1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,960 Welcome to Veterans Radio. I am Jim Fossone. I'm the officer of the deck today. 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:14,040 We've got some great programs for you. I think you'll find very interesting. We 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:18,760 always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its 4 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:25,480 Facebook site or by going to veteransradio.net where we're on the web 5 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:31,040 24-7. You can find a lot of our podcasts there as well. We post new ones every 6 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:37,160 Tuesday so you can get a new story, a new interview, something you didn't know 7 00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:42,560 before by going to veteransradio.net. And before we get started we want to thank 8 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:48,920 our sponsors. First up we want to thank National Veteran Business Development 9 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:58,440 Council, NVBDC.org. 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You can 18 00:01:48,620 --> 00:02:00,120 reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at legalhelpforveterans.com. And finally 19 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:07,480 we want to welcome new sponsor to the program which is Veterans Business 20 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:13,480 Outreach Center which is located in Flint, Michigan and covers Michigan, Ohio and 21 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:18,520 Indiana. The Center is ran and operated by veterans to help other veterans in 22 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:25,680 National Guard, Reserve, spouses, expand and grow businesses. You can find more 23 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:39,360 about them by going to vetbizcentral.org 810-252-6200 and now on to our programs. 24 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:44,880 We want to welcome to Veterans Radio today Captain Stephen Craig retired from 25 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:49,160 the United States Coast Guard. Captain welcome to Veterans Radio. 26 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:55,160 Thank you Jim. Well we're thrilled to have you on. We don't get a lot of Coast Guard 27 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:59,280 guys on Veterans Radio because you're a small service and so we're thrilled to 28 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:03,400 have you. You also wrote a really interesting book called All Present and 29 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:10,200 Accounted For which is the story of the 1972 Alaska grounding of the US Coast Guard 30 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:15,960 cutter Jarvis and we're going to talk about that a little bit. But Captain 31 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:19,720 before we get started why don't you tell us a little bit about your career in the 32 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:28,120 Coast Guard. Well I enlisted in August 1972 when boot camp down in Alameda and 33 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:35,280 went through the enlisted ranks. Spent about four and a half years in my first 34 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:40,960 enlistment most of it over in Hawaii and that is where I first heard that story 35 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:49,240 about the grounding of the Jarvis out almost sank up there in Alaska. Good for 36 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:55,880 an half years got out for about a year. One of the reasons I got out was in 37 00:03:55,880 --> 00:04:00,520 one year I got transferred five times and that didn't really settle in love with 38 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,680 me. I love the Coast Guard but I just didn't like it transferred so got out for 39 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,600 about a year and I thought well going to the reserves you know they never get 40 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:15,800 recalled and that was in 1979 I went in. During the course of the rest of my 41 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:21,280 career there I got recalled 13 times. My background later on was in a Mercy 42 00:04:21,280 --> 00:04:25,320 management and that was quite popular with Coast Guard. That's all you have to 43 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:32,480 think as well. This is a safe billet they'll never move me from here. Yeah it's 44 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:37,360 like well with my first enlistment I was stationed at Barbers Point. I was one of the best 45 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:43,320 stations I've ever had at the air station there and I was there five months 46 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:53,760 and and this is 1974 and I loved it there and and I got transferred to Kauai in a 47 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:58,400 weird set of circumstances. I got transferred a week before district lost 48 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:03,920 control of transfers. My bowling team was in first place in the Coast Guard League 49 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:09,640 and I had the highest average and some senior officers got together and had me 50 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:15,280 transferred. You gotta love those kind of stories. Yeah and you know that was 51 00:05:15,280 --> 00:05:20,320 verified to me later on by my Yeoman chiefs that I had but the captain was 52 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:24,240 so upset about me getting transferred because I was under two years they 53 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:28,440 wouldn't send my transfer my car and I only had a week notice transfer my car 54 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:33,360 so they the captain decided to have a training flight with C-130 over to Kauai 55 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:39,040 and they loaded up my Volkswagen bug with me inside and flew me over to Kauai. 56 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:44,760 So that was a sort of one of the bizarre stories people have. Everybody's got 57 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:48,080 stories. Everybody's got one. If you've been in service long enough you got 58 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,440 something weird to tell and that certainly is one of the weird ones. You 59 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:57,240 had duty assignments that and this is probably pretty typical for somebody 60 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:01,480 with the emergency management response background. You have a master's degree in 61 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:10,640 it but you participated in hurricanes like Katrina and over to Haiti, the Deep 62 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:17,040 Water Horizon oil spill. I mean sort of every coastal disaster Coast Guard shows 63 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:23,320 up doesn't it? Yeah I got my direct commission. 64 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:32,640 Oh heck about 1990 I think it was something like that and came in as an O2. I was a senior chief 65 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,440 element and told them I wouldn't take an answer and they said okay I would give you 66 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:43,200 JJ but I had retired 2005 from the post service. I went out and got my master's 67 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:49,420 degree in emergency management and that sort of made me a valuable asset to the 68 00:06:49,420 --> 00:06:55,480 Coast Guard but being with that kind of background and knowing ICS, Incident 69 00:06:55,480 --> 00:07:00,640 Command System quite well it was a valuable Coast Guard like and so I did 70 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:06,480 five trips for Hurricane Katrina and I wrote a book on that called Chronicles 71 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:11,840 of Katrina and basically all that was just capturing. I sent out daily emails 72 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:16,000 from the five trips I went over there and a lot of people found quite interesting 73 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:21,320 and that worked on planning for the port recovery for the Haiti operation. I was in 74 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:28,720 Virginia for that one, Deep Water Horizon and Hurricane Ike. I was also the 75 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:35,720 maritime planner for the APEC conference in Hawaii that was held back in 2011 76 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:43,680 where we had all the various heads of state, Russia, US, China, meet over Halu 77 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:48,840 and I was put on a one-year detail to help plan that. That was quite 78 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:55,520 interesting project to work on but all together I spent 38 years in the Coast 79 00:07:55,520 --> 00:08:02,200 Guard reserve and active all together about eight years active and yeah it 80 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:06,760 just loved doing that kind of work. Well it's an interesting career and again 81 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:10,400 it's one that we don't hear much about and part of this is the Coast Guard is 82 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:15,480 you know really small particularly in-care person if you look at the army 83 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:20,160 size if I've got the numbers relatively right there are about 40,000 active duty 84 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:25,160 Coast Guard men and women. Yeah I think it's right around 33,000 but I haven't 85 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,960 seen those numbers in the last couple years so maybe it's greater. And the 86 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:33,440 reserve component I've got to note that it's about 7,000 so I don't know if it's 87 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,840 plus or minus that a little bit. Yeah it's around that ballpark yeah. And there's an 88 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:42,800 auxiliary but you know if you compare that to the army their army's got 400 89 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:48,760 500,000 folks in it so when you look at a 33,000 active duty component at the 90 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:53,880 Coast Guard you see why it's so small and why maybe you don't bump into folks 91 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:59,400 who are serving in that branch of the service very much but it's an 92 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:03,640 interesting duty and you certainly enjoyed it. I stayed around for 38 years and 93 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:09,200 had a very interesting career and you wrote you heard right almost from the 94 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:16,360 beginning about this grounding of the cutter Jarvis up in Alaskan 1972 but you 95 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:21,640 did a fascinating thing with this book that I want to start with because you 96 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:28,160 really talk about the namesake of the cutter and and where Jarvis fits into 97 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:33,160 history and Alaskan history so tell us a little bit about the namesake in his 98 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:42,320 efforts back in 1897. He he's selected help lead a mission there was 13 ships I 99 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:46,800 think stranded up in Alaska they got they stayed up in Alaska and those days 100 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:52,520 there was a lot of whaling ships that went up there and the storm came in and 101 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:56,760 basically trapped these ships up there and and if they didn't get the food and 102 00:09:56,760 --> 00:10:01,960 supply up there they would have all these men a couple hundred of our 103 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:07,920 frigate numbers would probably perish up there in in Alaska the harsh conditions 104 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:13,720 that were up there so David Jarvis was selected to lead an expedition up there 105 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:19,820 to bring up all these reindeer that would be used for food up there once they 106 00:10:19,820 --> 00:10:26,360 got up there but to go over the Alaska frontier to get up there and just 107 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:32,640 reading about it is it just seemed like mission impossible what he accomplished 108 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:38,480 yeah it was one of these stories where when you were telling it I'm going I 109 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:44,440 wouldn't believe it if it was a movie you know they've got they've got something 110 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:50,600 like 1500 miles to travel up to Point Barrow to get these stranded whalers 111 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:57,360 there's no food up there so this lieutenant Jarvis assigned this mission 112 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:02,200 to do this Alaska rescue goes well I need I remember the numbers but it's like 113 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:11,440 500 reindeer that that I'm going to essentially dog sled up to the these 114 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:16,440 stranded whalers so that they they have food and we can get through the winner 115 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:20,960 who would have thought you could move that many reindeer in the same direction 116 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:25,680 yeah I don't know how he could possibly do it but he did and he acquired some of 117 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:30,200 the reindeer on the way up there as well with promises of payments later in some 118 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:35,320 cases and this is one of this is one of these stories again kind of lost to 119 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:40,560 history it's you all you got to read it when you when you read all present and 120 00:11:40,560 --> 00:11:46,840 accounted for it's the start of this story but it's a very fascinating part 121 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:55,600 of this story as it again ties in the pre-U.S. Coast Guard history and the 122 00:11:55,600 --> 00:12:02,200 Alaskan history that becomes a relevant again back in 1972 when the namesake 123 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:09,080 ship the cutter Jarvis has its own problems up in the harsh harsh 124 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:16,960 environs of Alaskan waters yeah and to the state and the Coast Guard recognized 125 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:22,160 the leadership that took for David Jarvis to speed and they have their top 126 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:26,000 leadership who was called the Davis Jarvis leadership board that said 127 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:31,680 worded annually so the Coast Guard David Jarvis is like just a legend in the 128 00:12:31,680 --> 00:12:35,480 Coast Guard well and I think that's one of the things the service generally does 129 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:40,640 pretty good about which is reminding the youngsters coming along that there were a 130 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:46,920 lot of guys in front of you who put this legacy together and really were 131 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,600 outstanding leaders try to try to live up to those standards that's that's part 132 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:59,800 of the message isn't it yeah yeah most definitely well tell us about the 1972 133 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:05,320 grounding of the US Coast Guard cutter Jarvis to maybe maybe start with what 134 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,800 kind of ship is it a lot of folks wouldn't wouldn't have an idea of what 135 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:14,520 kind of ship the cutter Jarvis is well it's a it was it was the Coast Guard's 136 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:20,560 newest vessel at the time but was a 378 foot high endurance cutter and they were 137 00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:27,400 used mostly up in Alaska during that era for fisheries enforcement make sure 138 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:34,600 people foreign countries not illegally fishing up in US waters and that was 139 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:39,400 Bracklayer made in voyage going up to Alaska this is what this is another one 140 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:42,680 of those things in this story I actually had to back up and write the dates down 141 00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:47,560 when I was doing it captain because I like we all know some guy who drove a 142 00:13:47,560 --> 00:13:54,120 brand new car off a car lot and smashed it up right isn't that the worst fear of 143 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:57,680 the you get a new car you're gonna smash it up a meter okay they assigned the 144 00:13:57,680 --> 00:14:03,320 captain our brand new Coast Guard cutter it's 1971 I think so commissioned it's 145 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:07,400 you know it's state-of-the-art 17 million dollars at the time a full 146 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:15,800 complement of new crew and what's he do with it it runs on the rocks so tell us 147 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:19,640 tell us a little bit about the captain who was actually quite a good captain and 148 00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:28,920 and and how these circumstances came to fruition and Captain Woolley was the 149 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:34,920 command officer he had come over from the Merchant Marine there were stories 150 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:41,160 that he'd maybe according his daughter participate in the D-Day invasion one of 151 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:47,800 Merchant Vincels I couldn't find any specific record on that but I know one 152 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:52,800 of the ships that he had been one of the engineers on he had gotten transferred 153 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:57,640 and actually I believe was destroyed like a couple months after he had gotten 154 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:03,160 off it sunk by the Germans but he was very active in the Merchant Marines he 155 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:08,760 had extensive background and eventually got his own ship in the Merchant Marines 156 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:15,800 but he decided he was gonna make career of it and he had been out sea for like 157 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:21,400 nine months whatever and he came home and is he came walking in the house and his 158 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:25,160 daughter went screaming away from him saying there was strange man in the 159 00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:30,440 house and that was when he decided the Merchant Marines was not going to be his 160 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:37,120 life and so he applied to the Coast Guard and was commissioned as an officer he 161 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:43,320 served in some other assignments and then he selected be the new command 162 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:51,840 officer for the Jarvis which was quite a distinction and he was he said he was 163 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:56,160 always fair he's rigid but he was he's just one of these guys that a lot of the 164 00:15:56,160 --> 00:16:01,040 crew member they just most I think I'm gonna solve them loved him they say you'd 165 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:05,480 be walking down the passageway and he'd pull you inside and say you know pay 166 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:09,520 officer Jones how you doing how's your family and he always took an interest in 167 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:16,720 the men and and their families and whereas the the Exo was more of a rigid 168 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:21,680 straight military guy capemulio they said a lot of them say you know you're more 169 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:26,520 like a father or grandfather figure to him so the troops are absolutely loved 170 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:33,040 him but they'd gone up to Alaska this isn't a day before he had satellites and 171 00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:40,800 weather forecasting all that and they got caught in the storm so they went to do 172 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:52,200 a safe try to find safe harbor and the captain been up for 20 30 hours and no 173 00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:58,680 sleep I think one of their key officers had had taken a temporary assignment or 174 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:05,520 was on leave and they had put an incident on board in charge that night and 175 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:11,280 thinking it was probably safe to to have him on board for whatever reasons the 176 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:17,320 ships are dragging anchor and by the time the incident got the captain woke him up 177 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:23,040 to report it within minutes after the captain got up on the bridge the ship 178 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:30,000 ran a ground terror hole in the bottom of the ship there and they managed to 179 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:38,680 patch it up well that that's that that is a glossing over the the the rushing 180 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:44,680 water and fear that you write so well about in in the book that it sort of 181 00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:51,120 grips you as they are really battling this gash to make sure this the ship 182 00:17:51,120 --> 00:17:57,400 which was at anchor doesn't sink everybody's worst nightmare on the ship 183 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:02,080 maybe fires first and sinking second but if you if you've been on ship those are 184 00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:06,880 your fears right and this this is you are really fighting mother nature in 185 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:11,680 this situation aren't you well yeah and it it's from there things just got worse 186 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:16,240 they said that that they could make it back to Honolulu which is where their 187 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:20,920 home port was and they hit a storm as worse than the day before and that's 188 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:24,840 where their real problems where the ship the engine room filled up with 13 feet 189 00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:32,480 of water and it's freezing water and there was a lot of herorics to stop it 190 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:39,280 one guy happened to have his recreational scuba gear on and he managed to go 191 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:44,200 down 10 12 times whatever to he kept having to pull stuff out of the hoses 192 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:50,600 as they were trying to do water the ship rags and stuff will get into hose so he 193 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:57,000 died down pull that stuff out but the water is freezing it was snowing the 194 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:03,240 winds are blowing the waves were a lot bigger than the ship I had one of the 195 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:10,200 crew members called me up a couple weeks ago that I hadn't talked to and he said 196 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:14,520 he was certain he was gonna die a lot of them felt that way and what what captain 197 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:20,440 what time of year is this occurring this is toward the end of the mid to late 198 00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:25,240 November and you know it's like the worst time to be in Alaska exactly so 199 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:30,560 picture this image folks it is colder than anything you ever want to be around 200 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:36,480 the wind is howling I think I read somewhere up to a hundred knots you know 201 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:44,000 you are fighting the elements and it's your little ship and mother nature in 202 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:49,040 this in this fight and if you can't stop the water from flowing in or pump it 203 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:52,920 out of the ship fast enough there's only one place that ships going down and 204 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:59,320 that's down to the bottom it was it was an incredible effort by the crew to 205 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:06,560 keep to keep this afloat and everybody alive tell us about how they came 206 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:11,000 together yeah yeah it was for every going toward that or floating toward 207 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:18,560 Accu-Tin Island they lost all their power and they figured in like 30 minutes 208 00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:26,520 45 minutes they had they would crash crash on the island there and you know 209 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:31,440 with the freezing water and stuff you know they tied by a vacuum ship and some 210 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,720 of the crew members said refuse said no we're gonna go down a ship because you 211 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:38,920 put us in a rowboat in these kind of conditions we're dying anyway so the 212 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:45,880 there's a fishing crawler that was somewhat close by and they said you know 213 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,800 we can be there an hour and Jarvis said what the problem is we figured we're going 214 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:57,160 to ground 35 minutes and so the Jarvis officers and senior people they basically 215 00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:01,000 had to take a lot of measures to slow the ship down even though without power 216 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:05,840 so that the fishing crawler could get there in time yeah this whole idea of 217 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:10,920 being dead in the water in the ocean and in this instance a particular 218 00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:15,320 inlet where you're just at the will of whichever way the waves are going it's 219 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:22,600 just frightening and and I want to bring in the you write about the helicopter 220 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:26,840 that the Hilo that's on the Jarvis and what they have to do with it because 221 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:32,520 many of us know that Coast Guard cutters do have helicopters on them but you 222 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:39,080 never really think about well if things are really are really bad how do we get 223 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:44,040 that helicopter off the ship and and that's a very interesting story here 224 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:50,520 yeah it's very intense there's discussion about they knew they need 225 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:58,680 some room on top of the ship to bring supplies fuel and stuff and so the Exo 226 00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:02,200 they talked about they were just going to dump the helicopter just off the side 227 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:10,000 there and Lieutenant Hilo was the the pilot and he got together this crew and 228 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:16,840 his co-pilot and they told the Exo look we think we can get this off and they 229 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:20,280 said okay we'll give you one shot to try to get it off otherwise it's going over 230 00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:26,040 the side and imagine the ship three or seventy foot you know it's it's going you 231 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:32,120 know sideways and and it just hard to take off so to take off they had these 232 00:22:32,120 --> 00:22:36,920 tie downs but they had to have the rotors going full blasts so as helicopters 233 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:42,000 just straining like crazy trying to take off it's tied to the deck and their 234 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:47,400 first attempt at to take off one of the guys failed to get the tie off and the 235 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:55,280 helicopter almost tipped over so they had to put tied all back down again and 236 00:22:55,280 --> 00:23:00,960 then the pilot called over the crew members that were to release the tie 237 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:05,680 downs and said look if you don't get these off at the same time he says this 238 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:09,560 helicopter will crash and if it crashes the rotors will kill everybody up on this 239 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:15,920 deck and he says so he got sorry got their attention and he also told the 240 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:21,160 Exo that he was going to drop his crew members off on the island nearby island 241 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:25,200 and he was going to come back and he told me says I'll come back until I run out 242 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:30,800 of fuel to rescue as many as crew members as I can so on the next attempt 243 00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:37,480 they they they got the tide tie-ons all off at the same time just as they 244 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:43,520 looked as the ship tilted and one of the crew members said that it looked to him 245 00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:49,440 like the helicopter had had disappeared into the water you know and then also 246 00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:55,480 it just shot straight up in the air but it's a crazy story the way you write it 247 00:23:55,480 --> 00:24:03,360 it is like man intense and if you're into aviation or helicopter of the 248 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:09,600 theatrics boy this is a read you got to do let me back you up and we're talking 249 00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:15,240 to captain Stephen J Craig who's retired from the United States Coast Guard he 250 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:21,760 wrote all present and accounted for and we can report that very recently his 251 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:27,200 book took home the silver medal in in the history category from the Military 252 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:32,480 Writers Society of America so congratulations on that captain thank you 253 00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:36,760 I wanted to I wanted to come back to the rescue though because I think in an 254 00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:41,000 era where we don't think anybody cooperates with anybody it's kind of 255 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:51,720 interesting that this floundering listing rockin ship is ultimately towed to 256 00:24:51,720 --> 00:25:01,200 to safety by a Japanese and I don't know if it's a trawler or if it's a freighter 257 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:06,200 it's a coil Maru tell us a little bit about that rescue and the sort of 258 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:12,880 international flavor of it the fishing trawler and its sister ship was also on 259 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:19,960 the way to because week or two earlier the Jarvis that helped rescue an injured 260 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:24,840 fisherman from that vessel and that second vessel wanted to help out as well 261 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:32,440 but the the efficient vessel Maru they they got there on scene but the the 262 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,680 the conditions were horrendous to the point that 263 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:43,440 governor's made chief Jack Hunter talked to several times he had to fire over the 264 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:48,640 line to where they could tie up and be towed out of there they said the ship was 265 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:54,800 moving so much back sideways and all directions that he had to shoot from his 266 00:25:54,800 --> 00:26:01,600 his knees the line over to the other vessel I believe they missed the first 267 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:08,440 time so he had second time second time they managed to connect with the fishing 268 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:16,160 Japanese fishing trawler I I know one of this seaman bronchi was on deck at the 269 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:21,560 time he later retires as a commander but he was telling me that it looked like the 270 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:26,480 fishing vessel was going to collide with him and he said it's just outstanding 271 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:33,080 seamanship of the Japanese captain that they just barely missed each other yeah 272 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:39,600 it's so dangerous that this rescue is so dangerous as you as you talk about it 273 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:46,920 and and trying to resupply fuel and other things to the Jarvis while it's 274 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:53,200 crippled by Coast Guard cutters again another one of these immensely dangerous 275 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:59,280 efforts to save the ship were you surprised at the level that everybody 276 00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:04,080 went to here I'm not really with Coast Guard you know you have anybody especially 277 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:09,120 that fellowship and dangerous all hands on deck well that clearly comes through I 278 00:27:09,120 --> 00:27:17,040 mean it is very very clear and then there's a you have to do this massive 279 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:21,320 repair effort to make this seaworthy again and again this is one of these 280 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:25,360 portions of the story where the the general news would stop writing about 281 00:27:25,360 --> 00:27:31,040 but it's a very fascinating effort to try to make such a massive repair up in 282 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:39,880 Alaska isn't it yeah they would have these guys go in the engine room and get 283 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:46,080 in this it's like oil and fiberglass and one of the nicknames they called it 284 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:50,880 Elven snot it was so sticky and guys would go in there and work you know 8 285 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:55,320 12 hours a day and come out and all of them just coated top to bottom with this 286 00:27:55,320 --> 00:28:00,720 oily stuff and new crew would go in and clean up the engines because they had to 287 00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,200 get everything cleaned up once they got up the charter break everything cleaned 288 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:10,200 up and get the engines going so they could get go back to Halu for dry dock 289 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:18,400 and so it's a long long recovery up in Alaska couple weeks to get all that 290 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:26,040 ready to go and just a sticky mess well and again once you write it down and we 291 00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:29,360 think about it we go well that makes sense that you know you have 13 feet of 292 00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:32,120 water in the engine room all that stuff's got to be dried out it's all 293 00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:39,040 salt water it's all got to be cleaned so that you're not damaging the gears and 294 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:43,480 the motors and the you know everything else because of that corrosive 295 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:50,600 environment so it as I say it was really a massive repair effort saving the ship 296 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:56,840 so that it could make its way back to dry dock and and either even further 297 00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:04,120 repairs remembering again veteran radio listeners as we talked to captain 298 00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:10,760 Craig about the 1972 Alaska grounding of the USS Coast Guard cutter Jarvis this 299 00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:19,880 was the maiden voyage essentially of the ship and it stayed in it stayed in 300 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:24,960 service for you know decades thereafter we should you know tell the end of the 301 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:32,120 story that the ship was saved as were the men and and the ship was kept in 302 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:37,040 service I think it was I think you you write that it was sold in 19 or I'm sorry 303 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:43,280 it's sold in 2013 to the Bangladesh Navy but it you know they they saved this 304 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:48,200 $17 million ship which would have otherwise gone down on its main voyage 305 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:53,480 were I did did you serve with any of the men on the on this ship or was it was you 306 00:29:53,480 --> 00:30:02,320 came back to write about this was this all sort of new facts and and information 307 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:08,080 to you well in 1973 I was stationed at base hall little and I ran across one of 308 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,280 the crew members which I'd be curious see which I was and he told me a story and 309 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:16,680 I thought I said you know I never even heard of this you know so it's saved in 310 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:22,200 the back of my mind for decades and then I formally retired from work here a 311 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:26,960 couple years ago and I was gonna write a magazine article about the Jarvis and 312 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:35,520 just it just sort of exploded on me the more stories I heard and just I talked 313 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:42,240 to 35 the crew members and I talked to the various senior people that served on 314 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:47,360 the ship and then I also talked to the pilot of the helicopter and then there 315 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:53,480 was two C-130 pilots that were involved and their stories were harrowing telling 316 00:30:53,480 --> 00:31:00,040 me about the you know dropping off fuel barrels onto the Jarvis and and in fact 317 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:06,920 one one situation the pilots got blinded by the ship lights they had to get so 318 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:14,480 close to the ship that they basically had to fly for a couple minutes away from 319 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:20,960 land because they couldn't see and it was just quite interesting getting all 320 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:25,840 these stories and then putting it together I had to go down to San Bruno 321 00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:31,080 get the ship logs so I could put in a time sequence because one of the things 322 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:35,120 all the crew members mentioned me was nobody knew the rest of the story 323 00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:39,920 those in the engine room didn't know what happened up topside and whose topside 324 00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:43,040 didn't know what happened in the engine room and they didn't know the command 325 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:47,360 decisions and and when they got back to Honolulu a lot of them been on the ship 326 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,360 for two three years and they all got transferred and there was never a big 327 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:54,760 formal meeting where they could all talk about lessons learned like they would 328 00:31:54,760 --> 00:32:01,400 probably try to do now so they were all a lot of comments about how they liked 329 00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:06,000 fact I got story out so they could learn what the whole story was well it's a 330 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:12,440 great book we can recommend to folks it's all present and accounted for kept in 331 00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:17,120 the Stephen J Craig if folks want to follow along with things that you might 332 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:22,600 write in the future or this book in particular where do they keep in touch 333 00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:33,240 with you I've got a website it's www.stevenjcraigbooks.com I found out I 334 00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:37,840 had put J my mill initial in there because turns out there's another Stephen 335 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:47,320 Craig books naturally naturally I try to keep that updated on a weekly basis and 336 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:53,840 that you can buy the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or any major even 337 00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:58,640 Walmart you can order online through them so the books really available and I'm 338 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:03,400 hoping they do a book tour I had 15 of them scheduled this year and of course 339 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:07,760 they all got canceled so I'm hoping to do one next year it's gonna be my I think 340 00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:12,120 guide it's over the quarantine book tour and I hope to get over to a lot of the 341 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:16,720 Coast Guard exchanges when that happens well we want to thank you for taking 342 00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:23,000 some time on your day to talk to Veterans Radio about the Coast Guard about 343 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:29,720 your career and and the whole David Jarvis and in the Carter Jarvis story 344 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:34,640 so that we can inform more people about it we really appreciate your time 345 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:41,800 captain now I appreciate the interview me Jim and I want to thank everybody for 346 00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:46,760 listening to Veterans Radio today I am Jim Fawson it's been a pleasure to be 347 00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,920 your host I'm a Veterans Disability lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and 348 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:58,760 you can reach us at 800-6934800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web 349 00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:03,880 you can 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