Photo By Bruce Howard | 191031-N-VS214-236 Chief Gas Turbine Mechanic Delando Beckford is the soft-spoken Navy...... read more read more
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NEW YORK - Chief Gas Turbine Mechanic Delando Beckford is the soft-spoken Navy Chief leading the Sailors of the Navy recruiting station in Hempstead, New York. A native of Jamaica, he moved to Brooklyn six days before his 16th birthday and was enrolled in the New York City Fire Department High School for Fire and Life Safety, a school dedicated to the training of future firefighters and emergency medical technicians. Following graduation in 2009 he attended college for one year before deciding that
he was done with school for the time being.
“My buddy was joining the Navy, so I went with him to the recruiting office in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,” Beckford said with a laugh. “I got a lot of information on the benefits from the recruiter. As we were going home, he actually called up his aunt who had been in the Navy because it sounded too good to be true, and she said all the same things the recruiter had. That really helped me decide to join.”
Beckford had also wanted to become a mechanic like other members of his family, so he joined the Navy as a Gas Turbine Mechanic in January 2010.
After first serving on USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) from 2011 to 2016, he reported to USS John McCain (DDG 56) in the summer of 2016.
Once there, he became not only his division’s leading petty officer, but also the ship’s quality assurance officer. In summer of 2017, he departed on the ship for a regularly scheduled deployment. Beckford was assigned as an engineer of the watch in the number one machinery room on the watchbill as well as being assigned to the crucial sea and anchor detail. It was the sea and anchor detail watch that he was preparing to man when he woke up a little after 0500 on August 21, 2017.
Climbing out of his rack, he started his morning routine when he heard an announcement saying “Loss of steering.” Alerted, but not yet alarmed, he hurried to finish getting ready.
“I knew I was going to be needed,” said Beckford. “Then I heard and felt something hit us in what felt like the back, so I grabbed my coveralls, threw them on, hit the lights in the berthing and was yelling, ‘Get up! Get up! Get up!’”
As he was heading to the central control station to assist the engineering department, he saw Sailors stumbling out of berthings whose hatches were nearby. “Some were covered in fuel, some didn’t have clothes on, everyone was just wet, so I grabbed one of my guys and took them out to the flight deck, and that’s when I saw the huge hole in the back end of the ship. I brought him back and I gave him to another Sailor to get him to medical, then I went back to damage control central to manage the damage.”
Beckford said his concern or panic did not set in immediately; instead, his training took over. “We had done damage control training the day before, and at first you’re so much into the situation that your body takes over, it’s muscle memory. You’re not thinking; you’re just going through the motions,” said Beckford.
After they got reports of someone trapped in berthing three, Beckford and another Sailor went down to the compartment, but the hatch was stuck shut. They quickly went to the second access hatch and together, the two first classes entered the chaotic scene and found a Sailor trapped in his rack.
“I was lifting up the rack to try and create space. The racks were smashed together, almost welded from the pressure and looking like sardines in a can,” said Beckford.
Together they started working to free the Sailor despite the rising water, floating fuel, and razor-sharp sheet metal.
“We realized we needed the pneumatic cutters, which we call the Jaws of Life,” said Beckford, “and from up above, we heard the executive officer yell down ‘what do you need?’ so we said, ‘the jaws of life!’ And he ran himself to get them for us. We finally freed him and thought we were done.”
“I got an accent, so everyone knows my voice.” Beckford continued, “And we were saying we were done. Then we heard in the bottom rack ‘Yo Beck! Come here man! Don’t leave me, don’t leave me!’ So, we started working to get him out of there too.”
With a second Sailor trapped they restarted the rescue efforts, and in the heat of the moment, even other injuries took a backseat to the rescue attempts.
“I was lifting the racks up to create space, and one of the other damage controlmen asked if I needed help,” Beckford explained. “I told him to grab higher up and help me lift and when he did his arm touched the top and he got shocked from a wire. But he didn’t care, we weren’t going to leave anyone down there.”
His initial rescue team eventually got a hand from other members of the crew.
“We were lifting and then Lt. [Aaron] Van Driessche showed up and helped us pry up the racks. Our main propulsion assistant [Chief Warrant Officer three Michael Calhoun] who was this short, strong guy eventually got down there, and he was able to kick out the emergency escape at the foot of the rack so that the Sailor could escape,” said Beckford.
After checking to make sure they had saved everyone in the compartment, they left to continue damage control efforts elsewhere, including setting up emergency pumps and staging the ship’s small flight deck to transfer injured Sailors for emergency treatment to amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) which was nearby.
The next morning, Beckford found out he had not completed the rescue attempt without injury. His feet and legs were covered with chemical burns caused by the fuel he waded through during the rescue. Those burns rendered him almost unable to walk from the pain, requiring him to be transferred to America for treatment. Eventually, he was able to make a full recovery.
After this ship tour, Beckford transferred to recruiting duty at Navy Recruiting District (NRD) New York, where he was selected for advancement to chief petty officer. Despite the infamy of the collision and his heroic actions, very few at his new command knew about it. “I had no idea,” said one recruiter. “He’s very nice and always willing to help, just like any other chief, but that was all I knew about him.”
It was because of this silence on the situation that so many of the command were left silenced and amazed when he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal at an all hands call in October 2019. The Navy and Marine Corps Medal, established in 1942 by Congress, is the highest non-combat award in the United States Navy, and it’s only awarded to those who performed an act of lifesaving while risking their own life to do it. Beckford received the award along with the other six Sailors and officers who
performed the rescue. Additionally, 43 other crew members were awarded Navy and Marine Corps Commendation or Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals for their actions following the collision.
When asked about how the collision affected him, he gave a soft smile and said, “That was one of the worst days of my Navy career, but it’s one of the moments I look back on because to see how well the crew came together when disaster struck . . . that was a moment you’re like, ‘man, training does work.’”
Navy Recruiting Command consists of a command headquarters, two Navy Recruiting Regions, 14 Navy Recruiting Districts and 12 Navy Talent Acquisition Groups that serve more than 815 recruiting stations across the world. Their combined goal is to attract the highest quality candidates to assure the ongoing success of America’s Navy.
For more news from Commander, Navy Recruiting Command, go to http://www.cnrc.navy.mil. Follow
Navy Recruiting on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NavyRecruiting), Twitter (@USNRecruiter) and Instagram (@USNRecruiter).
| Date Taken: | 04.21.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.21.2020 14:32 |
| Story ID: | 367994 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 396 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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