No Higher Honor (45 page)

  
2
.
  
NAVSEA, final report, 6-25.

  
3
.
  
E-mail, Pond.

  
4
.
  
E-mail, Ted Johnson to author, 7 January 2004.

  
5
.
  
Interview, Rinn.

  
6
.
  
Mussi, “To See the Dawn.”

  
7
.
  
Letter, Joseph Boyd to DE 413 survivor Vince Goodrich, as reprinted in the 20 May 1988 Survivors' Association newsletter.

  
8
.
  
Mussi, “To See the Dawn.”

  
9
.
  
Interview, Rinn.

10
.
  
Unbeknownst to Van Hook, GSE2 Randy Tatum and HT3 Ted Johnson had tried attacking the plenum fire through a scuttle next to the paint locker, but their handheld extinguishers had proven inadequate for the task. (E-mail, Johnson; recollections, Tatum.)

11
.
  
Interview, Van Hook.

12
.
  
NAVSEA, final report, 5–2.

13
.
  
Rudyard Kipling,
Destroyers at Jutland
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1916).

14
.
  
Interview, Eckelberry.

15
.
  
E-mail, Roberts.

16
.
  
E-mail, Johnson.

17
.
  
NAVSEA, final report, 6–47.

18
.
  
E-mail, Raymond.

CHAPTER 13

  
1
.
  
The war benefited Dubai with more than repair jobs. The turmoil in the Persian Gulf drove much maritime cargo to the city, which was closer to
the Strait of Hormuz than any Saudi port. And trade with Iran grew and grew, topping $1 billion in 1987. (Hiro,
Longest War
, 237.)

  
2
.
  
Tyler Marshall, “Commercial Traffic Resumes Following U.S.–Iranian Clashes,”
Los Angeles Times
, 23 April 1988.

  
3
.
  
E-mail, Johnson.

  
4
.
  
“
Roberts
Crew Members Make First Phone Calls Home since Accident,” AP, 17 April 1988.

  
5
.
  
Mary Cronin, “Frigate
Roberts'
Surprise Wives,”
Newport Daily News
, 18 April 1988.

  
6
.
  
E-mail, Chaffin.

  
7
.
  
Don Cazentre, “Sailor's Family Hears Good News from Gulf,”
Syracuse Post-Standard
, 17 April 1988.

  
8
.
  
Interview, Pamela Rinn with author, 30 July 2005.

  
9
.
  
“
Roberts
Crew Members Make First Phone Calls.”

10
.
  
Message, Commander, Naval Surface Group 4 to Rinn, “Various,” 1730Z 16 April 1988. When the four passed through Washington, DC, they were met by a delegation led by an admiral. (Message, Commander, Naval Personnel Command, to Rinn, “Personal for Capt. Rinn,” 2256Z 25 April 1988.)

11
.
  
Interview, Rinn.

12
.
  
Ibid.

13
.
  
Transcript,
MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour
, 18 April 1988.

14
.
  
Michael A. Palmer, “Operation Praying Mantis,” in
Great American Naval Battles
, edited by Jack Sweetman (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998), 384.

15
.
  
Planning details are drawn from Palmer, “Operation Praying Mantis”; Palmer,
On Course to Desert Storm;
“Nine Hours That Sank Iran's Navy,”
Times
(London), 24 April 1988; William J. Crowe, with David Chanoff,
The Line of Fire
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993); and Wilson and Moore, “Reagan, Aides Weigh Response.”

16
.
  
Wilson and Moore, “Reagan, Aides Weigh Response.”

17
.
  
Crowe,
Line of Fire
, 201.

18
.
  
Iran's daily output in the late 1980s was about 2 million barrels in 1986, 2.2 million in 1987, 2.1 in 1988, and 2.7 in 1989. (United States Energy Information Administration, “Iran,” one of the U.S. Energy Department's country briefs,
http://www.iet.com/Projects/HPKB/Web-mirror/EIA_CABS/iran.html
, April 1997.)

19
.
  
Melissa Healy and John M. Broder, “Had to Act Quickly on Mining, Officials Say; Decision to Retaliate Was Made after Firm Evidence That U.S. Warship Had Been Target,”
Los Angeles Times
, 18 April 1988.

20
.
  
Capt. J. B. Perkins III, “Operation Praying Mantis: The Surface View,”
Proceedings,
May 1989.

21
.
  
Sirri pumped about 180,000 barrels a day. Palmer, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 389.

22
.
  
SECNAV Instruction 1650.1G, 7 January 2002.

23
.
  
Capt. Bud Langston and Lt. Cdr. Don Bringle, “Operation Praying Mantis,”
Proceedings,
May 1989, 54.

24
.
  
James Gerstenzang, “U.S. Sinks or Damages Six Iran Ships in Persian Gulf Clashes; Tehran Strikes Back after Oil Rig Shillings,”
Los Angeles Times
, 19 April 1988; Healy and Broder, “Had to Act Quickly on Mining.”

25
.
  
E-mail, Reinert to author, 24 February 2002.

26
.
  
Perkins, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 69; Richard Pyle, “Missing Helicopter on Night Mission after U.S.–Iran Battle Ended,” AP, 20 April 1988.

27
.
  
Langston and Bringle, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 56; Perkins, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 70; Richard Pyle, “Warship's Crew Had Much to Cheer About,” AP, 20 April 1988.

28
.
  
Palmer, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 392; Richard Pyle, “Navy Analyses One-Day Missile War with Iran,” AP, 22 April 1988.

29
.
  
Langston and Bringle, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 56.

30
.
  
“The Day in Detail: What Happened Where,”
Washington Post
, 19 April 1988; “U.S. Sinks or Cripples 6 Iranian Ships in Gulf Battles,”
Washington Post
, 19 April 1988; Patrick E. Tyler, “Iran Hits Back with Attack on Arab-Owned Oil Complex,”
Washington Post
, 19 April 1988.

31
.
  
Friedman,
Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems
, 95.

32
.
  
“How to Waste a Navy,”
The Economist
, 23 April 1988; Gerstenzang, “U.S. Sinks or Damages Six Iran Ships”; Palmer, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 392–93; Langston and Bringle, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 57; Pyle, “Warship's Crew Had Much to Cheer About.”

33
.
  
O'Rourke, “The Tanker War,” 47.

34
.
  
Pyle, “Missing Helicopter on Night Mission.”

35
.
  
The Skipper II was a thousand-pound bomb mated to the engine from a Shrike missile, allowing an aviator to attack a ship from a safer, more distant position. Brendan M. Greeley Jr., “U.S. Sinks Iranian Frigate in Persian Gulf Action,”
Aviation Week & Space Technology
, 25 April 1988.

36
.
  
Langston and Bringle, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 59; Richard Pyle, “U.S. Officers Satisfied with Action against Iran,” AP, 20 April 1988.

37
.
  
“U.S. Forces Preplanned Attack on Iranian Frigate,” AP, 21 April 1988.

38
.
  
Crowe,
Line of Fire
, 202; Palmer, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 395.

39
.
  
The Sea Cobra was part of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA)-167, based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, and was assigned to Marine Air-Ground Task Force 2-88 aboard
Trenton
. The bodies of its aircrew, Capt. Stephen C. Leslie, 30, of New Bern, North Carolina, and Capt. Kenneth W. Hill, 33, of Thomasville, North Carolina, were recovered by navy divers in May; the wreckage raised later that month showed no sign of battle damage, though the aircraft could have crashed while trying to evade Iranian fire. (Richard Pyle, “Navy Reverses Decision, Will Recover
Helicopter Wreckage,” AP, 20 May 1988; Richard Pyle, “Navy Analyses One-Day Missile War with Iran,” AP, 22 April 1988; Palmer, “Operation Praying Mantis,” 399; Greeley, “U.S. Sinks Iranian Frigate.”)

40
.
  
Interview, Dumas.

41
.
  
E-mail, Reinert.

42
.
  
Message, HSL 44 Det 5 to HSL 44, “LAMPS Matters,” 1035Z 19 April 1988.

43
.
  
E-mail, Reinert.

44
.
  
Transcript, Pentagon press conference by NAVSEA chief Vice Adm. William Rowden and DCNO for plans, policy, and operations Vice Adm. Henry Mustin, 21 April 1988.

45
.
  
Message, USS
Fearless
to Rinn, “Lessons to Live By,” 1805Z 17 April 1988.

46
.
  
Message, CNO to Rinn, “Well Done,” 2226Z 19 April 1988.

47
.
  
Message, USCINCCENT to Rinn, “Well Done,” 1730Z 17 April 1988.

48
.
  
Letter from USS
Carl Vinson
Engineering Department to crew of USS
Samuel B. Roberts
, 16 April 1988, courtesy of Gordan Van Hook.

49
.
  
Message, Rinn to
Wainwright, Simpson
, and
Jack Williams
, “Professional Performance,” 1840Z 20 April 1988.

50
.
  
James J. Kilpatrick, “The Navy Saves a Ship,”
St. Petersburg Times
, 20 May 1988.

51
.
  
Letter, Rinn to DE 413 Survivors' Association, 2 May 1988.

52
.
  
Radio address, Ronald Reagan, 21 May 1988.

53
.
  
Citation, Legion of Merit.

54
.
  
Secretary of the Navy Instruction 1650.1g.

55
.
  
Citation, Navy Unit Citation.

56
.
  
E-mail, Chaffin; interview, Tilley.

57
.
  
Crowe didn't forget. Some time later, the admiral, now retired and serving on a corporate board, met Rinn's brother Greg at a company function. “Hi, Admiral Crowe. I believe you know my brother. My name is Greg Rinn. My brother Paul was the CO of the
Samuel Roberts.”
“Oh, yeah, the Burger King guy,” Crowe said. (Interview, Rinn.)

CHAPTER 14

  
1
.
  
Some members of the NAVSEA team flew commercial airlines and arrived in the UAE two days after the mining; others took military transport and straggled in a week later. They produced a draft report on 27 April. The team's final report took note of the delays and mechanical problems on the way over and dryly recommended that future teams fly commercially. (NAVSEA, draft report.)

  
2
.
  
Interview, Sorensen.

  
3
.
  
E-mail, Johnson; interview, Eckelberry; Alan Flippen, “Crew of Ship That Hit Iranian Mine Returns,” AP, 21 June 1988; e-mail, Reinert.

  
4
.
  
James R. Landau, and Stephen J. Lardie, “Repair of Damage to the Guided Missile Frigate USS
Samuel B. Roberts
(FFG 58),” a paper presented at the
annual meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in New York in 1989.

  
5
.
  
NAVSEA, draft report.

  
6
.
  
Colin Sargent, “Legend of the Roberts,”
Portland Monthly
, November 1988.

  
7
.
  
“Frigate to Be Repaired at Maine Shipyard,” AP, 29 April 1988.

  
8
.
  
Interview, Haggett.

  
9
.
  
E-mail, Johnson.

10
.
  
E-mail, Roberts; e-mail, Reinert; e-mail, Chaffin; interview, Muelhberg, 21 January 2001.

11
.
  
Message, FFG 58 to NAVSTA Mayport, “Remembrance,” 0700Z 10 May 1988.

12
.
  
Landau and Lardie, “Repair of Damage”; message, FFG 58 to JCS Washington DC, et al., “Samuel B. Roberts Underway,” 15 June 1988 (Declassified 31 July 1988); message, FFG 58 to CANCOMDESRON ONE, “No Higher Honor,” 15 June 1988 (Declassified 31 July 1988).

13
.
  
Richard Pyle, “Mine-Damaged U.S. Frigate Leaves for Home,” AP, 1 July 1988. There was one ship in the U.S. fleet that could have handled the task, but the
American Cormorant
was tied up in the Indian Ocean, laden with supplies, as part of the navy's prepositioning fleet. (“MSC Contracts for Roberts Lift,”
Sealift
, July 1988.)