following the Cosmic trail, where will it lead us? (some ramblings)

Danger is no stranger to an underwater ranger

need to start out with an image. poinsettias can grow quite large, at least here on Reunion Island. The following image is me standing if front of a poinsettia, Texas has nothing on us.

Through out life good things and bad things happen, I think quite often bad things happen that result in good things happening. Here are a couple of stories in my life; seemly bad things leading to good things. Opportunities are presented in mysterious ways that guide us to good destinations.

Back in November and December of 1974 I was out on a mission near the Kamchatka peninsula. Long mission that turned out longer than expected and the sort of things nightmares are made of. It was December 3rd, we had fully completed our mission and were scheduled to make our exit on the 10th of December. On board the sub, our carriage, the sub commander decided to send out a message asking to exit early as mission was complete. We were of course in Soviet waters. For a sub to send out a message in hostile waters, they used a small floating transmitter that was programmed with the message and a 1 hour delay after the transmitter was jettisoned before it started to transmit. It transmitted the message for 15 minutes, repeating it over and over and then exploding. This one hour delay gave us time to be fairly far away from the transmitter as it was going to attract attention.

The problem with this is it made it well known that espionage was afoot and a subsequent search was going to follow by the Soviets. We received a reply message from NSA that we were extended until the 17th as they had intell that there was going to be another surface to surface missile test by the Soviets and they wanted us to get the telemetry and guidance systems. This intell was not accurate. But we waited, monitoring the weather reports, the ship navigation closure reports. You needed good weather and then a ship navigation closure area for a missile test, also a few other elements, but this was the starting point.

In the meantime the Soviets were looking for us, with stepped up search operations. Then a series of unfortunate events transpired. The first one was the propeller on the sub turned a bit too fast, this caused what is called cavitation, air bubbles forming behind the propeller and this in turn makes noise, pop, pop. The Soviets picked this up with hydrophones that they had dropped into the water. They located us using triangulation from the hydrophones.

I was in the forward torpedo room taking a shower. That shower was seldom used as it was next to the hull and the sea water temperature was 26 degrees, nicely below freezing, but since it is salt water it does not freeze at that temperature. This made the hull very cold and showers in the torpedo room were stimulating. BOOM, the whole sub listed to starboard, the side that I was on, and I slammed into the frozen hull and stuck. A few more explosions and the sub was definitely rocking. Then those pings started, those sonar pings that says they are on top of us and looking for an exact location.

I took my washcloth and used it to get some warm water on my arm and shoulder to extricate myself from the hull. The explosions continued, the sub’s interior lights dimmed; and the lights flashed. There was an emergency shut down of the nuclear reactor, we had a major problem. The reactor’s cooling system had sprung a leak and they needed to shut it down before it over heated and we became a nuclear disaster. We were now on battery power, that was not good. We started to sink further and a decision was made to let the sub go to the bottom and hopefully we could hide there.

Subs have a theoretical crush depth, very deep, and a test depth, the depth that the sub must not go below, about ½ of the theoretical crush depth, we went well past that test depth, approaching the crush depth before we settled. The depth charging and the pings continued on for several days. The CO2 scrubber was down, this device took the carbon off the CO2 and left us with breathable oxygen.

Going to digress here for a bit, when the CO2 levels reach 35,000 parts per million, you are dead. This is 3.5% of atmosphere, current CO2 levels in the air we breath are between 300 and 400 ppm. Totally fine for life. Mask studies have been conducted that show young children wearing the mandated face masks are breathing in between 13,000 and 25,000 ppm of CO2, dangerous levels as they cannot fully expel their breath, and suck in clean air. This depends upon the activity, but these levels are dangerous whether at the 25,000 or 13,000 levels.

Back to the sub, as the scrubber was down, we were using what was called candles, some type of composition that when struck with metal ignited, giving off O2 and plenty of small ash. Do not know exactly what this substance was, but it kept us alive. The CO2 monitor showed us a 3.4% or 34,000 parts per million of CO2. Everyone not actively engaged in fixing the coolant leak was confined to their bunks. Every 4 hours a person came around and checked on everyone to see if they were still alive. Movement was difficult and matches would not light, not enough oxygen. Walking a few steps left you out of breath and the depth charges kept coming. This became that proverbial fox hole, and I wanted to run, but there was no place to run to, plus it was physically impossible. This situation started my prayer life, no atheists in fox holes, I can a firm this. I was totally not into prayer until this time, and the inclination to pray startled me. Some good came of that horrible experience.

Christmas came and the sub was finally fixed along with the CO2 scrubber that day and this just happens to be my most memorable Christmas. The sub commander broke out the whisky and vodka and we made a Christmas tree out of aluminum foil that was ugly, but we liked it. Then we made our way home arriving on Jan the 5th 1975, 65 days from when we left.

As a postscript to this story, I was brought up on charges with a prison sentence attached to those charges if convicted. My team leader wanted me to spend time investigating/reconnaissance a particular target, I briefly looked at it and decided that it was a bogus target, one designed to trap us and of absolutely no espionage value. So I declined to spend any further time on it. This then became a bone of contention between me and the team leader, he went to the sub commander and told him of my refusing to obey orders. The sub commander pulled out his 45 and put it to the side of my head and said he was going to execute me under some wartime powers act unless I went after this supposed high value target. For me, two options, a quick bullet to the head or possible capture and torture and probably death. I told him to pull the trigger, as the target was bogus, a trap, and if I took us into it, we were all going to die, and if he pulled the trigger, I would be dead and so would they, as my counter part mission operative had went crazy under the stress and was useless, I was the only one that could keep us out of trouble and complete the mission. There was an investigation and I was totally exonerated, I was correct in my assessment. My team leader that wanted me to lead us into a trap was relieved of authority, booted out of the agency, given $25,000 and a great job with Rockwell. That was fair.

Now story number 2, I was diagnosed with osteonecrosis, my bones were dying and starting to crumble. In a wheel chair, although I could stand, and walk some but that was painful and never knew when I would collapse. Bone joints not in good shape. Long story how I got to this point, a story about doctors not knowing or researching the side effects of certain drugs. I was training for a corporate sales job that I could do from a wheel chair. At the end of the training there was an open book test to see if you actually got the job, easy-peasy, except that I choked twice, so did not get the job. I never choke on tests, but for some reason on this one, even an open book test I choked.

So no job, but time a plenty. Very disappointed about the not having a job and no real prospects. I decided to make the most of that time and started to look for a solution to the wheel chair situation and the bones dying. I contacted the local hospital to see about getting metal bones, but none of the manufacturers would approve their products for a person with osteonecrosis. That was a dead end, pun intended. Researched on correcting osteonecrosis, and figured out that bone transplants may offer a solution. Saw that the Chinese were successfully using bone transplants, but that was off the table for me. So would get up at 5 am every morning and call hospitals and clinics through out the USA trying to find some one that was having success with bone transplants, working from the east coast to the west coast, spending 12 hours a day calling.

Found a doctor in San Antonio, TX that was having success, taking a piece of bone from your shin and transplanting it in the dead bone. I talked to him, he would not consider me as I was over 50 and would not make exceptions. Two weeks went by and I found a doctor at Columbia that was using synthetic bone and inserting it into the dead bone and it came alive. WOW. Columbia was on the east coast and I was a west coaster, however he informed me that he was working with a doctor in Salem, OR, about 40 miles away from me. Contacted him and I was a go. Two operations later and $65,000 I was on the mend and walking around, but flat broke. At that time the surgery was experimental, now it is fully accepted and covered by insurance.

What looked like bad circumstances turned out to be good for me. Going to the bottom of the ocean in a very bad situation prompted my prayer life. Choking for that job which I really wanted and thought I needed, allowed me the time to search and get out of the wheelchair. The story continues. Romans 8:28, all things happen for good, or something to that effect. Actually in the KJV “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  It has changed my outlook on all things, always look for the good in any situation, it is there. Well at least I have been able to find it, I do always look.

While we are in Romans, just a comment about a line there, a woman named Phoebe is mentioned in Romans. The mention in the Greek goes against what is in another Epistle about women keeping silent in church. When you read the Greek early manuscripts of Romans, Phoebe is a Bishop in the early church, with authority over a large geographical area, so how is a Bishop supposed to keep quiet in a church​? She is the first mentioned Bishop on record. Women were to keep quiet as (the reason) Eve supposedly sinned first by eating the apple, but Adam also ate of it and then blamed Eve; are not apples good for you? I think Adam was a bit of a hypocrite, passing the blame, not taking responsibility for his action. Sounds like the 3rd grade defense, well “so and so did it”, as if that exonerates you. Of course as always these are my thoughts and perceptions and may or may not be those of officialdom.