Navy Story #25
What a Gas!
For the entire three years that I was aboard the USS Pensacola, I was away from her only one night while she was underway on a deployment. As it turns out, I was very fortunate to be
away. I almost feel guilty about not having been aboard, even now as I think about it, but then I remember that God is in control, so why should I feel guilty about what He arranged? Here's the story....
We were underway in a convoy of 4 or 5 ships, one of which was a helicopter carrier. I think we were in the Mediterranean Sea. The Captain of the carrier asked our Captain to send
someone over there to supervise and evaluate a radar-tracking exercise that the carrier's Combat Information Center (CIC) crew was going to do that night. So he asked me to go over, since I was at that time the Operations
Division officer on the Pensacola. (The Operations Division is composed of the people who fulfill the CIC positions when the ship is underway.)
Since the Pensacola has a small helicopter deck at her stern (that's Navy lingo for "the back of the ship"), the carrier sent a helicopter over to pick me up. (In case
you're thinking that was a huge waste of manpower and fuel, they always combined trips when someone needed to be ferried around. There were several other people being ferried, and there was also a mail exchange and probably
a small medical and food delivery, along with my transfer!) It was the first time I had ridden on a CH-46, the Navy's helicopter with two main rotors. It was quite an experience. The ride on those things is really bumpy!
The exercise and observation were conducted in the evening. As I recall, the CIC crew on the carrier did fairly well in their exercise, but they missed some key observations and misread
some others, so I had to give them a low passing grade. But that's not the point of this story anyway!
I was required to stay aboard the carrier that night, since the next helicopter run wouldn't be till the next morning. While I was talking with some of the carrier's crew and
officers later that evening, they said that the Pensacola had radioed a message saying that they were having to evacuate the crew topside (that's Navy lingo for "outside on the upper decks"). Someone had set
off a tear-gas grenade in the Marine compartments. The ship's ventilation system had carried the gas to every interior space. People were reportedly passing out from the gas. The engine-room folks had to put on gas-masks
to keep the ship running! I was shocked to hear it, of course, but was glad I wasn't there!
Anyway, I stayed overnight in a spare stateroom on the carrier, and enjoyed the company of the carrier's officers at breakfast. I did make it back to the Pensacola around mid-morning.
When I got back to my stateroom, my eyes started to water. I thought I was imagining it, and then I remembered the tear-gas grenade of the previous evening! Not all of the gas was
out of my stateroom yet. Wow. In fact, a lot of interior compartments were still partially affected.
So I escaped the tear-gas "attack" on the Pensacola! I heard later that the Marine who set off the grenade got into a lot of trouble. He had been angry at his Sergeant and
wanted to get even with him. I don't know what he was thinking, if he was thinking at all, but he either didn't anticipate the whole ship's getting gassed, or he didn't care. In any case, the Marine Commander
aboard our ship profusely apologized to our Captain! It took several days for the air in many of the ship's compartments, including our staterooms, to completely clear out. It was an interesting few days even after the
attack!