Long before Osama Bin Laden and his crew made September 11 a memorable date for everyone else it was a happy date for me to reflect on my life.
I went to Georgia Tech on a Naval ROTC scholarship. A perk of this was I also got to go on a summer cruise to Europe. I was on the USS Thorn a Spruance class destroyer that one would not confuse with even a Carnival cruise ship. My assigned space in ship was the middle bunk in a room with ~50 shipmates and the locler underneath the bunk. I did get to spend time in Siganella Sicily and Rota, Spain and Charleston South Carolina but 26 of my 30 days were spent at sea. The crew of the Thorn had been on deployment for 18 months and the Boatswain's mates had been standing every 3rd watch prior to Midshipmens arrival so the Captain decided to integrate the Middie's into the "Deck" crew and allow them to stand every 4th watch instead.
When not spending time painting, cleaning or picking up I was on deck watch where I either got the helm, one of the 3 lookout stations or to have the headset to CIC.
On Sept 11, 2000 my watch came up as the "mid watch" so for 2nd hour I was on the Helicopter pad with binoculars trying to spot other ships. This task was made a little more difficult than usual because we were passing through a Hurricane somewhere in North Atlantic. Being an arrogant lad I opted not to wear the safety harnass and just sat on the deck scanning the sea behind. Ship was doing 20 degree rolls as it sailed and I had pretty well adjusted to the implications of this as I walked through the ship and sitting on deck should have been no problem. The ship suddenly did a 40 degree roll and I went tumbling to one side of ship. I managed to grab the track for the hangar door and caught enough of a grip that I slammed into hangar door. At this moment something big slid by, I scrambled inside the Hangar as fast as I could because I did not want that thing sliding back at me. I notified the Airmen on duty that something big had gone by and he grabbed a flashlight and scanned deck and determined that a 1700 pound reel of cable had gone over the side. I also reported in to Augie (Not sure what is real name was but he was indeed called Augie) what had happened as all he had heard over headset was burst of panic some silence then me catching my breath. When my relief came for aft lookout duty we could not find the harnass.
Next morning when I was aft lookout again I saw grooves in deck 18 inches from Hangar door and scratches on the + anchor point in deck where harnass had been secured. As aft lookout I am the one who is suppsed to report "man overboard" but hypothermia sets in at 5 minutes and no way do they spot me in a Hurricane.
Been running bad at the tables lately but the last 26 years have been on 'borrowed time".
Went out of MATH in 5th, recess rampage jammed his mighty 77 into the JJ I was holding in BB. FullTilt's RNG still hates me so rewarded him with a 7 on flop. Congrats on lucksacking the bubble away from me Alan.
I ran goot after MATH too:
Full Tilt Poker Game #3527134082: $33 + $3 Sit & Go (Turbo) (26938511), Table 1 - 60/120 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:04:49 ET - 2007/09/11
Seat 1: huckles (2,400)
Seat 3: PreferMemberFTP (2,465)
Seat 4: sportforshort (175)
Seat 5: juniorva2 (2,670)
Seat 6: pokerookie69 (1,350)
Seat 7: Taraandcolin (2,290)
Seat 8: Beernutts (850)
Seat 9: bayne_s (1,300)
Taraandcolin posts the small blind of 60
Beernutts posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bayne_s [Tc Td]
bayne_s raises to 420
huckles folds
juniorva2 has been disconnected
juniorva2 has reconnected
PreferMemberFTP has 15 seconds left to act
PreferMemberFTP raises to 2,465, and is all in
sportforshort folds
juniorva2 folds
pokerookie69 folds
Taraandcolin folds
Beernutts folds
bayne_s calls 880, and is all in
PreferMemberFTP shows [Qd Ad]
bayne_s shows [Tc Td]
Uncalled bet of 1,165 returned to PreferMemberFTP
*** FLOP *** [Js Th Jh]
*** TURN *** [Js Th Jh] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [Js Th Jh Qc] [Qh] Way to fricking lose a coin flip
PreferMemberFTP shows a full house, Queens full of Jacks
bayne_s shows a full house, Tens full of Queens
PreferMemberFTP wins the pot (2,780) with a full house, Queens full of Jacks
bayne_s stands up
The blinds are now 80/160
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,780 Rake 0
Board: [Js Th Jh Qc Qh]
Seat 1: huckles didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: PreferMemberFTP showed [Qd Ad] and won (2,780) with a full house, Queens full of Jacks
Seat 4: sportforshort didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: juniorva2 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: pokerookie69 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Taraandcolin (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: Beernutts (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: bayne_s showed [Tc Td] and lost with a full house, Tens full of Queens
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11 comments:
Borrowed time indeed, I like the perspective.
GG in the MATH, tough luck.
That's an amazing story.
You can dodge bullets baby.
My day is June 2nd. It feels good to defeat disaster.
Wow, great story.
Luckbox lives here.
Yikes. Nearly pwned. Thanks for telling the story...
On 9/11, I caught the biggest fish in my life on a fishing trip to Canada. I was fixing dinner for my small group while they walked to the local bar to call home. I couldn't understand what was taking them so long to get back to the cabin that night and was really looking forward to celebrating my big catch. What a shock when they got back to the cabin with the news. We had been on the water all day and had no idea what had hapened.
I'll repeat. Wow!
Nice variance, huh? Glad it worked out for you when it really mattered. Just know, that for the rest of your days, JJ will lose to 77.
Great story! May you make it another 26.
So you were out at sea in Sept of 81. I was sitting rack in Field Station Augsburg and only dangerous thing I was doing was drinking hot coffee.
i'm glad you lived. and of course, great effing story!
I was stationed in Berlin and Augsburg (and a couple of other places). Field Station Augsburg was located in Augsburg, Germany which is close to Munich. When you were in Rota did you see a large circular array of antennas? We had a similar one at our site in Augsburg. We affectionately called it the elephant cage.
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