bobdina
10-17-2009, 07:29 PM
NEWPORT NEWS
When a fire broke out last year onboard the aircraft carrier George Washington, Senior Chief Petty Officer Keith Hendrickson's priority was moving millions of dollars worth of airplanes to the far end of the flight deck, away from the heat.
Soon afterward, he fought to save something far more precious: four shipmates, trapped deep in the belly of the carrier.
Hendrickson's actions on May 22, 2008, earned him a Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. Last week, Capt. Bruce Lindsey, commanding officer of the carrier Carl Vinson, pinned the medal on Hendrickson's chest in a ceremony aboard that ship's flight deck in Newport News.
It took almost a year for the nomination to make its way to the president's desk and back - then months until the award caught up with Hendrickson, now stationed aboard the Carl Vinson.
The Chesapeake resident said in an interview Friday that he was honored to receive the medal. But the true reward came on that May day, when his four -man team liberated four shipmates from their hellish surroundings, amid tanks storing thousands of gallons of jet fuel.
An aviation boatswain's mate who specializes in handling carrier-based planes, Hendrickson said that after the planes were moved to the forward end of the flight deck, he heard that four sailors were stranded inside a pump room on the lowest deck of the ship.
One rescue team made it halfway down before heat and smoke drove them back.
Hendrickson and his team donned helmets, goggles and shiny silver suits designed to reflect intense heat. They strapped containers of air on their backs and attached chemical lights to their suits.
"I told my sailors who went down with me, 'We're not coming back until we get them out,' " Hendrickson said.
The men in the pump room were trapped by a thick metal hatch bolted shut to prevent the fire from spreading. Getting to them required going down six decks, through narrow passageways filled with smoke.
On the two lowest levels, the team had to manually open hatches, douse everything below with water, then drop further into the darkness.
Acrid black smoke grew thicker the lower they ventured. They could see nothing but the faint glow of the chemical lights on one another's suits.
"The thought of not making it back crossed my mind," Hendrickson said. He concentrated on controlling his breathing to conserve his air supply, something he'd learned from more than 20 years of Navy firefighting drills.
After opening the final hatch, the rescuers heard a wonderful sound: metal wrenches being banged against metal. The trapped sailors were alive.
"When we opened up the hatch, they were wide-eyed," Hendrickson said.
His team had carried down emergency breathing devices for the men, but the panicked sailors didn't waste time putting them on. They bolted out as fast as they could.
No one died in the fire, which took place off the Pacific coast of South America. Repairs cost an estimated $70 million.
An investigation determined that the likely cause of the fire was unauthorized smoking that ignited flammable liquids, including refrigerant compressor oil, improperly stored in an adjacent space. The Navy found that the fire was completely preventable, and the commanding and executive officers of the George Washington were later relieved of command.
On Friday, reflecting on the rescue, Hendrickson said he did what he hopes any sailor would do.
"All we have when we're out there, deployed, is each other," he said. "There's no 911."
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/10/officer-receives-medal-honoring-him-saving-shipmates-fire
When a fire broke out last year onboard the aircraft carrier George Washington, Senior Chief Petty Officer Keith Hendrickson's priority was moving millions of dollars worth of airplanes to the far end of the flight deck, away from the heat.
Soon afterward, he fought to save something far more precious: four shipmates, trapped deep in the belly of the carrier.
Hendrickson's actions on May 22, 2008, earned him a Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. Last week, Capt. Bruce Lindsey, commanding officer of the carrier Carl Vinson, pinned the medal on Hendrickson's chest in a ceremony aboard that ship's flight deck in Newport News.
It took almost a year for the nomination to make its way to the president's desk and back - then months until the award caught up with Hendrickson, now stationed aboard the Carl Vinson.
The Chesapeake resident said in an interview Friday that he was honored to receive the medal. But the true reward came on that May day, when his four -man team liberated four shipmates from their hellish surroundings, amid tanks storing thousands of gallons of jet fuel.
An aviation boatswain's mate who specializes in handling carrier-based planes, Hendrickson said that after the planes were moved to the forward end of the flight deck, he heard that four sailors were stranded inside a pump room on the lowest deck of the ship.
One rescue team made it halfway down before heat and smoke drove them back.
Hendrickson and his team donned helmets, goggles and shiny silver suits designed to reflect intense heat. They strapped containers of air on their backs and attached chemical lights to their suits.
"I told my sailors who went down with me, 'We're not coming back until we get them out,' " Hendrickson said.
The men in the pump room were trapped by a thick metal hatch bolted shut to prevent the fire from spreading. Getting to them required going down six decks, through narrow passageways filled with smoke.
On the two lowest levels, the team had to manually open hatches, douse everything below with water, then drop further into the darkness.
Acrid black smoke grew thicker the lower they ventured. They could see nothing but the faint glow of the chemical lights on one another's suits.
"The thought of not making it back crossed my mind," Hendrickson said. He concentrated on controlling his breathing to conserve his air supply, something he'd learned from more than 20 years of Navy firefighting drills.
After opening the final hatch, the rescuers heard a wonderful sound: metal wrenches being banged against metal. The trapped sailors were alive.
"When we opened up the hatch, they were wide-eyed," Hendrickson said.
His team had carried down emergency breathing devices for the men, but the panicked sailors didn't waste time putting them on. They bolted out as fast as they could.
No one died in the fire, which took place off the Pacific coast of South America. Repairs cost an estimated $70 million.
An investigation determined that the likely cause of the fire was unauthorized smoking that ignited flammable liquids, including refrigerant compressor oil, improperly stored in an adjacent space. The Navy found that the fire was completely preventable, and the commanding and executive officers of the George Washington were later relieved of command.
On Friday, reflecting on the rescue, Hendrickson said he did what he hopes any sailor would do.
"All we have when we're out there, deployed, is each other," he said. "There's no 911."
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/10/officer-receives-medal-honoring-him-saving-shipmates-fire