[Rip]

SUre, I'll share. I'll tell you the story about the second scariest event I ever had while poking holes in the ocean.

Twas the middle of the year in 82, and I was aboard the USS Jacksonville. Having been on the commisioning crew and just being commisioned the previous year. We were undergoing some type of readiness training which is what a newly commisioned boat or one coming from overhaul will do for almost a year after returning to actual sea duty. Anyway I am a little green behing the ears, although nearly qualified. Still a non-qual puke though and one without much experience in the realism level of at sea drills. Particularly the inspection ones.

Subs never announce that a situation is a drill. They want you to experience the real stresses of an emergency. I was aware of this but usually when you are drilling amonst the crew, there is still often some awareness that a certain type of drill may be going off in the next XX hours.

When the inspectors are on board it is constant monitoring and little about what might happen next is known among the crew. By the time you are in day 3 or 4 of the trip you are beat, because there is always something going on that requires you to be awake and on station. Often twiddling your thumbs wondering how much longer it may last.

Well several days in, I am offwatch and we have been without a shipwide drill long enough I am in a deep slumber. Dreaming about what I might do in various drills of course. My berthing area was on the middle level just forward of the galley, and coincidently the 3 inch signal launcher.

Suddenly I awake from my slumber to hear the most godawful loud flow noise I had ever heard in my life, and people yelling over the top of the deafoning noise. I couldn't make out words though. I lept from my top rack head a spining wondering what the hell was amiss. I felt my feet hit cold water as they hit the floor. Still dark I heard at almost that same moment the collision alarm. FLOODING in the LAUNCHER!!! OMFG I am going to friggin DIE! My knees almost buckled, but I kept my composure. Realized immedietly that my normal path to my station would be blocked by the on scene damage control party. I took the alternate path to reach my station and for the almost 2 hours that followed still believed that we had experienced a true flooding incident.

Only later would I find that clever use of a high pressure air line and a few buckets of cold water had accomplished the desired goal of determining how we might react when we truly did believe the emergency was real.

Never again did I have to wonder in the back of my mind if I could stay focused when faced with a deadly situation. If I hadn't lost my cool in that moment I was going to be just fine.