From: Jay Mack JMACK@goaa.org
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 8:30 AM
 

Good morning Jim,

I just visited the Diodon website and read with interest the "Story of Diodon Travails in 1967".

Talk about stirring up some memories.

I can remember the collision with the uncharted mountain range at 250 feet as if it was yesterday. I was on watch in the Forward Torpedo Room at the time and the collision knocked me to the deck.

TM3 Kertz was asleep in an upper bunk. I vividly remember him jumping from that bunk, landing on the deck and securing the water tight door. My first thought was, "if the bulkhead around these torpedo tubes breaks open we will never know what hit us."  Fortunately it didn't and we made it to the surface o.k.

I also remember the Manuevering Room fire and Gus Emperador being injured. My recollection is a bit different. I remember riding out the Typhoon on the surface and taking serious, serious rolls. I, too, remembered them as being about 45 degrees to port and starboard. I remember lashing the torpedoes down as tightly as we possibly could and hoping they would not break free during those heavy rolls. My recollection is that the heavy rolls caused a wrench that had been inadvertently left in the cubicle, to fall and cause an arc that started the fire.

I remember Gus suffering from smoke inhalation and being airlifted by helicopter from the boat. Then the tug came and towed us to port.

The trip to Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle was after the yard
overhaul in Mare Island. When we left the yard in late summer 1968, we went to Washington state, Keyport to be exact, to bore sight the torpedo tubes.

During that time in Washington we visited Vancouver and Seattle. Isn't that the correct timing?? I could be wrong but I don't seem to remember going to Vancouver before Mare Island. We came back to San Diego from West Pac in late November, the day after Thanksgiving to be exact, and we wouldn't have had time to go to Vancouver before the end of the year.

I remember going home on leave for Christmas and the boat was in San Diego. I bought a car when I was on leave and I drove back to San Diego. I had the car for a time in San Diego before we left for Mare Island. As a matter of fact, Don Thomas' wife, Rosemary, drove my car for me from San Diego to Mare Island.

Speaking of Thanksgiving 1967, do you remember that we would have been arriving in San Diego from Pearl Harbor on Thanksgiving Day. The brass that was coming out to meet the boat and ride her into port did not want to do it on Thanksgiving so they made us stay at sea until the day after.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at sea. It's amazing how all of this stuff starts coming back to you after a while. Sorry for rambling on, but I just wanted to send you my thoughts. Thanks for listening.

Jay Mack
Green Board and DBF