C'mon, don't leave us hanging!
The Captain was on the pier..the ship was in the bay..the anchor..in the junk.below the surface.
CO asked for assistance. I said the French navy has divers..I can contact the liaison officer..he said..no thats not good.
Another way was a salvage outfit of Djiboutian divers. He said ok but this needs to be kept quiet.
He said the admiral is waiting..could we hurry.
Told him they would pay with a fund cite via a message to me. I can get the cash from the Embassy and pay the salvage company. Payment within 3 days. He agreed. The salvage company told me the cost and I passed it to the supply officer. He agreed.
The divers recovered the anchor that afternoon. The ship departed. After 3 days no message from the Brewton.
Sent a routine message to the Brewton requesting payment. Five more days and no response. Sent another message to the ship with a 3 day suspense.
No reply after the suspense date.
I prepared a message to USS Brewton copy furnished to SECDEF, Chief Naval Ops, SECSTATE, CENTCOM, the admiral in Bahrain..the admiral in Naples and all the ships addresses I could find in my message files.
USS Brewton third request for fund cite in the amount $600 for recovery anchor lost in in Djibouti.
Received a message with fund cite within a few hours.