Midwatch, about 0030, all is quiet as the watch has settled in. Im the Boatswains Mate of the Watch, and were off the coast of California in the Merrill Trench, working up to a test launch that will be executed soon. Year was probably 1985,to the best of my recollection. *Squaaaawwwwk* Conn. Conn, Sonar, sir, request permission to go active Sonar, just heard a transient, sounds like a submarine just blew ballast close aboard! Sonar, stand by, were notifying the Captain. Officer of the Deck twirls the squawk box handle as the sky suddenly lights up, and someone shouts, Holy SHIT! And I spot a missile rising into the sky just off the port bow, and all hell breaks loose! The OOD calls Sonar and tells them to go active on the Sonar, I grab the phone and call the XO as the JOOD calls the Captain, and for the next few minutes we lash the water with our Sonar to pin down the sub that just fired the missile. Within seconds, they duck under the layer, and we lose track, but somehow, by a strange quirk of fate, the submarine test platform for Tomahawk has launched without knowing we were in the vicinity, if not almost on top of the launch site itself. It was a weird feeling how close a call that was. I dont know if the sub CO was being cocky, or just didnt know we were there. But it certainly livened up an otherwise tedious watch that night. It was something Ive never forgotten.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 08:10:19 +0000
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