John R. Saeli
In 1966 after coming back from our Med run we were awarded our 2nd straight E--(in fact we also won it the following year-1967 for 3 in a row)
We had participated in MiniBex operations off the Atlantic Coast, where we played the role of an "enemy sub" and were hunted by ASW for weeks and never got caught. During this time, we" sunk" the USS Entemedor (SS) out of Charleston, and the USS Shark (SSN) out of Norfolk. After these exercises we hit Nassau, Bahamas for some liberty. This was way before Paradise Island was even thought of and we had Nassau and all those Cruise ships to ourselves. There were no other American vessels in port--so we had a ball when we hit the beach. I remember hitting a few bars and all the tourists were mostly Americans and they bought us rounds after rounds of whatever we were drinking!
After a couple of great days on liberty, Sea Poacher had orders to head home for Key West. A few of us, I won't mention any names, were late for "morning quarters" and the COB was pissed--but we were escorted to the pier by all the lovely young ladies that we managed to get acquainted with and he kinda laid off of us in their presence. Anyway, about 1000 hrs we stationed the Maneuvering Watch, lit off all 4 engines and prepared to get underway, 30 minutes later, we were still tied up to the pier when we were told to shut down the engines, however we still had to stand at our stations.
Word came down that the XO was not on board, in fact, no one knew where he was. Search parties were sent out along with the local police and at 1300 hrs we were still along side the pier, still saying goodbyes to our new found lady friends when: Suddenly, a siren was heard, and a taxicab drove on the pier, escorted by the local police and an Embassy car--out of the cab, comes our XO, in his skivvies, heading for the brow. Then, a knockout blonde, in her skivvies, gets out of the cab and runs for our XO , carrying his Dress Whites. Well, by that time, the entire crew, which had been lounging around topside, saw all of this unfold and gave our XO a tremendous cheer.!!!!! Those of us who were late for quarters that morning, never had a word said to us---But we all knew that it was our XO who cleared the way for us.
Sea Poacher , in 1966, had a great Med Run, we had a great crew, and we won our first E during those exercises. SeaPoacher "took out" the Carriers USS Enterprise, and USS America, and also the flagship, a cruiser, the USS Bainbridge Right after our torpedo run on the Enterprise, we informed her on the Gertrude that she was "dead". Her skipper, did not believe that we were so close and refused to admit that she had been "sunk". Our Skipper, I think at the time it was LtCmdr Wilson, had the signal gun loaded and we fired a couple of flares onto her flight deck--they believed us then.
Also, at the beginning of that Med Run, in early 1966 ( Feb I think) we had left Rota, Spain and we were headed for Barcelona,along with the USS Picuda (SS382) when were both ordered to search for a B-52 which had just went down, off the coast of Spain, with nuclear weapons onboard. Sea Poacher and Picuda were both ordered to go "active" in order to find the weapons and we succeded in doing just that. The weapons were brought up by the USS Petrel-- In the movie " A few Good Men" which starred Robt DeNiro and Cuba Gooding, there was a scene about a Navy Diver locating the weapon and bringing it up. What they DIDNOT MENTION was that SeaPoacher and Picuda actually were the ones who located her.
Enough for now, more to follow!!!