|
1983 and 1984
NAME =
Daniel Halifko
MY QUEST = Wax messianic
on need to know basis
VT of a SWALLOW = Consult
compression algorithyms
E-MAIL = nad80@hotmail.com
NATIONALITY = American
SERVICE = Merchant Seaman
(Oil field trash)
UNIT = on motor vessels
Trojan Express and tugboat Ellen.F
RANK/RATE/JOB = I was
able-bodied seaman, chief stewart- cook,
now I work in commercial
paint stores
MY INTEREST IN DG IS = My
Time There is Lost in an Alcoholic Haze, Help Me
Remember!
SUBJECT OF MY STORY: =
Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell
MY WARSTORY = I was there
the night "The Rock Rocked". The night of the
Nov 30 1983
earthquake.I not only
"bought the t-shirt, I SOLD the t-shirt,
to commemorate that night
and still have one.
I
am concerned for my brethen that worked there
during this recent tsanumi and I am clamoring
for news, here on Dec. 28, 2004.
I
was a Florida resident, but oil-field trash
civilian working offshore in Louisana and Texas.
The experience landed me two six month contracts
with Offshore Express of Houma, La on the motor
vessels Trojain Express, tugboat Ellen F and a
couple other tugboats in DG. I completed the 2
six month contracts with 2 months overtime,
which afforded me 2 wild & crazy R&R
trips to Angeles City, next to Clark Air Force
Base in the Phillipines and a six week delay
enroute in Madrid and Ibiza, Spain on the way
back to the states.
On the night of the earthquake, our tugboat
Ellen F. was docked "downtown", walking distance
from Seaman's Club. I was lying in bed asleep,
when I was awaken by a low to medium hum &
vibration. First thing I thought was, the
generator was going to blow on this 45 year old
rust bucket on a tugboat. Previouly "Bo", the
engineer, mentioned several times that the
generator was on it's last leg. Think of Scotty
from Starship Enterprize..."I'M giving
it all she got
Captian....amymore and I think she's gonna
blow."
So, big rumble vibration...I go run topside,
preparing to jump over-board thinking the
engine room is going to blow up,when I noticed a
wierd small "chop" in the water, almost like
jell-o being shaken when only half solidified. I
saw all the lights go out on the island, and
then I knew it wasn't our generator. I also
watched this old make shift tower, that was
downtown, silhoueted in dim moonlight, sway back
and forth, just like the palm trees.
Hey, we had electricity...so the next day was
business as usual.
But, I am really concerned...how did DG fair on
this Dec 27, 2004 earthquake and tsunami?
November 1983 to December
1984
NAME =
Miriam Smith
MY QUEST = Life and fun
VT of a SWALLOW = Are you
kidding?
E-MAIL =
mlouise_smith@hotmail.com
NATIONALITY = USA
SERVICE = US Navy
UNIT = ASWOC
RANK/RATE/JOB = Data
Systems First Class
MY INTEREST IN DG IS =
Stroll Down Memory Lane
SUBJECT OF MY STORY: =
Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell
MY WARSTORY = I was
reading a book called "End of the Earth World
News". It was a story about a meteorite that was
to pass close enough to the earth to pull the
moon out of her orbit, then go around the sun
and come back and crash into the earth. I had
just got to the point where the meteorite was
creating huge earthquakes and changes in the
waether patterns whe I fell asleep.
About fifteen mintues later when I was in that
wonderful twilight sleep, I awakened to
shaking. My first thought was, this is
just a dream from that stupid book. But the
shaking did not stop. Then I really woke
up. Now I was a little disoriented, but
having lived in San Francisco, I knew that
running outside was not the right thing to do,
but could not remember what I should do. Plus
that night I had decided to sleep in the buff,
so I wasn't exactly dressed for the occassion.
Now, my roommate and I both liked our privacy,
so we had used the furniture in our room to
create some seperate living space for ourselves.
As I was laying in bed trying to remember what
to do in an earthquake, I remembered that we had
stacked two short dressers on top of each other
and they were at the head of my bed. So I jumped
into action. I stood on my bed, butt
naked, and held onto that dresser through the
rest of the quake. And that is my DG earthquake
story.
From
Michael Slavin
MY QUEST = Correction of
Earthquake Infor November 30th 1983
VT of a SWALLOW = 2.5 mph
E-MAIL =
mlsstocks@sbcglobal.net
NATIONALITY = American
SERVICE = Navy
UNIT = NAVSECGRUDEPT
(Communications) Crytographic Technical Operator
RANK/RATE/JOB =
CTOSN/retired
MY INTEREST IN DG IS =
Stroll Down Memory Lane
SUBJECT OF MY STORY: =
Please Select a Title For Your Story, or Select
'Other'
MY WARSTORY = I was
there the night of November 30th, 1983, just
started the second shift at work when the quake
hit. I worked as an Cryptographic Technician
Operator, possessing a Top Secret SI clearance
based on SBC by the NIS. As soon as the quake
hit, I realized exactly what it was (been
through several before in California), and
advised everyone to get out of the building
ASAP. Of course everyone was very scared, the
whole building was shaking and as we scrambled
outside all the power went out. (The one thing
about the "ROCK", when there was no
moonlight/stars out, it is one of the darkest
places in the world)The other strange thing
about this earthquake, instead of shaking hard
like solid land in the states, the ground
actually "rolled", it was almost like standing
ontop of waves on the water!! I believe that was
due to the coral that the island rested on/was
made of.There was alot of screaming going on and
it was "Pitch Black", you could not see your
hand in front of your face!! A couple of us
turned on the lights of some pick-up trucks that
happened to be parked right outside of the
security gate. Right when the lights came on the
vehicles the inital quake ceased. I'll tell you
right now, when it stopped, I have never ever
seen (then or since) sssoooo many people light
up cigarettes, smokers and none smokers!!! I
seem to remember everyone out there that night
lit up!!! As soon as everone had calmed down,
backup power came on and we reentered the
building to reestablish communications systems
and inspect the site for damage. The Radioman at
the other communication center was typing that
the main water supply line in his building had
split and they were taking on water!!!!!Crazy
stuff but all true, we lived throughout the next
week with the typical aftershocks and eventually
everything returned to normal. The other thing I
have been reading about the quake that day was
the actual richter scale reading (stated to be
between 7 and 7.7)
I
have the "Pacific Stars & Stripes" article
from the paper dated Dec. 2 1983, It reads as
follows: WASHINGTON (UPI)- An earthquake
reaching 5.5 on the richter scale jolted the
Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia Wednesday
but caused no injuies to its 5800 people, most
of them U.S. Navy personnel, nor major damage,
the navy Said. The quake, registering between 5
and 5.5 on the scale, knocked out electricity
and communications for about an hour, a navy
spokesman said. It caused a minor rupture in a
fuel line, he said.
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake
Information center in Golden, Colo., said the
quake "was centered on or very near"
the island of diego
Garcia, 1600 miles south of Bombay.
The British-owned island is used the United
States to stockpile weapons, fuel and other
military equipment aboard ships for use by the
Rapid Deployment Force in the event of a crisis
in the Persian Gulf.
None
of the 16 ships laden with the equipment was
damaged nor was the 12000-foot runway affected
by the quake, the spokesman said.
Actually,
the runway did suffer some damage and prevented
the larger planes from landing, for (if memory
serves) about a week or two. Obviously, the
Goverment did not want everyone to know that we
could not land our biggest bombers
etc...national security and all.
I
really would love to go back for a year and just
save a ton of money. Duty free booze/everything,
case of beer went for $2.50, Fifth of Jack
Danials $3.00 etc...lots of partying fishing,
got tons of pics with just cases of beer in the
frig and nothing else except vitamins.Still have
my stereo system that I bought at the PX.
Also,
have a story about Hector the Hammerhead that I
will put up next time. Much love to all that
served on the "ROCK", it is a very limited
fraternity that we can all be proud of,
especiall to all those from 1983-1984. Peace to
all and Merry Xmas, pray for our troops.
BRET
WOLCOTT <ut1scw@yahoo.com>
The earthquake sticks out
most in my mind. 30November83, about midnight if
I remember right. 7.6 was the Richter
scale reading. Just got to bed with some
of the guys still out in the lounge doing their
thing. Imagine waking from a sound sleep
with your rack bouncing about a foot off the
floor. Thought the fellas were messing
with me until I put my feet on the floor and
felt it rolling underneath me. Got to the
door to the lounge to find Dave Vadbunker
standing calmly in the doorway. Must have balls
of steel....like most Seabees. That was just the
start of a very very long night. Up until
the next evening fixing water leaks, holding my
breath every time an aftershock hit, hoping the
island would hold up, which it did.
ANNETTE
SALVATO-GANGI
<Nettesal@YAHOO.COM>
I Remember the Quake of 83. I worked
down at the mini-ascomm at the time. I
was in my barracks watching movies. It
was the 3 story new barracks at the
time. The rumble started and it got so
loud you couldn't even hear yourself
yell. We thought it was a C5 coming in
to low or the wrong way. Then the
building starting to bounce. We all headed for
the door and the 3 of us were trying to get
the door open to get out. Of course we
were all very calm. (LOL)
We got out of the room and I just wanted to
jump from the 2nd floor to the ground.
At that point, we thought the building was
coming down. My friend at
the
time grab me and pulled me to the steps and we
ran down. We got to the ground and you
were just bouncing off of it. Well
it felt it anyhow. We finally
figured out what it was and time just seemed
to stop and the quake seem to go on for
ever. All the lights went out and we
were all told to go to the center of the
island because they were expecting a wave to
hit. What a joke that was, the center
and highest point was the swimming pool.
Some of us went down to cannon point to watch
and some of us just started
partying. I had never been in a
earthquake before and hope I'll never be
again. Needless to say for the next
couple of months, due to the
aftershocks, I slept fully clothed
and shoes by the bed ready to book out if
needed. We drove out to T-site within
the next couple of days and saw where the wave
had washed over the road and the crack in the
building out there. This experience
makes you realize you never know when your
time is up.
SAM
CLUES <sclues@tampabay.rr.com>
I left in
Jan 1984, and yes I was there for the
earthquake, a company called RBRM (Raymond,
Brown and Root, Molem) were the construction
company building literally everywhere. One of
the problems that the earthquake caused was a
slight crack in the runway, which at the time
was being widened to accept the B52's I believe.
The accounts I have read about the earthquake
are indeed very accurate, especially about
waking up in the morning in a pile of empty beer
cans.
Another
'funny' about the quake is that shortly after we
had 'accounted' for everyone and reassured
ourselves and others that we were ok, the Brit
Rep, at the time Cdr Tony Hodgson, called all
the Brit Party NP1002 into his office to get and
give a debriefing. He allowed us all to call our
families in the UK immediately so that we could
inform them of the situation before they heard
it via the UK media and prevent any unnecessary
panic for them.
Anyway,
after all the calls had been made, we were all
sat in his office and suddenly one of our ROPO's
(RN Police) said "Hey boss, what about the
"Flips" in the R&R Center?" He did of course
mean the Philippino workers who stayed out at
the center. Right away two of the ROPO's said
"We'll take the Land Rover and go check on
them".
As
it happened the Land Rover only managed to drive
some of the way due to some fallen trees on the
road, they ended up about a few miles short of
the R&R Center so decided to go the rest on
foot. Armed with only small flashlights to find
their way, the two ROPO's managed to progress a
few hundred yards when they heard some rustling
and shouting in the distance. As they got closer
they realised that the voices were indeed the
two Philippino workers. As the two came into the
light (obviously delighted to see some other
humans!) they were ecstatic with joy and when
their euphoria died down one of our ROPO's
quipped; "Well guys, it looks like we're the
only four left on the island!" .................
To which one of the workers fainted and the
other ran away in hysteria! I guess you had to
be there to really see the funny side. By the
way it took them a further 15 minutes to find
the one that ran!
SCOTT
SHEFFIELD
<sscheff98@home.com>
I was there for the earthquake. I was working in
R-site, It was the end of my shift, the
third shift had just arrived. Then a roar
approached which sounded like a squadron of low
flying B-52's. My supervisor said
"Earthquake"!!! at that second 98 % of the staff
was out the door. Me and My supervisor and
another guy from Jersey were the only one's left
from our staff. Copiers the size of Volkswagens
were rolling across the floor. Ceiling tiles
fell, I prayed for the shaking to end so that I
could live! the power went out abruptly. After
the quake ended I was instructed by my
supervisor to do a perimeter observation to
assess any building damage. I peeked out the
door and saw the prettiest site. US MARINES in
defensive positions around our building. I was
impressed with their rapid response!!! As
I walked pass the emergency generator it decided
to go on. Yikes. Enough to make you shit
yourself. To my many good friends that shared
that experience I will never forget the
camaraderie and cohesiveness under such a
potentialy deadly occurence. Hip Hip
Hooray for the "Footprint of Freedom"
Scott Sheffield.
DANIEL
KELL <dan.kell@attws.com>
I was with VP-46 in 83 for the first full
deployment. Lived in D circle in I think
D6, south side of the circle straight shot into
the head. While there in 83 we had an enormous
earthquake. A 7.2 or 7.3 that lasted 142
seconds (some crazy person timed it), I woke to
standing up next to my bed. Caught my bottle of
scotch and a small carving there were on top of
my locker and only then realized we were having
an earthquake. My drunken hut-mate, Kevin
McGovern, woke up about that time and started
yelling at the people that were beating on our
hut (coconuts falling onto the tin roof) I
yelled at him to get out and stepped out the
back door just in time to see the water heater
in the head trailer shoot across the floor
showering water out the top. Reminded me of a
headless chicken running around fountaining
blood. (sorry, grew up on a farm) Earthquake
ended, I went back to bed. Suddenly people
started running around yelling tsunami, run to
the middle of the island (the lagoon? that seem
fucking stupid). At the time the two high spots
on the island were the pool and a big pile of
sand out were they were building across from the
control tower. So I got my bottle and went over
to cannon point to watch the tide come in. We
went from low tide to just higher than high tide
in about 30 seconds. This was about an hour
after the earthquake ended. Total damage: some
really scared merchants, whose ships changed
directions at anchor abruptly, a wooded pier
that washed away, a tilt to the water tower down
town, some cracks in walls, and the 4 foot pile
of cans I walked past in B circle the next
morning.
DAVE
WALKER <davewalker@zebra.net>
I
was asleep in my 3rd floor barracks room. and
was literally thrown to the floor when the quake
hit. The barracks were immediately evacuated and
everyone was told to move to the "center" of the
island, as they expected a tidal wave to follow.
It was the only time in my life when I "knew" I
was going to die.
We later learned that the initial quake measured
7.6 on the richter scale. It wiped out the road
to T site at one point, and produced several
severe cracks in the T site building (you could
see daylight through some of them!)
I've still got the T shirt commemorating that
night; it reads "I survived the Quake of 83 -
Diego Garcia B.I.O.T. - 30 November 1983 - "7.6"
on the front, and "Diego Garcia - Fun in the Sun
or Shake 'n' Bake" on the back.
JACK
KALTENHAUSER <arizseabee@email.msn.com>
It is
2130 I had just finish with the "S's" and was
going to cop some well desired sleep when the
world when Rockin & Rollin. I dove
under my rack (I lived in the tiltup barracks on
the 1st floor.) The phone rings it is the
EM at the MPP call to tell me that the engines
were jumping off the floor. The power goes out.
Time to go to work, Paul Denton and I bail out
of our room and head for the MPP, the tower
calls and has no power and and S3A on approach
with no gas to "Bingo". It is DG or the
water. We go to the emergency generator and find
it running but the main breakers are
open. We decide to "Smoke Test" one
time. It holds, we have runway lights. Now
Security is calling, They want lights in town
ASAP to help calm the troops. We start
check out the system. Open all the UG lines
feeding the sites and turn on the Main Overhead
lines into the Waterplant. I am standing
in a room full of High Voltage equipment
when aftershock #1 hit it is
almost 7.0 and I get real nervous.
Everything holds and as soon as the shaking stop
we turn on the lights "downtown".
By the time
we get everyone (all the sites) back on station
power the sun is up. We get a look at the damage
to the new messhall, the road cracks at the
donkey gate, the swimming pool which has raised
up out of the ground.
No one
is hurt, we all have our memories. Boy I
hate earthquakes.
DAVID
KESSLER <thebbk@yahoo.com>
I was
there for the quake in 1983. In fact, I had just
stepped off the van that brought me back to town
from the airfield. I was working nights in those
silly mobile maintenance vans they had set up as
an AIMD (aviation intermediate maintenance
dept.). I was walking past the outdoor theater
towards the new 3 - story barracks when it hit.
As a California native, I had been in a few
quakes, but this was the strongest by far.
Having been on the island for a good amount of
time by then, I was hooting and hollaring and
cheering the quake on. It was GREAT! Everyone
around me was getting very pissed, but it was
exciting. When it was over, we weren't allowed
to go into our barracks for awhile, so I went
and got my boogie board and headed for the
beach. If we were going to get wasted by a tidal
wave, I was at least going to get one last good
ride out of it! Unfortunately, the tidal wave
never came, but from time to time - up until I
left the island a month later, water would
suddenly rush up the island pretty far.
The waves were great, but unpredictable....
MARK
McMENAMIN <seniormac@sprynet.com>
During the earthquake we got
quite a few calls at the weather office I guess
they figured we were the closest thing to
seismologists they could call. We didn't know
anything more than they did. We did call Golden
Colorado and got the epi-center and magnitude
info fairly quickly (those were in the days
before stallite comms and E-mail).
Information from the Amateur Seismic Center
(which no longer has its web page up):
Chagos Archipelago, B.I.O.T. - Mw7.7
30th
November 1983,
Epicentre:
6.85S, 72.11 E
Origin
time - 17:46 UTC,
Mb
- 6.6, Ms - 7.7,
Mo
- 4.1*10*20 Nm
This was one of the strongest earthquakes ever
recorded in the Indian Ocean. It was centered at
6.85 S Latitudeand 72.11 E Longitude. It had a depth
of 10 kilometers which for some reason was
restrained at this depth by a geologist. It had a
body-wave magnitude of 6.6 and a surface-wave
magnitude of 7.7. It occured at 17:46pm UTC. The
earthquake caused some damage to buildings and piers
on Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos
Archipelago. The 1983 earthquake spawned a
tsunami in the region. In the lagoon, on Diego
Garcia, there was a 1.5 meter rise in wave height
and there was some significant wave damage near the
south-eastern tip of the island. A 40 centimeter
wave was also recorded at Victoria, Seychelles.
There was a large zone of discoloured sea-water
observed 60 - 70 kilometers north-north-west of
Diego Garcia.
|
