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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Drama / Human Interest
- Subject: General Interest
- Published: 05/29/2014
Man Over Board
Born 1953, M, from Salem Oregon, United StatesMAN OVERBOARD
In late 1979 through the first few months of 1980 the USS John Paul Jones was deployed to the Arabian Sea as a response to the Iranian hostage crisis. Six months of mostly underway steaming had left the old girl exhausted. The JPJ was commissioned in 1953, the year I was born; she was originally designated as a Destroyer DD 932 but was later converted to Guided Missile Destroyer DDG 32. The Jones performed her duties well during the crisis but by the time we returned to San Diego there just wasn’t much left in the old girl. So off to Long Beach Naval Shipyard for an overhaul we went.
After 9 months of chipping, grinding, refitting, dry dock and in general a complete makeover the JPJ was put back to sea. During this time a new skipper was assigned the duty of commanding the ship. Commander Kowalaski took over the helm of the vessel and was given the task of bringing her back up to standards with the intent of scheduling another deployment. After several attempts at sea trials it was evident that there was still much to do. The Jones was now nearly 30 years old but this was during the cold war and the United States needed every ship capable of treading water in the fleet. Plans had already been made to pull several WWII Battle Ships out of “moth balls” to aid in this effort.
For months every time we would go to sea, something would break down. Back to port we would limp for more corrections, more shipyard workers would come onboard, and just as soon as one thing would be corrected something else would go off line. Any chance of another deployment was becoming less and less likely with every incident. The disappointments soon became our fault. The Captain was very good at blaming the crew for poor performance. Most of us were the same crew that had sailed this ship half way around the world without incident and proudly patrolled the waters off the coast of Iran ready if needed. The one big change was the man in command! That man soon became a punch line to most of us. His popularity with the crew fell to an all time low when we set sail on the day The Who was to play in concert in San Diego. We were all told we would be pier side in plenty of time to make it to the stadium. We tied up some time after 10PM. I had predicted that this might happen and left my tickets with a friend to sell if I didn’t make it back.
By March 82 we had arrived at the point that every trip off the shore involved ship yard workers assigned to ride along with us to monitor the problems. The situation took a drastic change for the worse during a voyage to San Francisco. We were to sail up the coast from San Diego running drills and tests day and night with 5 civilian ship riders to record the results. We’d get a weekend of liberty then return back to sea for more trials.
Around noon of the second day a monster storm hit us with heavy rains, gale force winds and ten foot swells. A destroyer is not a fun place to be during a storm! One of the civilian ship riders became overcome with sea sickness which enhanced some prior medical conditions he already had. The Corpsman did everything he could but it became apparent that he needed hospital care. Word soon spread around the ship that we making plans to pull into Carmel Bay to do a ship to ship transfer of the man with a Coast Guard Cutter. Around 8pm we reported to sea and anchor stations and headed into the bay.
The night was black with visibility maybe a mile and the rain coming in horizontal. The further into the bay we went the rougher the waves became. We arrived at the rendezvous point and within minutes the Cutter was spotted steaming our way. She pulled along side about 50 feet between us and them. Being at sea and anchor detail put me in a spot on the signal bridge with a perfect view of the scene. The ship was illuminated well as was the cutter to enable sight while attempting this transfer. This was going to be a tricky task. The two vessels had to get close enough to transfer the patient on a stretcher from deck to deck while keeping just enough headway to hold course.
I stood at the rail with one of my signalmen standing ready at the signal light just in case more light was needed on the deck. The cutter tossed three or four lines over with all but one landing in the water. One of our boatswains grabbed the line but it was quickly pulled from his hands due to the pitching of ships. Once again the lines were tossed across with the same results. After about the 4th attempt I saw someone move rapidly onto the aft deck and grab one of the lines the Cutter swayed away causing the line to be pulled tight and then the man holding the line went right over the side!
Immediately the call went out over the ships speakers (1MC) “Man Overboard, Man Overboard Starboard Side Aft”! I quickly turned on the signal light and started scanning the water. I could see one bobbing head and then two. Life rings were tossed near them, I could see both men grabbing hold of the rings. One was towed towards us and the other toward the Coast Guard Cutter. Sailors from both vessels leaned over the side and pulled the men over the rails to safety.
After a few minutes the “Secure from man overboard” was passed over the 1MC and the attempt to transport the stretcher continued with success finally achieved after a good 30 minutes. The Cutter steamed off towards port and we took off for the open seas. Once Sea and Anchor detail was secured I noticed that it was a little after 11pm so I told the crew to go below and I would stay on the signal bridge with Petty Officer Kemp until the mid watch crew showed up. After the guys left and normal steaming was underway I told Kemp to go down to the mess decks and get us a pot of coffee. It had been a pretty stressful ordeal. In my years to that point I had not been a part of an actual man overboard incident.
When Kemp came back he had a story that was one for the books. He told me that he walked by Sick Bay (the medical room) and Captain Kowalaski was being treated by Doc, he was soaking wet, had a busted nose and was covered in blood! I was dumbfounded! Seriously, the old man was the one who went over the side!
When we pulled into San Francisco the next day there was an official car from Alameda Naval Station waiting on the pier and the Skipper was escorted away. Rumors were going all around the ship as to “what the hell happened”. The most reliable source of information as to what happened came from the guys on the fantail who were there. And here is the story.
Captain Kowalaski was a very impatient man and also very arrogant. He was always blaming the ships short comings on the crew, never his leadership. He became frustrated with the events taking place on the fantail so he stormed off the Bridge to take charge of the operation. When he arrived on the scene the Cutter had just thrown the lines over for the 3rd or 4th time. He watched them slipping back into the water so grabbed one of them in an attempt to show everyone how it was done. The timing of the line and the swells caught him off balance and pulled him right over the side! When he went into the sea he was wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck which flew up and hit him in the face breaking his nose. The second body in the water was a seaman from the Coast Guard Ship who dove in because he noticed the Captain wasn’t wearing a life jacket!
By the time they fished both men from the sea a good 15 minutes had passed. This is important because shortly after we arrived in San Francisco we received word that the ship rider had passed away in route to the hospital. Wasted time recovering the Captain? Who knows if that time could have made a difference?
Well, with all this transpiring many of us thought and hoped that seeing the Captain driven away would be the last time we ever saw him. To our surprise he returned to the ship later that afternoon with no known repercussions at all. I’m sure there was some reprimanding in private but to the public the whole thing was swept under the carpet. Even worse was an article that appeared in the paper weeks later back in San Diego that recounted the story but completely in reverse. The story had the Captain jumping in after the Coast Guard Seaman!
Within a year the Old John Paul Jones was decommissioned and now rests somewhere at the bottom of the sea, a home for marine life. I went on to recruiting duty in Alabama and what ever happened to Captain is a mystery to me and that’s just fine. A ship with so much class and history deserved to go out better than that and certainly with a better skipper!
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
Man Over Board(Billy Sample)
MAN OVERBOARD
In late 1979 through the first few months of 1980 the USS John Paul Jones was deployed to the Arabian Sea as a response to the Iranian hostage crisis. Six months of mostly underway steaming had left the old girl exhausted. The JPJ was commissioned in 1953, the year I was born; she was originally designated as a Destroyer DD 932 but was later converted to Guided Missile Destroyer DDG 32. The Jones performed her duties well during the crisis but by the time we returned to San Diego there just wasn’t much left in the old girl. So off to Long Beach Naval Shipyard for an overhaul we went.
After 9 months of chipping, grinding, refitting, dry dock and in general a complete makeover the JPJ was put back to sea. During this time a new skipper was assigned the duty of commanding the ship. Commander Kowalaski took over the helm of the vessel and was given the task of bringing her back up to standards with the intent of scheduling another deployment. After several attempts at sea trials it was evident that there was still much to do. The Jones was now nearly 30 years old but this was during the cold war and the United States needed every ship capable of treading water in the fleet. Plans had already been made to pull several WWII Battle Ships out of “moth balls” to aid in this effort.
For months every time we would go to sea, something would break down. Back to port we would limp for more corrections, more shipyard workers would come onboard, and just as soon as one thing would be corrected something else would go off line. Any chance of another deployment was becoming less and less likely with every incident. The disappointments soon became our fault. The Captain was very good at blaming the crew for poor performance. Most of us were the same crew that had sailed this ship half way around the world without incident and proudly patrolled the waters off the coast of Iran ready if needed. The one big change was the man in command! That man soon became a punch line to most of us. His popularity with the crew fell to an all time low when we set sail on the day The Who was to play in concert in San Diego. We were all told we would be pier side in plenty of time to make it to the stadium. We tied up some time after 10PM. I had predicted that this might happen and left my tickets with a friend to sell if I didn’t make it back.
By March 82 we had arrived at the point that every trip off the shore involved ship yard workers assigned to ride along with us to monitor the problems. The situation took a drastic change for the worse during a voyage to San Francisco. We were to sail up the coast from San Diego running drills and tests day and night with 5 civilian ship riders to record the results. We’d get a weekend of liberty then return back to sea for more trials.
Around noon of the second day a monster storm hit us with heavy rains, gale force winds and ten foot swells. A destroyer is not a fun place to be during a storm! One of the civilian ship riders became overcome with sea sickness which enhanced some prior medical conditions he already had. The Corpsman did everything he could but it became apparent that he needed hospital care. Word soon spread around the ship that we making plans to pull into Carmel Bay to do a ship to ship transfer of the man with a Coast Guard Cutter. Around 8pm we reported to sea and anchor stations and headed into the bay.
The night was black with visibility maybe a mile and the rain coming in horizontal. The further into the bay we went the rougher the waves became. We arrived at the rendezvous point and within minutes the Cutter was spotted steaming our way. She pulled along side about 50 feet between us and them. Being at sea and anchor detail put me in a spot on the signal bridge with a perfect view of the scene. The ship was illuminated well as was the cutter to enable sight while attempting this transfer. This was going to be a tricky task. The two vessels had to get close enough to transfer the patient on a stretcher from deck to deck while keeping just enough headway to hold course.
I stood at the rail with one of my signalmen standing ready at the signal light just in case more light was needed on the deck. The cutter tossed three or four lines over with all but one landing in the water. One of our boatswains grabbed the line but it was quickly pulled from his hands due to the pitching of ships. Once again the lines were tossed across with the same results. After about the 4th attempt I saw someone move rapidly onto the aft deck and grab one of the lines the Cutter swayed away causing the line to be pulled tight and then the man holding the line went right over the side!
Immediately the call went out over the ships speakers (1MC) “Man Overboard, Man Overboard Starboard Side Aft”! I quickly turned on the signal light and started scanning the water. I could see one bobbing head and then two. Life rings were tossed near them, I could see both men grabbing hold of the rings. One was towed towards us and the other toward the Coast Guard Cutter. Sailors from both vessels leaned over the side and pulled the men over the rails to safety.
After a few minutes the “Secure from man overboard” was passed over the 1MC and the attempt to transport the stretcher continued with success finally achieved after a good 30 minutes. The Cutter steamed off towards port and we took off for the open seas. Once Sea and Anchor detail was secured I noticed that it was a little after 11pm so I told the crew to go below and I would stay on the signal bridge with Petty Officer Kemp until the mid watch crew showed up. After the guys left and normal steaming was underway I told Kemp to go down to the mess decks and get us a pot of coffee. It had been a pretty stressful ordeal. In my years to that point I had not been a part of an actual man overboard incident.
When Kemp came back he had a story that was one for the books. He told me that he walked by Sick Bay (the medical room) and Captain Kowalaski was being treated by Doc, he was soaking wet, had a busted nose and was covered in blood! I was dumbfounded! Seriously, the old man was the one who went over the side!
When we pulled into San Francisco the next day there was an official car from Alameda Naval Station waiting on the pier and the Skipper was escorted away. Rumors were going all around the ship as to “what the hell happened”. The most reliable source of information as to what happened came from the guys on the fantail who were there. And here is the story.
Captain Kowalaski was a very impatient man and also very arrogant. He was always blaming the ships short comings on the crew, never his leadership. He became frustrated with the events taking place on the fantail so he stormed off the Bridge to take charge of the operation. When he arrived on the scene the Cutter had just thrown the lines over for the 3rd or 4th time. He watched them slipping back into the water so grabbed one of them in an attempt to show everyone how it was done. The timing of the line and the swells caught him off balance and pulled him right over the side! When he went into the sea he was wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck which flew up and hit him in the face breaking his nose. The second body in the water was a seaman from the Coast Guard Ship who dove in because he noticed the Captain wasn’t wearing a life jacket!
By the time they fished both men from the sea a good 15 minutes had passed. This is important because shortly after we arrived in San Francisco we received word that the ship rider had passed away in route to the hospital. Wasted time recovering the Captain? Who knows if that time could have made a difference?
Well, with all this transpiring many of us thought and hoped that seeing the Captain driven away would be the last time we ever saw him. To our surprise he returned to the ship later that afternoon with no known repercussions at all. I’m sure there was some reprimanding in private but to the public the whole thing was swept under the carpet. Even worse was an article that appeared in the paper weeks later back in San Diego that recounted the story but completely in reverse. The story had the Captain jumping in after the Coast Guard Seaman!
Within a year the Old John Paul Jones was decommissioned and now rests somewhere at the bottom of the sea, a home for marine life. I went on to recruiting duty in Alabama and what ever happened to Captain is a mystery to me and that’s just fine. A ship with so much class and history deserved to go out better than that and certainly with a better skipper!
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
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