Photo By Michael Meyer | The 805th Transportation Company, a unit of the 364th Expeditionary Sustainment...... read more read more
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MARYSVILLE, Wash. – Tacoma soldiers aboard the Army Reserve’s vessel USAV Robert T. Kuroda (LSV-7) rescued a man from his sailboat, only moments before it sunk beneath the waves.
On the afternoon of July 10, Michael Harris, left Ventura, Calif., headed towards the Catalina islands, and unexpectedly found himself battling a sudden squall which threatened to take him to a watery grave.
“The marine radio gave no indication of bad weather for several days and there were no small craft warnings at that time,” said Harris.
The squall created waves 10-15 feet high, battering the sailboat named the Nacht Vlinder, or “Night Butterfly” for about eight hours. The main sail of the vessel was ripped in half, and the engine had failed.
“I was just exhausted, drenched and wet,” said Harris. “Hypothermia was setting in. Basically, I'd had just about had it, so I had to make the call for mayday.”
The U.S. Coast Guard sector Los Angeles received a distress call from the sailboat near San Nicholas Island, and determined that the Army vessel, Kuroda, was within three hours from the sailboat, and was the closest vessel to the sailboat. The closest Coast Guard vessel was approximately 13 hours out.
The crew of the Kuroda, the 805th Transportation Company from Tacoma, Wash., began the search a little after midnight. The Kuroda belongs to the 805th TC Company of Tacoma, Wash. The 805th TC Company reports to the 364th Expeditionary Support Command in Marysville, Wash., which commands 4,000 soldiers in logistical units across the northwestern United States.
“We were checking out a site that we were going to make a beach landing on San Nicholas Island in the Catalina archipelago when we got the call,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Tom Dike, vessel master of the Kuroda. The Kuroda was participating in their 29 days of annual training in preparation for an upcoming deployment this fall.
“When any Army watercraft is on the water and a call goes out for assistance, you pretty much drop everything,” Dike said. “It's the unwritten law of the sea, when a mariner is in distress, you don't ask any questions, you just go.”
Dike radioed Harris and asked him to turn on his his lights, but he was completely out of power. Harris responded on a radio with failing batteries, by sending up an emergency flare. The crew of the Kuroda spotted the tiny red light less than a mile away. Harris sent his last two flares up before the Army vessel spotted him in the water.
“I'm in 15-20 foot waves,” Harris said. “In between these waves in the troughs the water was just boiling, water was just going up everywhere. Their ship was a 300 ft. landing craft and it's bouncing up and down too, and my boat is like 28 ft. long, like a match stick. Just being able to spot me was just incredible.”
The crew hoped to be able to drop Harris a line and tow his vessel to safety. When they got a good look at the boat, however, they realized it wasn’t going to be possible. He was taking on water and his stern was going under. With the gusting winds and crashing seas buffeting the craft, they needed to get Harris off quickly.
“In the last hours my boat had been taking on water through vents and because of the pressure and force of the water hitting my windows,” Harris said. “The water literally sprayed inside around the window seal like a high pressure garden hose. My bilge was full to the floorboards because my pump couldn't keep up.”
The first two attempts to rescue Harris were unsuccessful. Dike was concerned that the vessels could crash into one another and do damage to both vessels and crew members so he had to pull away each time.
On the third attempt to reach Harris, the Kuroda pulled up right alongside the Vlinder, with rub rails actually touching during the dangerous swells. The Vlinder was partially submerged at this point, and the crew of the Kuroda knew Harris didn't have much more time.
“His mast was banging into our top rail and my guys were dodging it. It was frightening,” Dikes said. “I had soldiers out there getting seasick, but they were not going to leave [Harris] out there.”
Harris jumped off his sailboat and clung to the scupper rail and stood on the ship’s rub-rail, an eight-inch-wide lip of rubber-padded steel intended to keep the ship from rubbing against docks in port.
Spc. Jason Estoc dropped safety lines from above, and soldiers on the deck laid flat on their stomachs to reach through scupper holes, intended to drain water from the deck, and to hold his ankles. Harris walked along the rub-rail for at least 20 feet following the hand signals of the crew.
“All of a sudden, five hands just grabbed me and pulled me inside,” said Harris.
“They were doing exactly what they were trained for,” said Harris, a Navy veteran. “They were all working as a single seamless unit, communicating. They were all along the rail, holding each other, like a single team, so that nobody could fall out of the ship and endanger themselves. This was extremely dangerous for them to try and pick me off without anybody getting hurt.”
“Our training just kicked in,” said Staff Sgt. Augusta Dyer, the ship’s detachment sergeant. “Our guys just knew what to do, and they did it.”
“We practice this sort of pickup all the time in case we lose a crew member over the side and we have to be able to recover him at sea, so that training definitely benefited us during this rescue,” said Dike.
Spc. Dustin Baldwin, the vessel medic, treated Harris for mild hypothermia with no further medical care required. The stern of the Nacht Vlinder went under only minutes after Harris was rescued. In all, it took 90 harrowing minutes to get Harris to safety once his vessel was discovered.
“The temperature of the sea was at about 54 degrees,” said Sgt. Bennett Hansen, ship’s boatswain. “At that temperature, he wouldn’t have survived 45 minutes in the water.”
The following morning, the Kuroda docked at Port Hueneme, Calif., and Harris had a joyful and tearful reunion with this girlfriend.
“I'm just incredibly grateful to the captain and the crew for saving my life,” said Harris. “This was an incredible, miraculous save, and it was only possible because of the skill and preparation of the men and women of that ship.”
| Date Taken: | 07.10.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.12.2012 21:01 |
| Story ID: | 91455 |
| Location: | MARYSVILLE, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 1,458 |
| Downloads: | 7 |
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