TM3 Pete Sommers, Diodon Crew late 1969 to 1970

I have seen the Diodon page and saw where you were the Webmaster. I was on the decom crew of USS Rock in Mare Island before going to Diodon in late ‘69. I was itchin’ to go on a Wespac, and they were beginning to take all the pig boats OOC, so I nonvoled and went skimming and finally made it overseas.

[I reported onboard Di 20NOV69 and departed 10APR70. The diving incident was just after I came on board, but I don't remember when the Cohan story took place.]

On my first dive on Diodon we [made] too a steep down angle and possibly buried the bubble and slipped down a good bit past our crush depth. I was in the Control Room observing the planesmen, so I had a front-row seat. Well, nothing happened – I mean we did make it back to surface, but observing how the crew reacted made me feel pretty secure. I didn’t care for many of them, but they did their job well.

I wrote to Vic Van Horn a while back, and he remembers this story. We were coming into port one time and were to pull alongside the tender right behind a SSN. The now “famous” Rear Admiral Jay M. Cohen was the OOD and I was just below the bridge as a line handler.

I kinda thought we were coming in a bit fast, and then I heard the following commands in quick succession:
"All back one third."
"All back FULL!"
"ALL BACK EMERGENCY!!!"

The boat moaned and shivered and growled, and as casually as you may [she] sidled up right where it was supposed to be. It’s like the scene in “Captain Ron” where Kurt Russell docks the boat after coming in at full speed. The look on Cohan's face was priceless!

Anyway, that’s my best story. It’s my only story actually. My time on Di was short and not-so-sweet. Galavotti?? (XO) and I didn’t get along too well.

Pete (Fred) Sommers

There was a loud, obnoxious, portly guy from Michigan State they called “Bear”. He didn’t like me, and the feeling was mutual.

I had one buddy named Bob Burden, but he probably came aboard after you left. I remembered Vic, and I always thought him to be a nice guy. Mike Neal was on there from Rock. But I don’t remember anyone else. It was just a different crew from the Rock.

I wasn’t on Rock long enough to qualify before it went OOC. When I realized I was gonna nonvol on Di to go overseas, I gave up on quals there.

That’s why I am not on the Diodon site. I will be a bubblehead forever in my Heart, but I am not “one of the crew”, so to speak.

As to the nukie, it was the Scamp or Snook, but I don’t remember which. I think Vic might know.

Pete