First real cruise that I went was to the Mediterranean. It was a real experience and one that was going to go south in a hurry if it was going to be like my rest of the time in the Marines. We were just one day out of Morehead City, North Carolina when the shit hit the fan. Out of no where, over the ship's intercom comes the message, "Collison. Collison. This is not a drill. All marines above deck, return to your quarters immediately".

Now being on a ship for the first time, my reaction, as well as a few other marines is not to run down in a ship that is on the verge of a collison, it's to stay topside and stay alive in case we do collide. Well, we tried but the brass was demanding that we go below decks. naturally, you have to obey orders but try to find out if we are really going to collide with something. I took a quick look off the port side of the USS Rushmore - LSD-14, our ship. Right off our port side was the USS Chilton, directly in front of our ship. As we were in the process of going below deck, our ship ship was proceeding directly to the mid section, starboard side of the USS Chilton - APA-29. It wasn't rocket science but we ere going for a direct hit on the USS Chilton based on the last sighting that I had before going below deck. That was not a comforting sight to see before I went below decks with the rest of the marines.

As we were locked in our quarters, you go into battle conditions and are locked in your quarters, about two decks below the water line of the USS Rushmore. Right, a real comforting thought. Well, as we were sitting there, we heard the announcement coming over the speaker system with the assorted ship's whistle that announced the collison was still going on. Our ship had lost its steering capabilities, that was the bottom line. All we heard was the Navy crew running around the ship. After a short period of time, General Quarters was cancelled and we were allowed to return topside to see what happened.

Apparently, the ship had to be steered manually. The crew was able to pull this off but there was a few sailors that were injured when they were thrown against the bulk head of the ship in the steering room. We learned that when the helicopters on our ship were used to ferry the sailors back to the Navy Hospital with broken arm and legs from trying to steer the big ship manually. Thank God they were able to steer the ship manually, otherwise, this story would not have been written.