| ...On Monday, September 8,
1969, NOXUBEE
was 96 days into her third Vietnam deployment and anchored in a
familiar spot, at the pipeline buoy about 1500 yards off Cau Viet. She
was fully loaded with jet fuel, aviation gasoline, diesel fuel and
motor gasoline. It was a dark and moonless night, with scattered clouds
and a slight
chop to the South China Sea. ...The standard deck watch was set, including sentries armed with M-1 rifles on the forecastle and on the fantail. Deck lights mounted on the lifelines lit up the water, forming a perimeter of about 60 yards around NOXUBEE, attracting hundreds of fish, jelly fish, snakes and an occasional shark. YOG-76 was tied up astern and taking on fuel. ...After the evening movie and the YOG had cast off, at 2137 hours, BM3 saw a box pop to the surface on the port side of the ship, just forward of the bridge. He immediately notified the officer of the deck who was on the fantail. With the strong current, the object quickly floated down the side of the ship past the stern. On spotting the object, two sentries opened fire with their M-1 's. Seconds later they spotted two swimmers surfacing 20 to 30 feet aft of the stern. Both swimmers had three or four-foot long reeds in their mouths. ...On shifting their fire to the swimmers, the messenger of the watch arrived and began throwing concussion grenades at the swimmers. They appeared to have hit at least one swimmer. This action alerted the CO and XO who immediately suspected that the swimmers had placed a limpet mine on the hull. General Quarters and Emergency Underway was called. Battle stations were quickly manned and watertight doors and hatches were secured throughout the ship. ...For about 10 minutes the swimmers were searched for, with negative results. NOXUBEE continued on various courses and speeds in an effort to shake off the mine. Divers from Cua Viet came out and inspected the hull. Darkness hampered the search, daylight was needed for a thorough search. It was speculated the mine would probably be a Soviet-made BPM-2 with a 64-pound TNT charge, equipped with a six-hour timer and magnetically clamped to the hull. Once set, the mine could not be removed without detonation. With that report, the ship moved three miles out. ...The crew had nothing to do but wait..... At 0203, an underwater explosion shook the ship. |