13 Days in October

I was just 17 when the 13 days in October event happened. I remember I was a junior in high school and there was a discussion in civics class after reading about the event in Time magazine. Being just 17 and far more interested in almost everything else, it did not really strike me as anything that would affect my life. Although seeing pictures of the navy ships (in Time magazine) that formed the Cuban blockade may have subconsciously led to my enlisting in the navy at 18.

Just a year ago I picked up a movie with the same title as this post. I have watched it several times and it never fails to run chills up my spine. I have also watched a documentary about the event that added even more spine tingling to me than the movie did.The movie was more about the politics of the situation, but there were some navy scenes that got me going.

Any navy movie I watch still thrills me when I hear “General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands man your battlestations!” Onboard ship when that alarm sounded all hell broke loose. People were running down decks, up or down ladders heading for their stations. Another perhaps equal call was a fire alarm. At sea, you cannot run outside and get away from a fire. The first thing we learned was to clear the passageways when that alarm went off. Ships company had excellent fire and damage control crews and they did not need a bunch of people in the air group gawking in the passageway. Those guys came running from all directions and would run right over  passageway gawkers and they would not stop to pick them up.

Here is a video of the USS Forrestal fire in 1967 (film released in 1973). Watch at least the first 8 minutes of the 18 minute film and you will see why firefighting is so important in the navy. The video was made from shots done on the day. The navy did not include the really graphic parts we saw at sea. The explosions were shown from a distant camera up on the island. The ones we saw were closeups and the navy chief mentioned in the first explosion was literally body parts flying through the air on fire. One last note on firefighting, I had one afternoon of firefighting training in navy boot camp and never another moment beyond the chief telling us to clear the passageways when the fire alarms went off. On the Kitty Hawk, the fires happened frequently but they were never anything like on the Forrestal. On the 67-68 cruise we shared a shop with a squadron that was aboard the Forrestal during the fire just a few months after that giant fire. Those guys would nearly wet their pants when there was a fire alarm.

I seem to have drifted away from my topic the 13 days. The navy did not know that Soviet subs in the Cuban area had nuclear tipped torpedoes that had the shooting started would have taken out a lot of sailors. There are some well done naval ship and air scenes in the movie. The movie is well worth watching to see what happened behind the scenes during the Cuban missile crisis and if you ever get a chance to watch “13 Days in October,” it is well worth viewing. The US and Russia were very, very close to nuclear war, perhaps as close as ever. Had President Kennedy followed the advice of the joint chiefs of staff, you and I would possibly (likely) never lived to see this post today. Those of you who were not yet born in 1962 would likely have never been born. There were enough nuclear missiles in Cuba to wipe out most of the country as far west as Seattle.

The good news is today we have nuclear bombs of even greater destructive capability and so do the Russians, the Chinese and half a dozen other countries. If the shooting ever starts, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.