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NYT: Adrift 500 Feet Under the Sea, a Minute Was an Eternity (submarine crash and rescue off Guam)
New York Times ^ | May 18, 2005 | CHRISTOPHER DREW

Posted on 05/18/2005 5:59:47 AM PDT by OESY

APRA HARBOR, Guam, May 16 - Blood was everywhere. Sailors lay sprawled across the floor, several of them unconscious, others simply dazed. Even the captain was asking, "What just happened?" All anyone knew for sure was that the nuclear-powered attack submarine had slammed head-on into something solid and very large, and that it had to get to the surface fast.

In the control room, a senior enlisted man shoved the "chicken switches," blowing high-pressure air through the ballast tanks to force the vessel upward. Usually, the submarine would respond at once. But as the captain, Cmdr. Kevin G. Mooney, and top officers stared at the depth gauge, the needle refused to budge.

Moments before, they had been slipping quiet and fast through the Pacific. Now, they were stuck, more than 500 feet down.

Ten seconds passed. Then 20, 30.

"I thought I was going to die," Commander Mooney recalled.

It would be close to a minute, but an excruciatingly long minute, before the submarine's mangled nose began to rise, before the entire control room exhaled in relief, before the diving officer, Chief Petty Officer Danny R. Hager, began to read out a succession of shallower depths.

"I don't know how long it was," Chief Hager said, "but it seemed like forever."

Last week, Navy investigators reported that a series of mistakes at sea and onshore caused the 6,900-ton submarine, the San Francisco, to run into an undersea mountain not on its navigational charts. One crewman was killed, 98 others were injured, and the captain and three other officers were relieved of their duties as a result of the Jan. 8 crash, one of the worst on an American submarine since the 1960's....

[mandatory excerpts now in effect]

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ashley; guam; mooney; navy; sub; submarine
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To: OESY

And then there was the Russian Kursk...


21 posted on 05/18/2005 6:53:59 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn (Legality does not dictate morality... Lavin)
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To: skimbell; babyface00; ctlpdad

Ah, gotcha. The only reason I questioned why they were being blamed is because the article never provided that info. Thanks.


22 posted on 05/18/2005 6:54:45 AM PDT by kx9088
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To: Vision
Why did we name an attack submarine the USS Jimmy Carter?

Do you have any idea how many rabbits there are in this world?

23 posted on 05/18/2005 7:08:44 AM PDT by ctlpdad
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To: kx9088

I really think it sucks that the Capt & others had their whole NAVY careers screwed up over this. They sound like the kind of people we need on our side. Procedure is procedure, though.


24 posted on 05/18/2005 7:11:09 AM PDT by ctlpdad
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To: ctlpdad
The USS JIMMY CARTER


25 posted on 05/18/2005 7:17:46 AM PDT by Vision (When Hillary Says She's Going To Put The Military On Our Borders...She Becomes Our Next President)
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To: Vision

LOL!


26 posted on 05/18/2005 7:20:14 AM PDT by ctlpdad
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To: OESY

Well, I think I'm now AYB-programmed: When I read "What just happened?," "Someone set us up the bomb" immediately came into my thoughts.


27 posted on 05/18/2005 7:37:08 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: OESY

The Navy sucks for careers. On one hand they demand the captain to run a course and make time, and on the other, they give him unreliable charts. Other than a constant sonar running, how the Hell are captains to know what is ahead of them if the Navy can't update the charts reliably?? Subs are a team effort of the whole Navy, but only the captain's ass hangs in the wind.


28 posted on 05/18/2005 7:59:45 AM PDT by shellshocked (They're undocumented Border Patrol agents, not vigilantes.)
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To: OESY
Must such accidents can be traced to a series of events where one bad assumption or faulty impression leads to another resulting in ultimate failure. Sad, but these things do happen -- cross checking even the most comfortable assumption is in order.
29 posted on 05/18/2005 8:02:44 AM PDT by RAY (They that do right are all heroes!)
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To: OESY
Well, that was one of the best articles that I have read concerning the accident. For all of you who read it, even though it leaves some stuff out, it is pretty much the entire truth as far as things went onboard. The NYT didn't blow this one out of the water, there was no speculation in it (at least that hasn't come from people in the Navy itself), and it didn't demonize the CO, XO or NAV like I expected someone to. All in all a difficult read for me, but a good one.

711 forever
30 posted on 05/18/2005 9:03:43 AM PDT by Laz711 (Fear is the Mind Killer)
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To: pageonetoo

Hard to believe it could ever be "good as new" after all that damage. If it's like my car, it'll always pull to the left.


31 posted on 05/18/2005 9:11:44 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker
If it's like my car, it'll always pull to the left.

You must be driving a Yugo...


32 posted on 05/18/2005 1:09:50 PM PDT by pageonetoo (You'll spot their posts soon enough!)
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To: Doohickey

ping for your list, Doohickey


33 posted on 10/18/2006 9:13:43 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy (Everyone knows there's a difference between Muslims and terrorists. No one knows what it is, tho...)
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To: OXENinFLA; OESY

I suspect that that would be the nose of the USS Honolulu (SSN-718), transplanted to SSN-711. Doubt that pic is in Guam, either - isn't the refit / rebuild happening at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard?


34 posted on 10/18/2006 9:17:54 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy (Everyone knows there's a difference between Muslims and terrorists. No one knows what it is, tho...)
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To: LibWhacker
The San Francisco is getting the entire forward compartment of the USS Honolulu (SSN-718). 718 was decomm'd within the last few weeks, I think.

Hard to believe it could ever be "good as new" after all that damage.

35 posted on 10/18/2006 9:23:31 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy (Everyone knows there's a difference between Muslims and terrorists. No one knows what it is, tho...)
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To: Doohickey; OXENinFLA; OESY; LibWhacker
Ooops! Apologies for pinging you to an ancient thread! I had a search window open, checking before I posted a (far more current :) article this AM, and this one must have been on that page. I saw 'subs' and went into overdrive.

Note to self: Check the date of the article...!!! ;>)

36 posted on 10/18/2006 9:40:06 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy (Everyone knows there's a difference between Muslims and terrorists. No one knows what it is, tho...)
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To: Ready4Freddy

Hey, no problemo, R4F! I wish I had a dollar for everytime I didn't check the date of some thread that got me revved up. :-)


37 posted on 10/18/2006 9:46:19 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: Ready4Freddy

You are forgiven. :)


38 posted on 10/18/2006 10:47:02 AM PDT by Doohickey (I am not unappeasable. YOU are just too easily appeased.)
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