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katkilla

USS William.D.Porter part 2

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Alpha Tester
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And yes the bad luck continues on this trip :ohmy: .

 

Not long after the depth charge incident the destroyer was hit by a freak wave which knock a crew member over board and was never found,but also flooded a boiler room which caused a loss of power and put the William D. Failure even further behind the rest of the convoy.Im pretty sure at this point the captian would of rather just turned around and headed back to base quietly.

 

next stuff up  :sad:

 

Posted Image

 

So by this point, everyone on the mission was understandably a little skittish. So the captian asked the crew of the Iowa to demonstrate that they could defend themselves if someone other than the idiots at the back of the convoy tried to attack them; specifically, to defend itself if the Iowa were under attack from the air. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he probably imagined the Porter was capable of flying, and he wanted to be ready.

 

The way this particular drill worked was that the Iowa would release balloons that served as targets for anti-aircraft guns. Fair enough. Until some of the balloons drifted over to the Porter and someone (Captain Walter) thought it was time for redemption. So he ordered his crew to fire on any balloons missed by the Iowa's gunners. That part went fine. Then, feeling cocky, he ordered a practice firing of their torpedoes. And the practice target would be the Iowa.

 

Oh, yes. You know what's about to happen  :popcorn:

 

Posted Image

 

They announced "Fire one!" and the first fake torpedo was fake fired. "Fire two!" and the second fake torpedo was fake fired. "Fire three!" and a swooshing sound was heard. The crew watched in horror as an actual torpedo left the tube and headed right at the Iowa and the president of the united states

 

Remember that this was a secret mission which was why the convoy was supposed to exercise radio silence.

Now, there are occasions when you have to break radio silence, like if for instance something even worse than being discovered by the enemy will happen if you don't. You'd think that "just shot a torpedo at the president" would be one of those times when you have to break the rule for the greater good.

 

Not according to the brainiacs on the Porter. They decided radio silence trumped the life of their commander in chief and everyone else on board the ship, so they used light signals to warn the Iowa a torpedo was coming

But they couldn't even get that part right. The signalman quickly told the Iowa that a torpedo was in the water ... except he said that it was going in the opposite direction. Realizing his mistake, the signalman tried again. This time he completely botched it and accidentally signaled to the Iowa "We're going in reverse full speed." We wouldn't be surprised if the Iowa had a little party at that news.

 

Posted Image

 

Finally, someone decided to break radio silence and ordered Iowa to turn right fast. After haggling over who was calling, the Iowa quickly obliged. Obviously the president was panicking, knowing that death could be on its way ... oh wait, no, Roosevelt asked to be rolled over to watch the torpedo action. His Secret Service agents then proceeded to pull their pistols to shoot the torpedo themselves if necessary. Luckily, the torpedo wound up missing the boat, thanks to the Iowa's sharp turn.

 

This was about the point when Admiral King ordered the Porter to please leave the convoy, lest they try to assassinate the president again. So the crew followed orders and sailed to Bermuda, where they found themselves confronting armed Marines who were there to arrest them. All of them. It was the first time an entire Navy crew had been arrested.

 

well hoped ya enjoyed the read about this poor luckless crew,she whent on to serve in the pacific for the rest of her service and was sunk due to a near miss kamikaze attack.It wasnt hit but suffered fatal damage due to the underwater explosion

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Alpha Tester
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edit: nvm, my bad.

Edited by Windhover118

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View PostWindhover118, on 21 October 2013 - 07:18 AM, said:

You forgot to mention the best part which is when the President learned the torpedo was heading toward the Iowa, he told the secret service agent who was with him to wheel him over to the side of the ship so he could watch.
read the part just under the picture of the iowa, its all there

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View Postkatkilla, on 21 October 2013 - 07:24 AM, said:

read the part just under the picture of the iowa, its all there

Oh sorry, my bad, I missed that part.

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