Bob (Andy) Anderson Sea Stories

Transcription

1 Bob (Andy) Anderson Sea Stories First let me congratulate you on this fabulous website. My name is Bob (Andy) Anderson and I served on the mighty USS Segundo from 1963 thru My rate was QM2-SS. As I have gotten older and look back I have realized that my time in the submarine service and on the USS Segundo was a defining moment in my life; and a good life it has been. I have retained in my mind over the past forty plus years many memories of the USS Segundo and the great shipmates that I was privileged to have served with. Here is my contribution to the sea stories section. SEA STORIES - USS SEGUNDO GUARD DUTY AT THE SUBMARINE PIER I had only been a member of the crew of the Segundo for several weeks when Chief of the Boat Dexter Deneen assigned me guard duty at the head of the submarine pier in San Diego. I assumed the watch at noon on November 22, 1963 along with another sailor from one of the boats in the squadron. We were on duty for about an hour when it seemed like the level of activity on the pier started picking up big time. Naval cars were driving up to the pier and dropping off Admirals and Captains and other staff officers and at one point a helicopter landed in the parking lot to off load some top brass. They all seemed to be headed to the submarine tender USS Sperry and my arm was about to fall off from all the saluting I was required to do. No one bothered to clue us in on what was going on and I remember commenting to the other sailor on watch with me that the submarine pier was definitely a busy place. At the end of our watch we were relieved of duty and I headed back to the Segundo which was tied outboard of the USS Sperry. It was not till I dropped down the ladder into the crew's quarters and saw members of the crew glued to the TV did I find out that President Kennedy had been shot. I still remember the stunned look on the faces of my shipmates as they watched the news broadcasts from Dallas. MARE ISLAND YARD OVERHAUL In December of 1963 the Segundo headed north to the San Francisco Bay area for a yard overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The crew on duty while the boat was in dry-dock stayed on a barge nearby and I had the honor of painting the Segundo emblem, the Gaucho riding a torpedo, on the side of the barge. Captain Maire found out from my service record that prior to joining the Navy that I had a thriving business painting custom cars. He sat down with me and drew out in pencil what the emblem should look like and we agreed on the colors. I went over to the paint shop at the base and they fixed me up with paint and some brushes. I got some help with the painting from a shipmate Jim Hughes. I'm sending in a picture of our masterpiece for the picture gallery. I don't know to this day whether that was the creation of the Segundo emblem or if it had been around for some time. I had started working on

2 the quartermaster gang in addition to my submarine qualification requirements under Bob Lawson QM1 SS. One day Lawson said, "hey do you play golf?" and I replied with "shit yes". So we ventured over to the Mare Island Naval Country Club for several rounds of golf. The wind blew off the San Francisco bay constantly and that golf course probably had the hardest greens, like concrete, of any course I had played up to that time or since. In any event playing golf beat the shit out of working. I notice that Dick Lindsey commented on Andy Patterson and the bets he made on the Cassius Clay Sunny Liston fight. Paterson hit me up one night in the barracks to bet on the fight. I told him I had never heard of Cassius Clay and didn't know shit about boxing. I saved myself some money by not betting with Patterson. And then at the end of the yard overhaul there were the sea trials off the Farralon Islands in rough weather. I didn't have much sea time under my belt at that time but I did remembered the USS Thresher going down with its crew during sea trials during the time that I was in submarine school. In addition to sweating out the sea trials, I got a major case of seasickness but there was some comfort in knowing that I wasn't the only one who got sick. I thought to myself if it was going to be like this for the rest of my time on the Segundo I was screwed. Thank god that was the only time I ever got seasick. TOPSIDE BARBEQUES I noticed some of the guys wrote about the topside barbeques on the Segundo and I saw some good pictures in the photo gallery. My best recollection was a barbeque and swim call that we had on the Westpac deployment in We were operating in the Marianna chain of islands located somewhere east of the Philippine Islands. I remember checking the navigation publications in the conn on some of the islands and found that they were all uninhabited. One of the islands was named Magu and there was an active volcano near by and we could see smoke at its top. One night while in the area we were trying to get a navigational fix but could only get one Loran line and no celestial except for a sun line earlier in the day. The sonar operator on duty called up and said he had a strange rumbling noise that he was unsure of and since the bearing to the noise was in the direction of the volcano I used that bearing to plot the evening fix. When the OD came up to take the next watch he laughed and said it was the first time he had heard of using a volcano's noise to navigate by. The next day we had Loran back so I checked our position and the fix the night before turned out to be accurate. It was a beautiful Sunday in September and the plan was to have a topside barbeque and swim call. It was a perfect day for a swim call since the temperature outside was 104 degrees. The Segundo had a barbeque pit in the superstructure forward of the sail and the cooks did a great job preparing steaks, hamburgers with all the fixings; and boy did it feel good to dive into that warm blue Pacific water. And we didn't have to worry about hitting bottom since the water was 18,000 feet deep. One of the crew suggested that we station someone up on the bridge with a rifle to lookout for sharks and they volunteered Chief Swackhamer, god rest his soul. We all gave Swack a hard time because he didn't have the best eyesight and we were afraid he might mistake one of the crew for a shark and we didn't want a killed by friendly fire incident. After the barbeque was concluded the majority of the crew went below decks and the Segundo got underway on the surface. Within a few hours we came upon a tropical rain squall and a few of us went on deck and stripped down for a fresh water shower that felt outstanding even though we didn't have any soap. I agree with some of the other shipmate's comments that the barbeque was just an example of the camaraderie that we enjoyed as members of the fine crew of the Segundo.

3 THE BULLHORN FIASCO- I don't know how many of the crew remember Captain Maire's prize bullhorn. To set the stage, during the summer of 1964, I was given the assignment to go down to a local marine supply store on Shelter Island to pick up a bullhorn that had been ordered on behalf of Captain Maire. I told the store manager why I was there and he went in the back and got the new bullhorn. He proceeded to tell me that this was not just any bullhorn but was top of the line, a Cadillac of bullhorns. When I got back to the boat I was instructed to stow the bullhorn in a secure place where it would be available to the Captain at a moments notice and it needed to be kept in tip top shape. I think we stowed it behind the metal panel next to the conning tower ladder leading up to the bridge. To fast forward the story, on August 11, 1964 we departed San Diego on our WESTPAC trip just 4 days after the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was signed by Congress; planned or coincidence I don't know. As it relates to the Bull Horn Fiasco, I will move forward to the patrol in the Tonkin Gulf Vietnam in December 1964 thru January Segundo was in transit from Okinawa through the South China Sea preparing to take our assigned operating position in the Tonkin Gulf. As we proceeded into the gulf on the surface the crew was preparing the boat to dive and proceed with the mission. As QM on watch my duties were to record events in the ships log, man the conning tower radio and keep a head count on who was on the bridge. At some point prior to diving the boat the Captain went up to the bridge to confer with the OD and I guess his bullhorn went up also but I don't know why. Shortly after the Captain came down we received some radio traffic and the order to dive the boat was given. I took up my position in the conn next to the ladder and counted heads coming off the bridge. Once all hands were off the bridge and the OD pulled the hatch shut, I dogged it down and went on with my duties. This was going to be a long submerged patrol. Prok commented on the "big T" and over thirty days of trash accumulation. I got a great chuckle out of that since, I had forgotten that part of the patrol. It brought back memories to me of climbing over trash bags to get into my bunk. In any event, my recollection was that we were on submerged patrol for approximately six weeks. The weeks passed by and in January 1965, we were preparing to conclude the patrol and were proceeding out of the Gulf of Tonkin still submerged heading for the South China Sea. Once clear of the Gulf the crew was preparing the boat to surface and since I was on watch at that time my job was to crack the conning tower hatch and proceed to the bridge to scan for visual contacts. When the boat broke the surface and the order was given, I opened the hatch and hustled to the bridge at which time I tripped over an object that was on the bridge in front of the hatch. Once the OD and the lookouts were up on the bridge I went back to see what I had tripped over. The object was about the size of a beach ball and was one big ball of green moss. At first I thought maybe it was a large fish or sea creature that got caught up in the bridges superstructure and died. The OD and I scrapped away a couple of layers of moss and then reality set in. My god, it was the Captain's prized Bullhorn, and it was not in good working order having been submerged for several weeks. Since I was on watch when we dived weeks earlier all I could think was "I'm in deep shit". Chief Moore better known as "Ally Opps" gave me a hard time and I got some needling from the crew in the crews mess. I think it was in good spirits however since I don't think there was a great deal of compassion for the Captain's bullhorn. We gave the thrashed bullhorn to one of the electronics guys, I think it was Bob Price but I'm not certain.

4 After a couple of days he got it working again. Several days went by on our transit back to Japan and the Captain never mentioned the damaged bullhorn to me directly. I think I dodged a bullet and the electrician that fixed the bullhorn saved my bacon. As we were exiting the Gulf of Tonkin one morning on the surface I was on the bridge with the OD and the lookouts. It was good to feel that sunshine and breathe that fresh sea air. As we were talking two American fighter jets spotted us and came up from behind us. Because they were behind us we couldn't hear them and didn't know they were there. All of a sudden they were on us port and starboard flying no more than a hundred feet above the water and the jet noise was deafening. They immediately pulled straight up like a rocket did a figure eight maneuver and came back down for a second pass crossing in front of our bow to check us out. They probably didn't know that we were a friendly submarine since our hull numbers were painted out and we were not flying a flag. We weren't sure what their next move would be so I dropped down into the conn and grabbed our American flag. As they made another pass at us I waved the flag and I thought I could see a thumbs up from one of the pilots as they passed by. They then disappeared into the clouds and we continued to head north in the South China Sea. TYPHOON - As Prok said, we must have enjoyed this storm as we were in it so long, five days per my count. In October 1964 the Segundo was in transit from Subic Bay P.I. to Hong Kong when we got caught in the middle of a major typhoon. As the storm grew in intensity the lookouts and the officer of the deck were harnessed in so they wouldn't wash overboard. The Captain abandoned our course to Hong Kong and put the bow of the submarine in the direction of the waves which we estimated to be twenty to thirty feet. For the first couple of days we were getting hammered big time. I had a bottom rack in the after battery, the boat took a big roll and one of the guys sleeping above me came out of his rack and hit the deck. Fortunately his mattress came out also and he landed on it rather than the hard deck. I would wedge my shoulders into the bottom of the bunk above me to keep from being tossed out. Up in the conning tower we were taking water down the hatch and I had heard that electronic equipment in the control room below was shorted out. I remember while on watch in the conn, going up to the bridge. The conditions were hard to describe. The wind was blowing over 100 knots and blowing water horizontally in sheets. Exposed parts of the body felt like you were being sandblasted. There was no visibility; you could hardly see the bow of the boat. I think it was during this storm that Lt. Boley was injured on the bridge. The roll of the boat or a wave hitting the bridge, not sure which, bounced him off the TBT. Knocked him unconscious and cut his face and head pretty badly. I remember trying to help get him off the bridge down below where the doc did a masterful job of patching him up. In the conn my friend Skip Freeman manned the radar with his trusty barf can close at hand. It was shortly after Lt. Boley was hurt that the Captain ordered all personnel off the bridge and the conning tower hatch secured. We ran for the next two and a half days with the hatch closed using radar as our eyes and sonar as our ears. Since there were no lookouts on the bridge the periscope was raised to scan the horizon for other ships. I'm not sure how effective that was. When I was on the scope the roll of the boat made it almost impossible to stay focused on the horizon. I found myself either looking down into the trough or up at the sky. I constantly adjusted the elevation controls on the scope in an attempt to find the horizon. On some of the rolls I would lose my footing and with arms draped over the periscope handles I would

5 be spun around 180 degrees from port to starboard or vis-a-versa. In any event it was better with the conning tower hatch closed. We were bouncing off of bulkheads but didn't have to deal with the water coming in. We limped into Hong Kong beaten up pretty good but not broken. It was after that storm that I started smoking to calm my young nerves. THE FUGARWE TRIBE I was a proud member of the "FUGARWE" Tribe. Chief Moore aka Alle Oops came up with the name. When asked what the name stood for he said its what every good navigator says; "where the fuck are we". I was commissioned to design a patch for the tribe and while in Yokosuka Japan in the winter of 1965, I found a place that made up the patches. Members of the tribe included Ally Opps, Dale Voss, myself and Victor Durate. I've forwarded a picture of the patch to be included in the photo gallery. MIDWAY DETOUR In February 1965 the Segundo was in transit from Yokasuka Japan to Pearl Harbor and then on home to San Diego when we received a radio message instructing us to divert to Midway Island, refuel, take on 90 days of supplies and be prepared to go back. As we approached Midway the island seemed so small and at its highest point I don't think it was more than ten feet above sea level. As we approached the channel to Midway Island, I was amazed to see the rusted hulks of Japanese and American warships aground on the corral reefs all victims of the Battle of Midway some twenty years earlier. Maneuvering through the narrow channel that was cut through a corral reef was a challenge as it was not that well marked but we made it in to the fueling pier and tied up. In the photo gallery there is a good picture of the boat tied to the pier at Midway. There were a lot of pissed off sailors on the Segundo that day and a number of the crew that was not involved in the fueling process decided to check out the island. We wandered down the beach for a while and to work off our frustration we took target practice on the goony birds with rocks we found on the beach. We then headed over to a store that was on the base and bought a couple of cases of beer again to work off frustration. While in the store I got an envelope and a scrap of paper and wrote a quick note to my wife telling her we probably wouldn't be home as scheduled. We then found a nice spot on the beach where we could continue our assault on the goony bird population and drink the beer. A couple of hours went by and most of us were feeling no pain when one of our shipmates came running down the beach and told us that we had received another message giving the boat the OK to continue to Pearl Harbor and await further orders. We left the beer that had not been drunk on the beach, there wasn't much left, and headed back to the boat. There was a lot of excitement, screaming and yelling and several guys dove off the boat into the water in celebration. Then the word was passed to set the maneuvering watch so we could get underway. Even though a number of us were buzzed in good submariner style we were able to perform our maneuvering watch duties with the utmost of precision. We left Midway Island in our wake and I think it took five or six days to reach Pearl Harbor. When we were tied up at the Submarine pier in Pearl Harbor, I ran down to the end of the pier to the pay phone so I could call the states. My mother in law answered the phone as my wife was crying and upset having just received my letter an hour earlier. I was able to calm her down by telling her we were in Hawaii and would be heading for San Diego soon.

6 THE COMMISSARY GANG - I thought the chow on the Segundo was first class thanks to commissary members Shaky Jake, Prokupek and the others whose names have faded from memory. I noted that Prok's address is stickybuns 398 and how I remember those stickybunns in the morning. Coming off the 4 to 8 watch or getting ready to go on the 8 to 12 watch I had to get my fill of those stickybuns. But two were not enough for me and Prok rationed them out as I recall. I finally figured out that I could get away with eating two stickybuns and then if I went away for a while Prok would lose count of who had been there already. Then I'd drift back for a couple more sticky buns. That was my method of operation. Also those Friday dinners of scallops and lobster were great. I acquired a taste for lobster big time and when I went back to civilian life I quickly found out that I couldn't afford to eat four lobster tails in a restaurant. Does anyone remember the time when the ships order for beef steak got screwed up and the boat wound up with enough steak to last for a month. We were eating steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a couple of weeks. Never thought I'd get tired of eating steak but I did on that patrol. I also have a picture I had taken of Christmas dinner 1964 on the wall. It's titled "Christmas dinner 1964, submerged Tonkin Gulf Vietnam". The commissary gang did a great deal to boost crew moral during some tough times. My compliments to the chefs.