“Yeah, a couple.”
They stopped at the Quarterdeck, where Murdock put in a request with the master chief for the use of a destroyer for two days for sea training. The request went to Masciareli, who asked for Murdock on the phone.
“A destroyer for two days? You know what that’s going to cost the Navy?”
“A few hundred gallons of diesel fuel and some tired sailors. We need the actual at-sea training going up the side of a ship. Hone our skills on daylight practice, then chasing down the ship at night and doing the same thing. Think what it will cost if we can’t do the job and that freighter gets through to China.”
An hour later they had the authorization through Admiral Kenner. By 0935 Murdock was on the phone with Commander Zertiz, CO of the Donald Cook, DDG 75, ported at the 32nd Naval Pier for some minor repairs.
“You want to do what?” Zertiz asked.
Murdock explained it to him.
“Whatever the admiral says,” Zertiz replied. “My crew is on board. We were due to sail in the morning on a training run. We’ll just jump it a few hours. We’ll see you five miles off Point Loma sometime after fifteen hundred.”
“Right, Commander. Once on station, set a two-mile-box course at ten knots. That’s the speed we need.”
Third Platoon of SEAL Team Seven had been scheduled for a five-mile run and a five-mile ocean swim that afternoon. Ed DeWitt made the needed arrangements. They took a bus to nearby North Island Naval Air Station, with a flatbed truck right behind them holding two fully inflated IBSs. The Sea Knight chopper sat on the flight line warmed up and ready to move. The Sea Knight is a workhorse medium assault helicopter with two contrarotating, three-blade main rotors fore and aft on the fuselage. It can haul twenty-five fully combat-ready troops or fifteen litters on a hospital run. It is armed with two .50-caliber machine guns, and can use door gunners with freewheeling machine guns. It has a maximum speed of 165 mph, with a maximum range of 420 miles.
The sixteen SEALs, wearing cammies over their wet suits, loaded on board the helicopter and pushed the two IBSs and their special equipment inside through the aft hatch. All the men wore their usual combat vests and carried their assigned or selected weapons with full loads of ammunition.
The chopper’s pilot checked with Senior Chief Dobler, who gave him a thumbs-up, and the bird lifted off just after 1435.
“How many of you have done this before?” Dobler asked. He had a response of twelve hands out of the sixteen. “Nothing to it. Just follow orders, work slowly and carefully, and it will go off like clockwork. Any questions?”
“We’re going to run down a destroyer in our IBS?” Tony Ostercamp, Machinist’s Mate First Class, asked.
“The destroyer will be making only ten knots. That’s the speed this rusted-out freighter is supposedly doing. We’ll drop in ahead of the ship, power over to her and match speed, then latch onto the side of the destroyer with our magnets. We’ve been over the procedure a dozen times.”
“Jump time in three minutes,” the speaker in the chopper said. The men stood and began checking each other’s gear, then lined up with one squad on each side of the big bird waiting for the aft swing-down hatch to open.
A minute later it yawned downward. When the red jump light came on, the first two SEALs pushed the two IBSs out the rear, picked up their flotation drag bags, and looked at Dobler.
“Go, go, go,” Dobler shouted to be heard over the sound of the chopper. The SEALs ran to the back of the CH-46 and stepped into space. The craft was only ten feet off the water. They hit almost at once, went underwater, came up grabbing at their flotation bags, and swam toward the floating IBSs.
Once all the SEALs were on board the two rubber boats, the engines were started and the small craft began nosing to the left to meet the path of the destroyer about a mile behind them. They plowed through a medium sea at the assigned ten knots.
Murdock watched his men. Jaybird would be the first one up the side of the destroyer. Out of the other boat it would be Fernandez, Gunner’s Mate First Class, who had done it before. Murdock judged the angle of the destroyer and motioned for the two boats to move ahead another hundred yards. Then they waited. The men on the destroyer were supposed to ignore them.
As it came up, Murdock thought that the five-hundred-foot-long destroyer had never looked larger. He watched as it sliced through the water fifty yards to the left. Kenneth Ching, Quartermaster’s Mate First Class, who was on the motor, revved it at just the right time and moved the rubber boat ahead at nearly full speed as it ate up the distance to the big ship and came alongside amidships. Holt and Bradford slammed the strong magnets against the side of the destroyer and tied them off to the side of the IBS. They were latched on. Behind them he saw the Bravo Squad boat miss the tie and surge away from the destroyer. It powered back to the side of the craft, landed the strong magnets, and tied the IBS to the mother ship.
At once Jaybird and Fernandez began to work their way up the sloping sides of the destroyer. They had strong hand magnets and smaller ones on their boots. They lifted the hand magnets off the side of the ship, extended their arms as far upward as they would go, and let the magnets clamp tight as they took a step upward. Each man trailed a strong woven nylon line behind him.
The side of the destroyer was maybe a quarter of the distance from water to rail that a freighter would be. The two SEALs worked upward quickly, and were soon over the rail.
On the deck of the destroyer, Jaybird ignored six curious seamen, and tied off the nylon line to the strongest rail support and gave it two quick tugs. Below, Joe Lampedusa, Operations Specialist Third Class, grabbed the rope and began to climb upward, walking up the ship as he heaved his body upward hand over hand on the strong line.
Murdock was the last man up from his boat. He left Vinnie Van Dyke, Electrician’s Mate Second Class, to stay with the boat. On the actual operation all eight men would go topside.
On the destroyer’s deck, Murdock gathered his men around.
“That’s how we’ll get on board. It will be a lot tougher climb than that. We’ll go back to base tomorrow and work on the rope climbs. Now everyone over the side on the rope in reverse order from the way you came up.”
They all went down the rope. In a real operation they would leave the nylon line attached. On this training exercise one of the destroyer crewmen was asked to untie it once the last man was down.
They unlatched from the destroyer, surged away from it, and went to the other side, where they worked the climb again. By that time it was turning dusk. They stayed on board this time, had chow with the crew, and got ready for their night exercise. It would be much the same, only without any lights. The destroyer would be in combat mode showing few lights.
Captain Zertiz came down on deck and watched the SEALs go over the side. He found Murdock.
“You guys always have this much fun?” he asked.
Murdock grinned and shook the commander’s hand. “Usually it’s best when nobody is shooting at us. Thanks for your help. We needed some polishing.”
“You do this at night?”
“Right. Easier to hide in the dark so we don’t get shot. We’ll do the climb twice in the dark, then we’ll ask you to call in our Sea Knight for a night pickup. We’ll leave the IBSs with you and retrieve them when you get back into the bay.”
The night climb proved to be little different from the daylight one. They did have more trouble estimating the speed of the destroyer and finding the right path to motor alongside it. Then it was routine.
Topside after the second climb, Murdock asked one of the chiefs standing around watching to have the captain radio to North Island Naval Air Station that it was time to send the chopper out for a nighttime pickup with the ladder.