What the....?

I don't recall the date other then it was 1961. It was either sometime around the Bay of Pigs invasion or in the fall of the same year.. Tenisons were at a high level with Cuba. We had been in the area around Cuba for some weeks, training and conducting war games.

One day, as we sailed around close to some island, the general alarm went off. Bong, bong, bong. No words just the alarm. It was the first time I had heard the alarm without the words, "Now hear this, this is a drill, this is a drill. All hands man your battle stations". then the alarm, Bong bong bong, would keep going till someone in charge turn it off.

In shock, I ran forward to my battle station, high in the upper deck, to man my Target Designator Transmitter, or TDT. As I ran forward I couldn't help but noticed that our guns were swinging out as I ran forward and up. I could see, in my mind, our missile lanchers receiving their missiles and swing to face the targets. Hatchets were being slamed shut, dogged (locked). Sailors putting on helmets and life jackets. Lookouts scaning the sky.

I felt a strange kind of pride. We were doing everything just as we had done during our countless drills. But this time, live ammo was being loaded into the breechs. Just as I pluged in my headset the captain came on the 1MC. He told us it was a mistake, someone had pushed the alarm button. He told us he had been getting a hair cut when it went off and that he was still wearing a sheet around his neck. The alarm was canceled and we went back to normal duties.

Later we found out a new crewmember had been polishing the brass in aftercon. After control is where the ship can be controled if the bridge gets wiped out. Anyway, wanting to do a good job he pushed the lever covering the brass plate out is his way and that lever was the general alarm. I bet his officer got chew out and I bet he chewed out he person in charge of the new guy.

But what I saw and felt confirmed to me that "we" were ready. If Castro came at us we would respone. No Pearl Harbor for the USS Canberra. We were a team, trained, and ready to respone. No panic, no wondering what to do. We would fight as we had trained.

Sleep well America, our armed forces are trained and ready.