Akela
11-08-10, 09:16 PM
One of my friends in high-school, Mark, was from a Navy family and his father was a retired Captain. One day he told us a story about the time his destroyer collided with a submarine.
They were in an exercise which was pretty much what you'd imagine, sub tries to hide, destroyer tries to find it. Unfortunately the sub had some kind of accident on board that caused a fire and the Captain decided to emergency surface. Mark's Dad said he was talking with his second in command when he heard the lookout shout "Periscope off the bow!"
He looked forward and saw the conning tower coming out of the water about 20 yards in front of them. He said, "I remember the very first thought that went through my mind was, 'Periscope my ass! That's a whole god-damn submarine!'"
Anyway, they ran completely over the sub which landed both ships in dry dock. Happily no one was hurt but sadly it prevented him from ever making Admiral which honestly didn't seem to bother him that much when he was telling us the story.
They were in an exercise which was pretty much what you'd imagine, sub tries to hide, destroyer tries to find it. Unfortunately the sub had some kind of accident on board that caused a fire and the Captain decided to emergency surface. Mark's Dad said he was talking with his second in command when he heard the lookout shout "Periscope off the bow!"
He looked forward and saw the conning tower coming out of the water about 20 yards in front of them. He said, "I remember the very first thought that went through my mind was, 'Periscope my ass! That's a whole god-damn submarine!'"
Anyway, they ran completely over the sub which landed both ships in dry dock. Happily no one was hurt but sadly it prevented him from ever making Admiral which honestly didn't seem to bother him that much when he was telling us the story.