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January 12, 2005
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Editor's Note: This is an email sent by a chief petty officer onboard
the nuclear attack submarine USS San Francisco describing the grounding
incident that killed one crewman and injured several dozen others.
The email has been widely circulated within the U.S.
Navy Submarine Service and has been provided to DefenseWatch:
To All,
I thought that I would put out a note since a lot of you have been
calling and writing to find out how things are and if I'm OK and
what happened. If you hadn't heard, my boat hit a uncharted submerged
sea mount at the highest speed we can go at about 500 ft. below
the surface. There were about 30 of us that were seriously hurt
and, unfortunately, one of my shipmates didn't make it.
First off, I am OK. I am pretty beat up with my entire left side
and butt as one big bruise. My shoulder is separated and may require
surgery. They will evaluate later this week. I am very fortunate
that I hit the wall and didn't go down a ladderwell that was right
next to where I hit. If I had gone down that, I would have got really
messed up.
I took a tremendous shot to my left thigh from something. If it
had been slightly lower in the knee area it would have been really
ugly. But all in all I am in good shape. We hit it at about noon
right after field day (where all of us clean the boat for several
hours). Thank God we didn't hit while we were doing this or it would
have been much worse. We would have had flying deck plates through
the air and such. Not good.
As it was, it happened while chow was going on and most people were
either sitting and eating or on watch. I don't remember much of
the collision. People describe it as like in the movie, "The Matrix,"
where everything slowed down and levitated and then went flying
forward faster that the brain can process. My mind has blanked it
out exactly what happened. Adrenaline kicked in and I have no real
memory of how I got down to middle level or what I did immediately
following.
I helped carry several shipmates to the crew mess deck (adrenaline
is a wonderful thing - my shoulder was wrecked and I had no idea
until about 4 hours later). I sat with several of my junior guys
that had bad head wounds and talked with them to keep them conscious
until doc could see them. It seemed like an eternity but I'm sure
[it] wasn't that long.
For those Navy folks that ever wondered why Chiefs stomp around
and preach, "Stow for Sea," this was a perfect example. It definitely
saved lives.
I am extremely proud of the crew to do damage control, help the
wounded and get the boat safely to the surface (for the boat guys
we blew the tanks dry on the emergency blow but unbeknownst to us
we were missing some ballast tanks - some didn't have integrity).
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The ship's control party did every thing exactly right even though
they were hurt as well. The Diving Officer of the Watch had just
unbuckled his belt to update a status board and hit the Ship's Control
Panel hard enough to break some of the gauges. To add insult to
injury, his chair came up right behind him. Several people were
injured in the Engine Room Lower Level area. Lots of metal and sharp
edges in the area as well as that's where the boat's smoking area
is. Several crew members are reevaluating that habit now.
Once again, we got lucky in the fact that we had an extra corpsman
onboard. One of our officers was a prior enlisted corpsman who was
a Fleet Marine Force medic so he was a Godsend for us. Our Corpsman
did an outstanding job getting everyone stabilized and did the best
he could for our fallen shipmate.
I am surprised that he got him to hold on as long as he did. Our
corpsman is definitely a hero in my book. He didn't sleep for 2
or 3 days. We finally put him down when the SEAL docs helicoptered
in to help. Like I said, I am extremely proud of my crew and how
they handled themselves.
My Chief of the Boat was an inspiration of what a leader should
be and my Captain was as well. My XO took out an EAB manifold with
his back but still managed to help coordinate things. No matter
what happens later, these men did a superior job under difficult
circumstances. I am humbled by the entire crew's performance from
the CO down to the seaman that I was checking in two days before.
For those of you wondering, I am sure there will be an investigation
into what happened and, no, I was not part of the navigation preps
for this voyage. I work on the inertial/electronic navigation and
interior communications part of my rate and didn't have anything
to do with the conventional navigation part of it. I will be lending
support to my comrades who were to help them prepare for the pending
investigation.
I thank you all for your concern and appreciate your prayers not
only for myself, but for my shipmates. We are doing well, we band
of brothers and will pull through just fine.
Thanks,
Brian Frie, ETC (SS), USS San Francisco (SSN 711)
©2005 DefenseWatch. All opinions expressed
in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect
those of Military.com.
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