PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The following Reflection represents MSCS Michael Rhodes’s legacy of their military service from 1970 to 1995. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life.
Of all the military operations you participated in, including combat, humanitarian or peacekeeping operations, which of these made a lasting impact on you and why?:
When Life Requires You To Sound General Quarters
A Memory from Vietnam
During our 41 years of marriage, I have used a term that my wife instantly understands, and it’s just two words.
General Quarters.
Without a lengthy discussion, she understands a situation’s gravity. She and I are instantly in sync.
We don’t go to General Quarters for a real battle but have metaphorically gone to GQ on occasions. The most recent occurred when the police came through our neighborhood using a loudspeaker saying, “Evacuate the area” because of a wildfire.
It was time for General Quarters. We didn’t have time to waste.
Honey, “It’s GQ time; let’s get a move on.”
We went to GQ frequently when I was in Vietnam. I was only twenty years old.
I’m turning seventy in two months, so this was a long time ago.
The GQ message is broadcast over our ship’s 1MC (public address system) and is preceded by the sound of the Klaxon.
“General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands, man, your battle stations. The route of travel is forward and up to starboard, down and aft to port. Set material condition Zebra throughout the ship.”
You must respond quickly because hatches and water-tight doors are closed to set material condition, Zebra. Once they are closed, you can’t move around the ship; special permission is required to open them.
That means, if I was in the shower at the time, I went to my GQ station half naked, carrying my clothes under my arm, as speed is essential. If I was eating on the mess decks, I left my food tray.
Most of the time, the message is preceded with “this is a drill, this is a drill,” but when I was in Vietnam, it was for real.
I was on the bridge one-day standing watch on the status board when an explosion, fireball, and large splash happened just off the starboard bow.
The commanding officer ordered, “All ahead full, left standard rudder.”
But, he didn’t call General Quarters.
We were under attack, and we all looked at each other wondering – did he forget?
The next explosions and splash were further out to starboard, but his rudder order change was moving us closer to shore. Shouldn’t we be heading out to sea to move away from the shore and the source of the shell fire?
What the heck is the CO doing?
And still, he hadn’t even ordered general quarters. What the heck?
Now moving parallel to the shore but at a faster speed, he ordered a right rudder change, and we started moving away from the shore.
When the explosions and splashes were behind us, he said, “Sound general quarters.”
Afterward, the damage assessments came in. The superstructure had small holes scattered about.
Some of the shells were anti-personnel shells, not ones designed to sink the ship, but intended to kill sailors who might be outside the skin of the ship with shrapnel sprayed 360 degrees.
Which is why the commanding officer didn’t call General Quarters.
He didn’t want anyone outside the skin of the ship moving around.
He made a gamble that the spotters on shore would expect we would head out to sea, but the CO did the opposite, moving to shore, so the next set of rounds fell even further away.
He was buying time to get the ship up to speed, so we could head out to sea, moving to safety.
The CO received a medal for that day for his smart and courageous actions.
He didn’t forget about GQ; he was much smarter than the rest of us and probably saved lives that day.
Looking back, I realize how scary that situation and many others like it were. But back when I was twenty years old, I had no fear that day. I was young and foolish, having no clue what had happened.
Besides, when you are twenty, you think you’re invincible.
Most of us live our lives each day, going through the motions of day-to-day life. However, we sometimes encounter a wake-up that comes in the form of a difficult challenge that threatens our happiness and stability.
Just like on a Navy ship, we spring into action.
Hopefully, we will emerge victorious, overcoming the challenge that threatened to bring us down.
From then on, we realize that life is full of challenges, but we can face them and come out on top.
We learn that when life sounded the alarm, it was time to go to General Quarters and face the battles in life with determination.
May your need for General Quarters be few, and may you have fair winds and following seas.
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