Moment 5
Pusan, South Korea. Our destination for some rest and relaxation after an exercise with the Korean Navy. Our Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) of four ships was formed into a diamond shape. Our ship was located at the right point of the formation, while the largest ship in the group was in the rear. To enter the harbor we needed to change formation into a column. In typical military fashion the column needed to be in order by seniority of the ship's captains. We would be third in line, with the largest in the lead. The ship at the front point of the diamond needed to find their way to the tail of the column. It was a total jumbling of the ships. To add to the difficulty of the operation it would occur at three in the morning of a moonless night. The ships have running lights which allow you to tell which direction they are headed, and we had RADAR, of course. I found myself as the officer in charge of driving the ship (Office Of The Deck - OOD), I would be running the show. The Captain got up to observe the operation, as it can be rather dangerous. In preparation for the maneuver the Conning Officer (second in charge for the bridge watch team) and I calculated a course and speed to stear to arrive on station in a minimal amount of time. In my opinion the course was not wise, as it would take us too close to the other ships. I planned on just slowing down and letting the the lead ship pass us by. This would take much longer than the minimum amount of time, though. When it came time for the maneuver I had the Conning Officer order the reduction in speed. The Captain asked me why we were not turning. I told him of my concerns. He did not care, we needed to get to our position as quickly as possible to look good. I said "aye, aye, sir" and told the Conning Officer to execute the maneuver. It soon became apparent that we were getting quite close to the lead ship. It was difficult to ascertain what was really happening with the other ship due to the darkness and things were moving quickly. There is an old rule that was beaten into us in the Naval Academy ship navigation classes - always turn right when meeting another ship. If both ships turn right, you will turn away from each other and all will be well. The Captain became concerned about our situation and took control of conning the ship from the Conning Officer. He turned left to avoid the lead ship, as it was the quickest way to put distance between the two ships. The problem with that was that the lead ship also turned to avoid us, and did the traditional right turn. It was a close call, but we missed each other by hundreds of yards, which is only a little bit more than the lead ship is long. Soon after things settled down we were hailed on the bridge to bridge radio. That radio is not an official military method of communication. It is the normal maritime radio that everyone uses. It was the Captain of the lead ship requesting to speak to our Captain. I could not hear much of the conversation, because I gave the Captain some space. It was not a pleasant conversation, though. In that moment my naval career was dealt a tremendous blow, as I became the scapegoat.
Amphibious Ready Group