-Late summer 1982- US Navy at full alert-The Soviet Navy invades the coast of Washington state to try to defeat the silent capability of America's new secret weapon, and the wooden minesweeper fleet is called to prevent at all costs this from happening!!
The Cape Flattery Incident part one
SOVIET SUBMARINE CAUGHT IN FISHERMANS NETS,DRAGS TRAWLER BACKWARD!!!
That was the headline in the Port Angles news paper during the late summer of 1982. Right around 28 years ago this month.
The entire west coast minesweeper fleet had been deployed to Cape Flattery, Washington state.
The reason for their/our deployment was top secret.
For our ship, USS Pluck MSO 464 , stationed in San Diego the order was to "Proceed out to sea, and make a starboard turn at point Loma... heading 000,(north) full speed, further instructions to come."
The USS Ohio was scheduled to depart on her first ever Trident Missle Deterrent Patrol, via the Strait of Juan De Fuca, and out to open sea. There was one obstacle, however... A Soviet AGI, CCB 468, the hydro-graphic vessel Gavril Sarychev. It was believed that the Gavril Sarychev was deploying transponders in order to aquire an acoustic signature of the USS Ohio, and defeat her silent capability. This was happening at the height of the Cold War, something young people will really not be able to understand at all. The world was sitting on the brink of an all out nuclear holocaust...
this was global warming to my generation, only much much worse because it wasn't scientists' theory, and no one was arguing about the impending danger, even if there was the same old arguments about the politics. The fact remained that the Soviet Union had many thousands of missiles aimed at American cities, and we had many many more than that aimed at them.
Then came the Trident ballistic missile boat USS Ohio.
The largest submarine in the world, carrying 24 Trident I and Trident II ballistic missiles, capable of MIRV, which means each missile can hit several different targets at the same time, like a giant nuclear shotgun. A weapon designed to truly strike fear in the hearts of our enemies.
The USS Pluck joined the chase late in the summer, and after suffering catastrophic engine damage while exiting San Fransisco bay, we turned north, and limped past point Reyes on three engines, and days later managed to finally arrive on station. That first night, Captain Tom E. Sego ordered the anchor dropped very near the Soviet vessel already at anchorage and told the OOD "if you can hit their hull with a penny, wake me up". This photo was taken by Petty Officer Jeff Jakubic as we played "chicken" with the Gavril Sarychev.
copyright Jeff Jakubic (C1982 )Thus began "THE GAME". At any hour, there would be a General Quarters, not a drill and we would weigh anchor because "Ivan" was weighing anchor, and we would take off and try to keep up. This was no fun for the engineering department, because the captain was giving orders sure to blow head gaskets, and blow gaskets we did.
This modern Russian TV show shows the Ohio in 1982 (I used this because I could not find American footage of her during that era, although it seems as if they have no shortage of it).
Ohio and her Blue Crew departed on the first Trident Submarine Strategic Deterrent Patrol in October 1982.
Until then, the summer was spent chasing ,if you want to call it that, this AGI, and trying to keep them off balance to give the Ohio a clean chance at unfettered access to the open sea without letting the soviets get a good acoustic signature. We witnessed so many strange things that there are too many to list, and besides this blog post would start to look like a tall tale.
Copyright Jeff Jakubic (C1982)There was the morning that a small prop plane showed up and poured red paint down on the Soviet ship. Word was that they were very unhappy about that, but we had no control over it. Then we awoke in the morning and their entire ship had been freshly painted overnight down to her waterline. She was a rusty, multicolored mess at sunset splattered with red paint, and had a fresh paint job in the morning when the sun came up!
Copyright Jeff Jakubic (C1982)Guys said that we should do a line transfer with them , playboy magazines for their vodka. They looked gaunt and pale, and we wondered if any of them might defect. If you are under 30, that means to escape.... You would have to look it up or rent "Moscow on the Hudson" starring Robin Williams. Doc Burke (HM1) suggested that we sabotage them by sending them a box of my cherry turnovers, which would "explode " all over them. He used to call them " frags" for this reason. That idea came as a result of a humanitarian mission to send turnovers to another minesweeper crew. After weeks at sea, the USS Excel MSO 439 suffered a freezer malfunction and our C.O. requested that we bake an extra 100 fruit turnovers so we could send them over on the Zodiac because their crew had run out of ice cream, and had run out of ingredients for cake.
Copyright Jeff Jakubic (C1982)Still seething from the paint attack, the Soviet AGI suffered another humiliation, when the Royal Canadian air force Voodoo interceptor jets buzzed their ship close enough that it looked as if the mysterious gadgets high on the mast would be shaved right off. So Captain Ivanovich (his real name according to the Port Angeles news paper) radioed to what he called his "bigger brothers" and the soviets brought in their subs.
This was all related to us through the grape vine. The signalmen were flashing Morse code, with the signal lights nearly 24/7. There was a rumor that often the Russian would begin the day by asking our C.O. what kind of game he would like to play today. He would call him "Tom".
Copyright Jeff Jakubic (C1982)
Copyright Jeff Jakubic (C1982)We were involved in "mine sweeping efforts" which would no doubt not be good for any entity trying to deploy sensitive electronic listening devices, it was such a shame that our mine sweeping training may have damaged some soviet equipment...
Right around that time, a soviet sub got tangled up in the nets of an American fishing boat, and dragged it backwards. News of this spread like wildfire through the fishing community and all the bars in Port Angeles,Washington. The US Command finally upped the ante and sent in the USS Marvin Shields FF 1066. We were pumped up as well as freaked out because we wondered when and which crazy event would lead to an international incident or worse. We were playing chicken with a steel hulled ship powered by gas turbine engines and twice our size. At most times, they tried to make sure that there were at least two minesweepers on the Soviet ship at all times, but there were many times when one sweep was busy doing "minehunting" or "Mine sweeping" which was really trying to recover acoustic transponders. There was plenty of pulling in front another and stopping. Ocean going minesweepers have variable pitch propellers, and as a result are highly maneuverable, but this AGI was even more maneuverable. She supposedly had a bow thruster, which is a sideways fan shaped prop to give super maneuverability, especially when docking, or playing chicken with a minesweeper or two. After the Marvin Shields came on scene, the playing field was a bit leveled because she could smoke the AGI on a bad day, and I do mean in many more ways than one. But in sheer speed, a fast frigate is just that- FAST. The Gavril Sarychev could not outrun the Marvin Shields. Ever. I have many fond memories of smoking cigarettes, and hunkering down between the helm console and the pilot house bulkhead in the middle of the night watching this thing go down, shooting the shit with my buddies. Sometimes I would sneak up to the 0-4 and watch through the big eyes, ( a gigantic set of binoculars) but only when I wouldn't be noticed- and after checking with radio to make sure it was safe. I wanted to have children some day...) I was supposed to sleep during the day, but I didn't really get a lot of sleep that summer. I was the night baker, as we had three cooks at the time. Jerry Weeks and Tom Delosantos were doing the five and two watch captain in port and 12 on and 12 off at sea, and I baked and did the "midrats" (the meal served before the 0000 watch came on every night. 0000 is midnight. When my dough was rising down in the gally, I was up in the wheel house watching the cold war unfold. I had a front row seat to the closest we ever came as a Navy to engaging the Soviet Union's Navy. After service in Vietnam as a member of the brown water Navy during operation Market Time, doing harrasment and interdiction alongside other MSO's, The USS Pluck was re designated as a reserve fleet ship, used for training reservists, and here we were along side of all the other Pacific fleet minesweepers and the frigate Marvin Shields taking on the biggest bully in the sea lanes. Gavril Sarychev can be found in many US Navy yearbooks and the incident surounding the downing of Korean flight 007, a Korean Air Lines civilian airliner that was shot down by Soviet interceptors on 1 September 1983 over the sea of Japan. Gavril Sarychev allegedly interfered with an international effort to recover the black box from that airliner.
Next: The cape Flattery incident part two- Liberty in Port Angeles and Esquimalt,engine room fire, Generators go offline, the captain requests I play Reveille on the fiddle... tune in.
--------------------------- Me, after a long day.History repeating itself
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7969017/Russian-subs-stalk-Trident-in-echo-of-Cold-War.html
