USS San Francisco shipmate reports in

[Bruinsrme]

Hi,

this letter was forwarded to me from a shipmate. The inner circle where this came from is very small

Some abbreviations

ORSE - Operation reactor Safe Guard Exam - external testing group that measures the crews abaility to operate that reactor, respond to fires, flood and other casualtiesin the engine room (everyone hates life when this team comes on board)

TRE - Tactical Readiness Exam - similar to ORSE but the torture the crew with casualties in the forward part of the boat, break things and take away the comforts of life for a period of 3 days (hated worse than the ORSE team) But at least the boat shoots torpedeos

WOG - sailor that has not below below the equator short for polliwog

RLGN - Ring Laser Gyo Navigator - an intertially spaced reference navigation system the used is used as a navigation source while surfaced and submerged which is based on the successive approximationin its calculation of position, vertical velocity, velocity north, velocity east and angular displacement of the gimbal system and stable platform. that was my baby and helped debug the system....

SOE - Standard Operating Envelope - a reference used to ensure the safe operation of the ship. Based on speed and depth and provides a reference that ensures the ship operates within the limits so that in the event of an emergency the ship can blow to the surface.

COW - Chief of the watch - is the watch coordinator fo rthe peole on watch. while at the BCP he is responsible for maintaining the ship at an even ballast and cooridinating watch stations throughout the boat.

EMBT - Emergency Main Ballast Tanks - High pressure air banks used to rapidly evacutate air from the fwd and aft ballast tanks. There are two switches above the BCP called chicken switches. They are more like levers when operated send aire from an internal airbank to operate air actuated valves which in turn allow the air from the EMBT airbanks (main ballast tank air banks) to flow into the Main Ballast tanks pushing the water out of the main ballast tanks.

BCP - Ballast Control panel - a panel loaded with pump and valve controls to move water forward to aft and vice versa or take on or pump off to maintain ballast.

DOOW - diving officer of the watch - maintains speed, depth, and course of the ship, resposinsible for maintaining the SOE

To say that I've had a bad year so far would be a little short on the

tooth I think. Last year was a good one for the boat. After spending 5

months away from home in drydock (Sandy Eggo) we got our second BA on

ORSE (bad juju), received the highest score in PacFlt for a submarine

TRE inspection, aced our mine readiness inspection with 4 out of 4 hits,

completed 2 outstanding missions (will have to shoot you), and completed

a early ORSE just before Christmas with an EXCELLENT. It was also the

first year that Auxiliary Division had a Christmas standown since coming

out of the yards in 2002. A-division also took the CSS-15 <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />RedDC award

for the second year in a row. My retention has been 100% since I checked

onboard in Oct 2002 amongst 1st/2nd and turd termers.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

We were going to our first true liberty port 2 weeks ago, heading for

Brisbane and fun in the sun. As this WOG knows, we were getting ready

for our crossing the line ceremony and the crew was really upbeat, and

hard charging, we had just completed a great year for the San Fran.

To say the world went to shyte in a hand basket would be an

understatement. I would put it closer to a nightmare that becomes reality.

The seamount that is a large part of the discussion the last 2 weeks is

un-named. The charts we carried onboard were up to date as far as we can

tell. No modern geographic data for this area was available to us

onboard as it is a remote area not often travelled by the Navy. We have

one of the BEST ANav's in the fleet onboard, a true quartergasket that

takes pride in his job. We have RLGN's onboard, when they are running,

they are accurate as hell for our position, they also drive Tomahawks.

We knew where we were. All of my depth gauges and digital read the same

depths as we changed depth to our SOE depth for flank. I can't discuss alot,

because I'm still a participent of at least 2 investigations....LOL.

I was the Diving Officer of the Watch when we grounded. If you read the

emails from ComSubPac, you will get some of the details, from flank

speed to less than 4 knots in less than 4 seconds. We have it recorded

on the RLGN's-those cranky bastages actually stayed up and recorded

everything. For you guys that don't understand that, take a Winnebego

full of people milling around and eating, slam it into a concrete wall

at about 40mph, and then try to drive the damn thing home and pick up

the pieces of the passengers.

As for the actual grounding, I can tell you that it was fortunate that

myself and the Chief of the Watch were blessed by somebody. I was

standing up, changing the expected soundings for a new depth on the

chart (yes, we had just moved into deeper water) leaning against the

ship's control panel with a hand grip, and the COW was leaning down to

call the COB on the MJ.

The next thing to cross my mind was why am I pushing myself off of the

SCP and where the hell the air rupture in the control room come from? I

didn't know it, but I did a greater than 3g spiderman against the panel,

punched a palm through the only plexiglass guage on the SCP and had my

leg crushed by the DOOW chair that I had just unbuckled from. The DOOW

chair was broken loose by the QMOW flying more than 15 feet into it and

smashing my leg against a hydraulic valve and the SCP. I don't remember

freeing myself from it. If I had been buckled in, I don't think I would

be writing this. The COW was slammed against the base of the Ballast

Control Panel, and only injured his right arm. He could of destroyed the

BCP, he was a big boy. Everybody else in control, with the exception of

the helm, was severely thrown to the deck or other items that were in

their way, and at least partially dazed. Within about 5 seconds of the

deceleration, we blew to the surface, it took that 5 seconds for the COW

to climb up the BCP and actuate the EMBT blow. We prepared to surface

right away and got the blower running asap, I didn't know how much

damage we had forward but knew it was not good, I wanted that blower

running.

I would say that about 80% of the crew was injured in some way, but do

not know the number. We grounded in the middle of a meal hour, just

after field day, so most of the crew was up. Once we got the boat on the

surface and semi-stable with the blower running the rest of the ship

conditions started sinking in to our minds. We were receiving 4MC's for

injured men all over the boat. I was worried that those reports were

over whelming any equipment/boat casualties that could make our life

worse. I had teams form up of able bodied men to inspect all of the

forward elliptical bulkhead, lower level, and tanks below those spaces.

I couldn't believe that we did not have flooding, it just didn't fit in.

At one point I looked around in the control room, and saw the disaster.

The entire control room deck was covered in paper from destroyed

binders, and blood. It looked like a slaughterhouse, we had to clean it

up.

I knew that Ash was severly injured and brought to the messdecks, he was

one of my best men, and one of our best sailors onboard, he was like a

son to me. After surfacing I was the control room supervisor, I had a

boat to keep on the surface and fight and knew that if I went below to

see how he was doing, it would teeter me on the brink of something that

the ship did not need, the ship needed somebody who knew her.

I have to say that the design engineers at Electric Boat, NavSea and

others have designed a submarine that can withstand incredible amounts

of damage and survive. We lost no systems, equipment, or anything broke

loose during the impact. The damage to our sailors was almost all from

them impacting into the equipment.

The crew is a testament to training and watch team backup. When a

casualty occurs, you fight like you train, and train like you fight. It

kept us alive during that 2+day period.

I've just returned from the honor of escorting my sailor home to his

family. God bless them, they are truly good people and patriotic. The

Navy is doing everything they can for them and they are learning how

submariner's take care of each other. During the memorial and viewing on

Saturday, CSS-15 provided a video from the coast guard of us on the

surface and the SEAL/Dr. medical team being helo'd in, the family had

this video played on 2 screens in the background. It was a sobering

reminder of what a hard woman the ocean can be. We had to call off the

helo because of the sea state, it was becoming too dangerous for the

aircraft, we almost hit it with the sail a couple of times. The sea

would not allow us to medivac in our condition and that sea state.

I was one of the 23 sent to the hospital that Monday. I was fortunate,

my leg was not broken, just trashed/bruised. I walked on that leg for

almost 24 hours before it gave out on me and they had it splinted. The

SEAL made me promise not to walk on it, how do you refuse a SEAL? LOL.

So I hopped around on a single leg for awhile, the other chief's were

calling me Tiny Tim, LOL. "God bless each and every one! Except you, and

you, that guy behind you!". The COB threatened to beat my @ss if I walk

onboard before my leg is otay, he's about the only man onboard that I'd

take that from, hehe.

The crew is doing better, we've lost a few due to the shock of the

incident. We will make sure they are taken care of. The investigation

goes on, and I have a new CO. I will only say that the San Fran was the

best damn sub in the Navy under CDR Mooneys leadership. We proved that.

God bless him and his family no matter what happens in the future, he is

truly a good man.

I just need to get my leg healed and get back to fighting my favorite

steel *****.