Lt. Cmdr. Joseph R. Carmichael Jr., the Bunker Hill’s chief engineer, had just finished his shift and was in his office doing paperwork. “He could definitely have stayed there and never been criticized,” said Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, the author of “Danger’s Hour: The Story of the U.S.S. Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her.” The book recounts what could have been a far more calamitous day but for the bravery of Commander Carmichael and his engineering crew.
“Instead,” Mr. Kennedy said in an interview on Wednesday, “he ran down through five decks, passing sailors who were evacuating, and made it to the engine compartment about 25 feet below sea level. This was in a ship that he knew was burning above him and could sink at any moment.”
... The first kamikaze aircraft dropped a bomb through the flight deck and into the hangar below, then crashed into the deck, raking through most of the planes on board and setting them ablaze. The second slammed into the control tower and pierced the deck, where its bombs exploded. Flames and towering plumes of toxic smoke enveloped the carrier’s upper decks.
Deep below, in the engine and boiler rooms, Commander Carmichael and his 500 or so men kept the engines running, controlling dials in the smoke-filled dark, enabling the Bunker Hill to sail out of the range of further attacks. They kept fans blowing so that air reached oxygen-starved men below decks, and ran pumps that brought in seawater to fight the fires. They remained at their posts for nearly 20 hours.
At one point, wrote Mr. Kennedy, a son of Robert F. Kennedy, Commander Carmichael defused panic on board when “he opened the public address system and announced: ‘This is the chief engineer speaking. The ship is not sinking. It is not in any danger of sinking. And it will not sink. So put your minds at rest on that.’
If you read the article, you'll note that while researching his book Mr. Kennedy learned that many men credited hearing CDR Carmichael's words coming over the 1MC as something of a turning point in their fight to save the ship. The engineers remained at their posts, and 125 sailors died there while keeping this afloat and moving:
quote:
As “Danger’s Hour” says: “To this day, Carmichael carries the scars from the soot, visible on X-rays, deep in his lungs. The other scars, those that come from leading men to their deaths, are harder to see.”
Doug Humbarger NRA Life member Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club 72'73. Yankee Station
Try to look unimportant. Your enemy might be low on ammo.
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