Mineman Memories-Scuttlebutt and other Nautical Tales

HARD TO HIT MK 6's

One day, off Coronado, the YFU planted 10 Mk 6 Mod 14 drill mines (2.5-ft. case depth) then we tried to hit the mines with the YFU. The mine cases were painted white with red stripes so they would be easy to spot. The YFU's skipper (E-6) had a hard time seeing "dead ahead" mines because of the bow ramp. I climbed up the bow ramp and pointed to the mines when we got close. Try as we might after an hour of violent maneuvering we still hadn't scored a hit on any of the mines. The current was just strong enough to cause the mines to "dip" to a depth a little deeper than the YFU's draft. However, when the current slackened a bit, the skipper came up with a good idea. He maneuvered down-current of the mine line and let the current and wind carry the YFU broadside to the mine line. We popped five "special" mine detonators on the first pass. An acoustic detection device (Queen gear; possibly because of the shape of the device) lowered over the side indicated mine fires. The special detonators didn't really explode they just popped the cap off the end. For safety reasons, the same-type detonators were used on the Mk 6 Mod 15 drill mines where divers had to go down to 100-ft. and pull on one of the switch horns with at least 11-lbs. of force to get an actuation.

Don Jones, MNCM, USN (Retired)

Preparations at Long Beach for possible MOMAUPAC deployments took some strange twists & turns. For example, instead of buying 10 UL-approved extension cords to put into the pack-out boxes the MNs made their own. Soon afterwards, Chief Sing plugged an electric drill into one of the ersatz extension cords and walked to the nearest electrical outlet. What happened next shocked everyone. Soon as he put the plug into the outlet he let out a yelp and started to shake violently. Then Chief Sing did something that may have saved his life. (Note from Chin Sing upon reading the account: "I remember that incident very well. The shock caused me to throw the electric drill across the room smashing the wall."
On one end of the extension cord, someone had hooked one of the hot leads to the grounding prong. The other nine extension cords were fine, but one had a near-fatal flaw.

Whoever designed the wooden pack-out boxes was thinking ahead & did a good job. With all our Navy stuff in them, for the trip back home, we still had ample room for wood carvings & other "goodies" from the Philippines. And on the way over, we played cards on them, sat on them, and even took a nap on them during the long prop-powered, Navy cargo plane flight.

SERE school at San Diego & Warner Springs, prior to our deployment to the Philippines, was interesting. On the first day in the classroom at San Diego, we got no food. I found it odd that I felt hungrier on the first day than I did on days 2-4. During the classroom phase, some guys put 4-5 teaspoons of sugar and creamer into a cup with very little coffee. At the seashore that evening, we found very little for over 70 hungry sailors to eat.

At Warner Springs, during the resistance to interrogation phase, they pummeled our senior officers & knocked some to the ground. A low point for me was when I saw them hang WO Putnam upside down on a chain-link fence.

After the six-mile cross-country hike using a compass for guidance, we were informed that an air-drop of food was on the way. It was with great anticipation that we unhooked the parachute from the large cylindrical container, and started pulling out copious amounts of packing material. There was a collective groan of disappointment when a lone 6-lb. tin of Spam was revealed. Cutting it into very small pieces for over 70 hungry sailors, who were watching, was a very delicate operation.

SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED HAZARDOUS DUTY PAY
One day at Long Beach we were told to "manufacture" ten inert "P"-Mines (contact-fired) for planting by the YFU. They were called "P"-Mines in honor of CDR. Plank (USN Retired), whose name appeared on the Distribution List of the now-defunct Mk 59 Mine's OP. Since I didn't attend the COI taught by CDR Plank at Long Beach, I had a lot to learn about the mine-design once used by then LT Plank in support of Chiang Kai-shek's forces on Mainland China. Those must have been exciting days for the young LT, who recalled that one day the thatch roof of his TNT filling plant caught fire. We could tell that some of the wooden "P"-Mine tool kits we had at Long Beach had been in a fire. One of the never-seen-before tools was called a "kluge." That may have been the device used to drill a hole into the TNT charge in order to accommodate the boosters on the end of the long Mk 8 Demolition Initiator (DI). Another tool we used was the "bung-extractor."

MN2 Frank Stiles's crew mixed the concrete and quickly manufactured the concrete anchors, & ballast weights. The 55-gallon oil drums (mine cases) were carefully selected & partially-filled with 100-lbs of concrete vice the TNT main charge. I liked the Mk 8 DI used as the contact firing device, however, I did not trust the color-coded chemical pencils used for delay arming (DA). I was concerned about the large plus or minus factors on the DA-settings. I think we used a 30-minute DA, with a 5 to 8 minute +/- factor.
The Mk 8 DI was fired by a 1-G blow to the awash mine case or by a mercury switch if the mine case inverted in cases where the mooring cable was cut or broke. Flashlight batteries (C-cell size) were used to fire the detonator. Getting the desired 0.5 to 0.75-inch case clearance on the water's surface was frustrating but doable at pier-side.

We were excited when we went out on the YFU to plant the "P-Mines. When the skipper assured us that we were minutes away from launch, I activated the chemical pencils on the ten mines by twisting the knob and breaking the vial of acid inside the DI which started eating away at the spring-loaded wire. Then the unthinkable happened. We were off-course. Stiles was the time-keeper and he kept loudly reminding everyone, including the skipper, that we were fast approaching the point at which the Mk 8 DI's could start arming. I believe the skipper took the initiative to "screw the course-correction" and told us to launch the mines. During post-analysis, we discovered all of the detonators had been fired by the time the mines were recovered, however, we didn't know when they had fired. Some could have fired during the launch and mooring phase. At any rate, it was a unique experience for all concerned and I owe many heart-felt thanks for its success to Frank Stiles, who also answered to the nickname "Saigon Sam."

While at NAD, Westloch (1961-1964), I was an MN-2 assigned as an ambulance driver in my duty section. One Saturday afternoon, a young HMSN corpsman and I were called to the barracks to check on a Mineman who lay unconscious and bloody on the concrete deck. The poor guy, who had fallen out of the top bunk, was laying on his side with a pool of coagulated blood around his head. Apparently, he had laid there unnoticed for a while. We raised the guy's head, & blood oozed from his ear. The young corpsman panicked & quickly decided we should transport him fast to Barber's Point. So with lights flashing & siren wailing I drove the Cadillac at high speed through the nearby cane fields & through the side-gate at Barber's Point. We almost got T-boned by a station wagon at the front gate to the base. But, after only a few minutes examining the patient, a steaming-mad doctor came out & chewed us out. It seems the unconscious sailor was merely passed-out drunk & his only injuries were busted lips from his fall.

The duty ambulance driver slept in a small sick-bay at the Admin Building. One night, I was disturbed by an odd sound, it wasn't very loud, but it was a rapid thumping noise that seemed to be getting closer. Curious, I pushed aside the mosquito net and saw a cup-sized cane spider, coming my way on the thin plywood wall near my bunk. The thin plywood & the air-void underneath created a sounding-board that amplified the sound. I had heard some unbelievable stories about the size of Hawaii's cane spiders, but never would have guessed that you could actually hear them walking.

One of our ambulance drivers became a local hero one day while responding to a car wreck near the base. When he arrived, two dazed local men were watching their car burn with an badly injured woman still inside. Bill Sellers pulled the woman from the burning car & saved her life.

At the absolute height of the Cuban missile crisis, several of us in the duty section were standing outside the Admin building discussing the tense military situation in Cuba and its possible dire consequences when someone suddenly pointed up in the sky and said, "What the hell is that?"

Several miles, high above Oahu, there was a mysterious & alarming, rapidly spreading orange-colored cloud. Alarmed, the CDO told someone to go call Lualualei and see what the hell was happening. At that point, as a group we sort of eased toward the safety of the concrete building. Boy, did we feel foolish when we found out that a long-planned, but ill-timed rocket fired by the weather-people had deployed a sodium cloud to see how the winds aloft would spread the cloud over the island.

It was a long-standing Navy custom, when a sailor's wife was arriving from the mainland, to take him to the airport by a slow round-about route, that included stops for beer, pee-breaks & most important of all "a late arrival." Since I didn't have a car when my wife was to arrive, my "best buddy" Fred Bartram & others generously offered to take me to the airport. Now, I hadn't seen my wife for over 27-months so I was a tad anxious as the above described scenario unfolded. When I finally arrived, 30 minutes late & a little tipsy, I couldn't find my wife. Finally, I found her over at the "Flights to the Mainland" counter. She was very upset, & was already checking on a return flight. I learned later that her 4-prop plane had lost an engine past the halfway point & the Coast Guard had sent a rescue plane out to escort them the rest of the way to Oahu. No wonder she was so upset by her tardy welcoming committee.