First printing: September 1996

Revised: March 2005

Copyright � 1996 � 2005

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by means whatsoever, including, but not limited to, any electronic data system, without specific written permission from the author and the publisher.

 

Published by:

Angel Gate Publishing

501 Joel Lane

Lakehills, TX 78063

 

830.751.2870

 

To contact the author of this work, please email him at Joecrane1@sbcglobal.net

 

FORWARD

 

It Just Might Be Angels

 

Have you ever heard your name called in the darkness and no one was there? Have you ever felt that someone or something was with you but you couldn�t see anyone or anything there? Have you ever felt a touch on your face or your hair being moved by some unknown force? Have you ever had the feeling of complete peace or being totally loved? Were you saved from a catastrophic or life threatening event for no apparent reason? It just might be angels because it was for me.

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The huge aircraft carrier Forrestal pitched and rolled gently in the waves as it cut through the ocean off the coast of North Viet Nam. I had been up all night working on the hanger deck taking on ordinance the aircraft would be using this morning. The time was 29 July 1967 around 8am as I crawled into my bunk below decks. The bunk was a metal frame with canvas stretched tight across it and a 3-inch thick foam rubber pad on it for a mattress but I didn�t care. I was dog-tired as the big ship rocked me to sleep.

​

I was awakened abruptly to a sound that came over the loud speakers. Bonk, Bonk, Bonk. �Fire. Fire. Fire on the flight deck aft. This is not a drill. Repeat this is not a drill. All hands report to your general quarter�s stations.� Then it repeated it again and again. That message will ring in my ears for the rest of my life because of the events that were set in motion that day.

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I laid in my bunk trying to wake up enough to understand what was going on. Before I could there was an explosion above decks that left me on the floor. I was happy I had a bottom bunk so I only had about 6 inches to fall. I grabbed my pants and pulled them on right there without getting up. Next came the socks and my shoes. Before I had them on there came another explosion and then another. I knew we were in big trouble. The birthing compartment was filling up with smoke and it was getting harder and harder to breath. I stood up and the smoke was so thick I couldn�t see. It was then I remembered some thing from back in school when they said to crouch and walk out because the smoke wouldn�t be so thick. I crouched down and went out into the isle where other crewmembers were. We all got busy trying to find anyone else in the compartment that may have been hurt. Everyone was accounted for and that is when I heard a voice saying �come this way if you want to live.� Well, I did just that. I headed in the direction of the voice with everyone else after me. When we arrived at the end of the passageway, there was no one there, only a sealed hatch. We stood there for what seemed like a lifetime and the only thing that kept running through my mind in all the smoke was that I wished I had a cigarette.

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Next I remember hearing the hatch being opened and out we all went. It is funny in a way when it comes to an emergency situation concerning a large number of people. There is a sort of organized chaos evolving moment by moment into which you are thrown not only to save your life but that of others. People set aside their wants and desires and become heroes in the midst of horror. The comradeship that takes place during a fire at sea is the mortar that cements the soul of humanity into one purpose. Put the fire out because there is no place to run. From the flight deck down into the bowels of the ship we went fighting the fire. Compartment by compartment the blaze was being extinguish to save our ship and in doing so saving our very lives. Four days later the fires were out and we went about the sacred act of recovering the bodies of our fallen shipmates.

​

I can�t say I really know how the accident happened and there is much speculation left to this day. Navy put the blame on the Captain of the ship, like that was a surprise. I don�t know what caused it and I don�t care because at this time it isn�t important. What is important to me is I got the opportunity to be with someone when he died. I got to witness his passing and came to know that whatever left his body was immortal and though his body was dead - he wasn�t. What I didn�t know at the time was the voice that called that morning would come calling again. Only this time when it called it would change my life forever.