My Dad the Hero

This is a little story that my mom told me a few years ago about something incredible that my dad had done.

I knew from a few stories my dad had told us kids when we were growing up, about the ports he had gone to while he served in the Navy, during his West Packs. But this happened while his ship, a minesweeper by the name of USS Excel, was in port on Treasure Island, right outside of San Francisco.

I would have thought this story would have been the one he would tell over and over. My dad and I weren’t really close when I was growing up, there were times I felt he was embarrassed of me. It was just he didn’t know how to raise a girl and he was better with my older brothers. Different generations and all that.

So when my mom told me this story two years ago, it shocked the heck out of me. This is the story my mom told me.

This happened as I mentioned while my dad was stationed at Treasure Island. There was an ensign that was the sort of guy that was arrogant because he came from a rich family. He thought everyone should be his friend but he was a total jerk to everyone on the crew..My dad at the time was a Boatswain mate, They serve in, or take charge of damage control parties. BMs also operate and maintain equipment used in loading and unloading cargo, ammunition, fuel, and general stores.

My dad could be pretty charming and was well liked and the ensign wasn’t liking this and seeing how no one else on the crew liked him, he hatched a plan that would make him out to be a hero and the crew would be grateful and like him.

One afternoon, there were some of the crew down in the mess hall, including my dad, having lunch when a fire broke out in the hall. The men went into action, getting up to evacuate and those who were responsible for safety, were looking to get the fire under control. This was part of my dad’s job. He helped get the men out, and while normally, you would have used ventilators to protect yourself against the smoke, those that the ship had, were obsolete.

As they were worthless, they hurried to the main deck and off the ship, several did suffer smoke inhalation but no one was badly hurt from the fire thanks to the fast acting crew and my dad who led them to safety.

While this was happening as well, there was an ensign that lived by my parents and his wife called my mom, telling her to turn on the news! Just as she did, she sees my dad getting wheeled away on a gurney to an ambulance.

It was pretty scary for her to watch and at the time, she didn’t really know how bad it was. A couple hours passed and the neighbor brought my dad home when he was released from the hospital.

Mom was able to get the details of what happened and there was an investigation made by NCIS to see to the amount of damage, because the minesweepers, they’re all made of wood They also found that there wasn’t a report submitted concerning the ventilators not being replaced when they should have been. A lot of officers were in trouble for this and nothing was done against the ensign who caused the father. My mom thinks that his dad used connections to get it swept under the rug.

For the ruined pieces of the mess hall, my dad got to take it when he was in better shape. Mom told me that he had crafted them into twin bookcases. This, I just found out three days ago! The bookcases were beautiful and held the books that stirred my want to read and be creative.