A Sea Story

Tom Kiefaber

I had the unholy distinction of giving the order that resulted in the destruction (blow-up!) of COMSEVENTHFLT’s barge. Let me set the stage … there were contributing factors.

As a mid-grade LTJG, I was First Lieutenant on the USS HELENA (CA-75) from Nov. ’57 to June ’59. During the summer of 1958, we were deployed to the Western Pacific and became the flagship for SEVENTHFLT with VADM W.M. Beakley and his staff embarked. One day we were steaming in the Taiwan Straits in Condition III (wartime cruising) due to the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis being in full swing. We were in reduced visibility and couldn’t see the other ships in our formation, or for that matter, the numerous unidentified contacts in our vicinity. My station was Sky One with control over all manned 5” and 3” gun batteries. In the case of the 5” battery, that would be MT 51 and MT 56 (both centerline mounts) fore and aft. Suddenly the CO came running up to me (the bridge was one deck below) with his marine orderly in tow, shouting, “Fire! Fire!” My first reaction was, “Beg pardon, sir?” Then, he said, “fire a 5” round off as fast as you can.” At this point, it dawned on me this was the “Beakley Drill.” I had heard about the Admiral’s practice of testing his flagship in this manner at least once during a deployment. He had called the CO and said, “Let’s see how long it takes you to get a 5” round in the air, starting, NOW!” I asked the CO, ”in this visibility, sir?” His reply was, again, “Fire!” I called the director officer, via SP phones, and told him to have MT 56 train out on the starboard beam and fire a round as soon as possible, elevating sufficiently to observe the fall-of-shot (there was no standard gunnery jargon/procedure for this evolution). Of course, the director officer’s first reaction was, “Say again!” Anyway, pretty quickly thereafter a loud bang was heard and the CO and I observed the splash. Immediately, the Admiral called the CO and congratulated him on breaking the drill record. The CO turned and congratulated me. I was in the process of inquiring about possible damage aft, for it appeared, from where I was standing, the barrel of MT 56 had not been elevated and there were boats and vehicles were stowed on the fantail. Sure enough, the concussion from the firing destroyed the Admiral’s barge (stowed next to the mount) and heavily damaged the Chief of Staff’s gig. When I informed the CO of this unpleasant development, without a word, he wheeled around and returned to the bridge. Incidently, MT 56 was the only mount that could have been used. Standing orders from the CO forbade the use of MT 51 unless we were under attack (for reasons I won’t go into).

Later the same day, I heard the admiral was furious and insisted that our CO convene a Board of Investigation. The scuttlebutt was that he told the CO, “someone must ‘swing’ for this”. The potential “swingees” were soon announced to be: me, the director officer (another LTJG), and the mount captain (enlisted). I obtained the services of the marine detachment’s XO to represent me. His first action was to request that the CO and his marine orderly be directed by the board to make written statements and be available for questioning. The rationale for this request was that the CO had issued a direct order to me that caused the incident. Of course, his involvement in the investigation would have compromised his position as Convening Authority. The CO refused to participate! After determining that the admiral didn’t want the investigation to go further up the chain-of-command, the CO solved the dilemma by having me declared an “uninterested” party. Subsequently, the director officer was given a letter of reprimand for failing to have the mount elevate. He declined my offer of support on an appeal on the basis of the mitigating low visibility conditions. Since he was a reservist who was “getting out” within weeks, he didn’t care or think it was worth it.

EPILOGUE. When the CO was relieved routinely several months later, I feared the worst regarding my fitness report. It was one of the best fitness reports I ever received