| Hi Servy,
I just spent some time on your web page, What a wonderful article you wrote. Thanks for putting into words what the rest of us could only feel. You have done a great service to those who died and to those of us who lived on. |
Wed, 1 Oct 1997 07:57:47 -0600 (MDT)
From: BILL LATTA i002711@disch3.disc.dla.mil
| SERVY, I came in today late, as I attended 0630 Mass. Lo and Behold, your memoir was well written and did not miss out on anything. Thank You, because you know what it feels like. All through the years it was like solitary confinement, and now we are truly on the same page, so to speak. Bobbie Boston from Muskogee Oklahoma, was on his second tour of Vietnam. I called Bill Murray yesterday and left a message, as well as Father McElroy. So I will E-you later, BRAVO ZULU! Sincerely Bill Latta |
| Today the American Flag at my home has been flying at half staff in memory of my fallen shipmates of the USS Newport News CA148. I remember that night so long ago as if it were yesterday. I was one of the first OBA men into turret two, and I now have a good idea how hell must look. My first step into the turret caused me to stumble, and I regained my balance by placing my hand on the arm of one the dead bodies. In his death my former shipmate still gave me one last bit of support. I entered the turret two more times after my initial time and each time I felt like I was in the jaws of hell. I too had an experience like Spardo's in that on one of my trips into the turret my partner and I spotted a body at the bottom of the recoil pit of the number two turret. When we informed the chief in charge he told us to continue to look for damage as we could no longer help our deceased shipmate. The chief's words were to the effect "Don't worry about him, we've got to take care of the living." My shipmates' memory will always be with me, and their sacrifice should never be forgotten. |
Tue, 11 Nov 1997 15:57:16 -0600
From: Ron Church <RLChurch50@aol.com>
| Your account of the explosion aboard the News touched a lot of emotions in me. I was a Fire Control Technician on security watch in the forward plotting room just a few decks below turret #2. After the explosion, the crew was ordered to the fantail, but I was hesitant to abandon my station. Also, I had no idea of the extent of the damage. I had air to breath where I was, but I didn't know about the escape trunk or the passageway. Having only been aboard a short while, I also might have gotten lost in the dark passageways. I decided to stay where I was until someone came to relieve me. In all, I spent 7 1/2 hours in there, most of it alone in the dark. Anyway, it was good to find your page. |
Sat, 31 Jan 1998 00:54:05 -0600
From: rebecca-johnson@uiowa.edu
| Hello --
I just finished reading your recollection of the turret explosion on the Newport News. My dad was a gunner's mate rating (2nd class, maybe?) on the ship at the same time. I think his station was in turret #1. I was just over 3 years old at the time of the accident. I don't remember this, but my mom tells me that on the morning (EDT) of the accident, when I woke up I asked her if Dad was all right. I'd apparently had a dream about him that night; he was running through smoke. This was apparently before news of the incident reached the public in the US. I never really talked to my dad about his navy service until I was 21. Shortly after I started my last year of college, he came up to see me, and we stayed up late talking about it. I don't remember all of the details, and I didn't necessarily understand everything that he said, but as far as I remember, this was his story: He was in the turret and they were shooting at Vietnam when there was a big explosion and the turret filled with smoke. At first he was really scared that something had happened in his turret, but after a couple of seconds he figured if his was going to explode, it would have done already. Everyone was running out of the turret, too, to get away from the smoke, and he went with them. I don't remember what he did then, or even if he told me. He said that when they had removed the bodies, they had only seven but there were eight men accounted for. A group of men, including Dad, were assigned to go into the exploded turret to look for the last man. Dad had to go down a ladder or something towards the magazine. He said that as he went down, he saw that shells or powder or something that was sitting in the hoists had exploded. As he went further down, towards the magazine, he got more and more nervous because the things in the hoist exploded awfully close to the magazine. I think he said it was only the last two or three things in the hoist that had survived the blast -- it was that close to setting off the magazine. Dad was "fortunate" in not discovering the eighth man -- he said the man was found up in the turret, where he had apparently climbed into a locker of some type in a futile effort to escape the conflagration. That's all I remember about his story. Dad served as a gun instructor in San Diego in the mid-1970s and then went on the USS John Paul Jones (DDG-32) in the late 1970s as a gunner's mate chief. He left the Navy in 1981 and is now an Episcopal priest in Wyoming. Reading your recollection, and remembering what my dad told me about it, reminds me just how much of his life I don't know about. I guess I should talk to him more often. Cheers,
|
Sun, 29 Mar 1998 23:31:18 -0800
From: Richard Eltrich <reltrich@earthlink.net>
| I read your account of the explosion aboard the Newport News and was taken back to that night, I was on the bridge that night as Bos'n-mate of the watch and passed the call for general quarters, I stayed on the bridge and observed what you described, I had the same surrealist sense about the night, I think Lt. McCain was the officer on deck. I was in the Pilot house when it happen. we heard an explosion, typical it seemed, then the fire from the turret came up out of the vent holes it seemed like it rose above the bridge and then died out quickly...The thing I remember most was after the bodies were removed it rained, it was a soft rain as the wind seemed calm, and I thought to myself, God must have sent this to wash things clean......It was very quiet. Thanks for sharing your story there's a lot of us that have memories of that night |
Sat, 6 Jun 1998 21:40:35 -0400
From: "Bob Wise" <klwise@1st.net>
To: "USS Newport News" <shipmates-l@teleport.com>
|
FOR 26 YEARS I HAD TOLD A LOT OF PEOPLE ABOUT THAT NIGHT AND HOW WE LOST TWO OTHER MEN, AND WHEN THEY HAD THAT EXPLOSION ON THE IOWA IT REALLY BOTHERED ME. I WAS ONE OF THE GUYS WHO HAD TO CARRY THOSE MEN TO THE MORGUE. MY GQ STATION WAS RIGHT ABOVE THE TURRET AND MY JOB WAS A STRETCHER CARRIER. I SAW EVERY MAN THAT CAME OUT OF THAT TURRET INCLUDING THE MAN WE DROPPED; I WAS THERE HOLDING THAT BLANKET WHEN HE HIT THE DECK. I'LL NEVER FORGET THAT AS LONG AS I LIVE, WHAT A NIGHT. BOB WISE |
Wed, 7 Jul 1999 21:29:40 EDT
From: Paleodad@aol.com
| Servey, I just read your account of the October 1st, 1972 accident.
As I read it a lump came to my throat. I too remember the smells
and sounds of that night. My GQ station was in the mess decks where
all the bodies eventually were brought through to the library for preparation
to cold storage. The milk locker was emptied and I helped carry each
body from the library down to the milk locker. I was sound asleep
in my rack when the accident occurred and as I came out A division compartment,
smoke was filling the passageways. I also helped with some of the injured
men that were brought back to the mess decks and watched the corpsman doing
cpr and other things. You are right, that
evening will be remembered forever. Take care, Jerry Ott |
Mon, 6 Sep 1999 12:23:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: rmhudson@webtv.net (Mike Hudson)
| HI FRIEND, THIS IS (HOGGY). SERVED ON NN-148 FROM 4/72
THRU 6/75 2ND DIV.
MAIN BATT, 8" T-1 and T-2 BEFORE 10-1-72 TRAGEDY BUT WAS RIGHT GUN CAPT. OF TURRET-1. WE MANNED T-2 RIGHT BEFORE THE EXPLOSION. WE FIRED ALL ROUNDS OUT OF T-1 DURING OUR CONDITION -3 WATCH, AND GUN CONTROL STILL HAD US ON A FIRE MISSION, SO WE FIRED SOME ROUNDS FROM T-2 BUT WAS RELIEVED BY T-2 GUN CREW, OUR FRIENDS THAT PERISHED AT 0100; CHECK OUT DECK LOGS. THE NAVY DEPT SENT ME ALL OF SHIPS DECK LOGS AND ACTION REPORTS FOR '72 WEST PAC DEPLOYMENT. I WAS ONE OF THE 36 INJURED FROM SMOKE INHALATION, ALONG WITH OTHERS AND MED-A-VACed TO USS-NEW-ORLEANS-LPH-11. YOU DID A WONDERFUL JOB ON "A MEMOIR AND A PRAYER"; I GO TO IT A LOT... I ALSO LIVE WITH THE MEMORIES OF THAT HORRIBLE NIGHT; WE ALL DO!... FROM (HOGGY) HUDSON X-GMG3 GUNS. YOU ARE SPECIAL PERSON, TAKE CARE SHIPMATE! |
Thu, 30 Nov 2000 21:23:51 -0900
From: "Gary Boswell" <glboswell@gci.net>
| My name is Gary Boswell. On that night I had, as you, gotten
off my watch at mid-night. As I've said in the past, over and over
again, there was a feeling that night, a different kind of uneasiness.
I remember laying in my bunk and not being able to go to sleep. When
I felt and heard the explosion (before GQ was sounded) I knew something
bad had happened. I remember going to my Repair Party Station where only
one other person showed up. (This was right by the coke machines
you talked about.) As I remember it, a chief told Heib and me to
evacuate the area because we didn't have a key to the OBA locker.
As we started to go up the main deck, I remembered the Engine room hatches
had to be closed. Heib and I ran back to the locker as the smoke
you described to perfection was rolling down the passageways. We
had to pull as hard as we could to break the doors open to get our OBA's
(It's amazing what adrenaline can do). Being that we were the only two
with OBA's at that time in our area we split up. We each took a passageway
and started to help people out of the smoke. I think by the time
I got to Eng. Rm 2 the hatch had already been closed. I don't know
how many times I helped different ones topside because it seems like a
dream. The main thing I do remember is not being able to breath very
good myself, even with an OBA on. I remember helping to set up some
red devil blowers. The next thing I remember is seeing our shipmates
being handed down from the turret. I then remember going over to
help with the bodies. The smell and the sight has never left. To
this day certain sounds or smells give me flashbacks to Oct 1,1972.
I just wish that our cruise book would've had pictures of them in it when
they were alive. Maybe then I could get the other memories out of
my mind. There are other memories about that night that bother me
also but I can't go into the details. It just hurts to much.
God Bless You Shipmate
|
Servy
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