Navy Stories

On Saturday, I went to my friend Kent’s house with Aaron and Dan to celebrate Kent’s birthday while homebrewing.  As usual, I started telling Navy stories.  Typically, these stories involve the action packed hilarity of my careless, clumsy, and juvenile adventures from around the world.  I am regularly asked to re-tell certain stories.

Saturday, the flow of conversation led into one which I have ever enjoyed telling, but I have made a point to never avoid.  You see; like many combat soldiers, my grandpa who fought in the South Pacific for the 3rd Marine Division in in World War Two didn’t speak much about his war experiences because sharing them required the remembering of an extremely intense and painful portion of his life.  Now, I am in no way trying to compare the experience of  this one afternoon at sea with those of countless WWII soldiers, I am merely explaining my motivation for telling this story.   I told the guys on Saturday, that it seems the more I discuss it, the less the memories stab me unexpectedly.  The following two sarticles from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer describe the facts around this experience.

April 19, 1996: Accident Kills Nimitz Crew Member; 5 Hurt

One crew member of the Nimitz was killed and five others were slightly injured when an arresting wire on the aircraft carrier failed during aircraft landing operations in the Gulf of Thailand, the U.S. 7th Fleet said today.

The names of the victims in yesterday’s accident were being withheld until relatives had been told, said Natsuko Kaneko, spokeswoman for the 7th Fleet at the Yokosuka naval base, southwest of Tokyo.

The dead and injured were on the deck when the arresting cable failed, a Navy spokesman said late last night.

The plane, an F-14 fighter, landed safely and the pilot was uninjured. A Navy spokesman said it was unclear whether the plane had to skip the initial landing pass because of the accident and make another pass to land on the deck.

The Bremerton-based Nimitz is en route to Pattaya, Thailand, for a routine port visit. The carrier, along with the carrier Independence, was deployed off Taiwan last month after China decided to carry out war games aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s voters during presidential elections.

The next day, the follow up story was run:

April 20, 1996: Sailor Killed In Accident Aboard Nimitz Is Identified

The sailor killed in a flight deck accident aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz Thursday has been identified as Chief Aviation Machinist’s Mate Robert H. Seeds IV, a resident of Temecula, Calif., officials said.

The 33-year-old chief was assigned to Sea Control Squadron 33, which operates anti-submarine warfare jets as part of Carrier Air Wing 9 aboard the Nimitz, said Navy spokesman Fred Wilson in San Diego.

Seeds was working as squadron flight deck coordinator when an F-14 fighter landing on the Nimitz severed one of the four arresting gear cables used to stop the aircraft. Seeds was killed instantly when struck by a fragment of the cable, Wilson said. The jet landed later without incident.

Five other sailors working on the flight deck were treated for minor injuries, Wilson said. The Navy is investigating the accident, which occurred while the Bremerton-based Nimitz was in the Gulf of Thailand.

Coincidentally, my dad sent me an email at 9:57 PM yesterday with an attached video that refreshed the imagery, remembered fear, and sadness of that day. On Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 9:57 PM, Bob Cummings wrote:

Related Information (external links)

• Think you had a harried day at work?
  This links toa story (and link to a copy of the above video) told by a former Navy pilot who observed a “similar event”
• Sailor killed in accident aboard USS Nimitz
  CNN – U.S. News Brief from April 19, 1996