Ceptin' I was glad to be an AW, though...)
- Robert Craig Notice how many eye witness stories come from an incident and how much they vary. I sat in on a jury once and was convinced every eye witness that testified had an agenda to prove how incrediably accurate their memory was. Unlike Navy investigations wh...See More
- Maogwai Cat Differing focal points, that's all. Important thing is that we are able to be here to remember, 22 years later. No bad actors, just a tough moment and Deyo came through!
I received a Flag Letter of Commendation from the Two Star from the USS Forrestal.
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| I believe that is me on flight deck in my flying suit. Summer '92 leaving Charleston. |
