The Circle (64 page)

The chart shows that
KENNEDY
was here at 0201 [indicating]. Then the turn signal was executed. Through the turn, we lost a certain amount of speed—three knots or so. There was a range of 3,100 yards to
RYAN
at that time, so she really was just about exactly on her assigned station. At this time here [indicating] the range was about 2,000 yards. After that it closed very rapidly.

The turn into danger seems to have occurred here, where
RYAN
made a sharp swerve to port. And this cross marks where the collision occurred.

Q
. Captain, given that you were getting apparently minute-by-minute reports on where
RYAN
was, why did you not detect earlier that she was off course and headed across your bow?

A
. That assumes I knew what her intentions were. In practice, we just assign stations. Each ship decides the best way to get there.

Q
. But what I am asking is, at what point should you have realized she was not making a normal maneuver?

Counsel representing Commander Packer objected to this question on the grounds that it assumed facts not in evidence, viz. the captain of
RYAN
's intentions.

The counsel for the Court withdrew the question.

Q
. Please go on then, if you have completed that portion of your testimony, and describe the search-and-rescue operation.

A
. Well, as I said, I also had my birds to worry about. We had ten men up there and some millions of dollars' worth of planes that we had to get aboard or they'd be out of fuel and have to ditch. So the task group commander ordered the screen units to see to the survivors while we recovered aircraft. When they were safely aboard, we launched helos and steamed back to the site. By then both sections of
RYAN
had gone under.

I should also note that I ordered, when we were passing over
RYAN,
I ordered that all available lifesaving gear be tossed over from the fantail. Inventory shows we got over eleven life rafts and an undetermined number of life jackets, probably upwards of fifty.

Q
. Went over from
KENNEDY?

A
. Yes.

Q
. Please continue.

A
. When we returned to the scene, about half an hour or forty minutes later,
TALBOT, GARCIA,
and
DEWEY
had boats in the water and searchlights going. I lowered two boats but did it standing off, as the destroyers with their lower freeboard were better for picking men up. There was so much stuff in the water, and we couldn't tell till the boats were right up on it whether it was men or not, that there was no attempt to organize the search in a square or such. They just went in and picked up everyone they could find. I lowered the deck-edge elevator and the boats brought survivors; then they went back again. After about 0400 they came back empty. I sent them farther out. The helos got some, too.

Q
. How long did you continue the search?

A
. Till after dawn. Our boats got low on fuel then and I brought them back aboard.

Cross-examined by counsel for Commander Packer.

Q
. Sir, did you have the conn at the time of collision?

A
. I gave the order to back emergency. After that I maneuvered the ship. There was no explicit passing of the conn; as captain, I took it; it was understood.

Q
. Who had it prior to that?

A
. Lieutenant Commander Garner.

Q
. And was Garner, in your opinion, a capable officer of the deck?

A
. Yes, he's quite capable.

Q
. How long before actual contact did you give that backing order?

A
. That's hard to say. About a minute.

Q
. Did it take effect?

A
. I have to say I doubt it. Not in that space of time, on something the size of a carrier.

Q
. Did you give any danger signal, or any whistle signal prior to the collision?

A
. No.

Q
. Why not?

A
. I felt it would be confusing. We had so little time. If I got one blast out, it would have meant to
RYAN
that I was turning to starboard. If they had heard two, it would have meant I was turning to port. I judged it best to give no signal.

Q
. When you realized collision was imminent, you said you gave the order to “light ship.” That order means, I believe, to show all lights—deck-edge lights, landing lights, working lights, and so forth.

A
. That is correct.

Q
. Why did you not order only the navigation and running lights turned to full?

A
. I preferred to light ship.

Q
. Could that have confused the captain of
RYAN?
There are many lights aboard a carrier.

A
. I can't speculate on that. I wanted to be as visible as possible.

Q
. Captain, I now call your attention to Section 567 of the Allied Tactical Maneuvering Instructions. “When ships are darkened, and any ship considers herself endangered by another, she is to switch on navigation lights.” Later it says, “When it is necessary to change formation, formation axis, or course of a screened unit, navigation lights may be switched on if it is not certain that ships will clear each other.”

A
. All I can say is, I didn't have time to refer to the instructions.

Q
. Well, in the process, were your navigation lights turned on bright or not?

A
. I can't say for certain at this point. I assume they were, along with everything else.

Cross-examined by counsel for Lieutenant Evlin.

Q
. Captain, let us return to the signals exchanged just before the collision. As best you recall, what was the wording of the message that assigned
RYAN
plane guard?

A
. As I said, Lieutenant Commander Garner had not included that in his original message.
RYAN
came back and asked whether they were to take it. His response was affirmative.

Q
. Did you consider that answer as an order to take a different course from the formation course you ordered?

A
. It was not a course order. It was permission to adjust her maneuvers so as to get into station.

Q
. Was there any reference to how soon she was needed there?

A
. No.

Q
. In fact, how soon did you actually need her astern of you?

A
. We would have had then twenty minutes or so to the first aircraft recovery.

Q
. How often do aircraft go into the water, so that the guard ship is in fact needed?

A
. Not every day, but it happens. Last year an A-4 had an engine failure on takeoff, went in off the bow, and we steamed right over her. She sank that fast. But the pilot came up from about forty feet, and the plane guard had him aboard in about three minutes. All he needed was a change of underwear.

Q
. Let's go on to the last signal you sent. That is the signal changing your recovery course to two-five-zero.

A
. Yes.

Q
. I am not clear on your testimony as to whether
RYAN
receipted for that message.

A
. I believe she did.

Q
. Did you hear it?

A
. No, I believe my officer of the deck did, though.

Q
. We have heard testimony to the effect that Mr. Len-son, the officer remaining from
RYAN
's bridge team, heard no such message.

A
. Well, I am not prepared positively to state that we had a reply. As I said, we had trouble hearing
RYAN
's transmissions. We had something from her at that point, but I can't say for certain—

Q
. Let us leave it at that, then. The point is, you changed course toward the destroyer, without a certainty that she had heard your signal.

A
. I suppose so, in a way. However, I must point out that we in fact had not come to two-five-zero when the collision occurred. We'd only come to about two-five-five. If I had remained on two-six-zero,
RYAN
might have struck us amidships, instead of our striking her, but the collision would still have occurred. That course change made no difference.

Q
. Let us look again at the light situation. You have said that you had lights burning other than running lights, presumably dimmed landing lights. Were there any other lights burning on your ship?

A
. Yes, but they could not have been seen from a low platform like a destroyer.

Q
. Would you describe the location and color of the aircraft landing lights on the
KENNEDY?

A
. They were all around red lights.

Q
. How many, and where?

A
. Two, on the mast.

Q
. How far apart?

A
. About 6 feet, I think.

Q
. The point I am getting at, Captain, is that as those lights are positioned, could
RYAN
's captain have mistaken them for your port running lights? And since they were higher, might he not have thought
KENNEDY
was farther away than she in fact was?

A
. I suppose that is possible.

Q
. I submit to the court that in view of the multiplicity of lights on the carrier, their color, and their location, this combination of design flaws, along with the confused response of Captain Javits to the imminence of collision, in lighting ship instead of brightening only his navigation lights, as doctrine in fact specifies should be done, were contributing factors in the collision.

THE COURT
: Mr. Barrett, you are not in a civilian court. We are capable of hearing testimony without the accompaniment of flamboyant rhetoric.

MR. BARRETT
: Thank you, sir. I have no further questions of this witness.

The court then, at 1300, took a recess until 1415.

*   *   *

DURING the last part of Javits's testimony, Dan's arm had become a throbbing sizzle of steadily growing pain. He had to pay attention, he kept telling himself; but he needed medication more.

When the last admiral left the courtroom, he picked up the notebook in which he had been keeping track of the points each witness made, and headed, after the others, for the door. On the way his eyes met theirs: Bryce, glaring back; Lassard, sneering, whispering to Greenwald; Hauck, meeting his gaze expressionlessly before bending back to his papers. There was an old man beside him Dan didn't recognize, a geezer in a blue suit and string tie.

In the men's room, an Air Force major was shaving at one of the sinks. Dan pulled out the envelope and took a tablet. Then he gulped another, sucking water from the cup of his right hand.

He let himself into a stall and eased off his blouse. He rubbed his face, wishing he felt better. Well, a double dose, it should start working soon.

He sat there for some minutes, thinking. He couldn't tell how the trial was going. There didn't seem to be any point spread developing. But he was never sure he hadn't missed something. If he wasn't dopy, he hurt too much to concentrate. He worried about addiction, then smiled wryly to himself. A few months at sea would take care of that.

If they let him go to sea again.

The toilet flushed in the stall next to him. Thinking of his arm, he fingered the dressing. It was bulky gauze stained the color of sauterne where skin emerged. He'd seen the burn while the doctors were dressing it. An ugly slab of scorched meat, with blisters that broke and ran fluid. It extended from his back over his shoulder and down his arm. He must have hit the oil when his arm was up, swimming. Or jerked it up instinctively to protect his eyes. The gauze stank of ointment and rancid bodily fluids. He smoothed it down again and eased back into his uniform blouse.

If he got to sea again. As the testimony seesawed, first with Barrett gaining ground for Packer and, by definition, Evlin, then tipping against
Ryan,
his apprehension grew. He wanted the dead absolved. If the trial went against Javits and Hoelscher, then Packer and Evlin were innocent, and so was he.

But whether the blame came to rest on them or not, he wouldn't escape the stain. He'd lived again everything he'd done in the dying minutes of his ship, and judged himself wanting. As Johnstone had pointed out, he had not warned the captain. He hadn't replaced Lassard as lookout. He hadn't checked the running lights. He hadn't worked out the maneuver himself, as a backup.

At Annapolis they told stories of that worst thing that could happen in a career at sea; more terrible than death. They said that when the court-martial was over, you were called into a room where the judges waited around a green table. A sword lay on it. If its hilt was toward you, as you came in, it meant you could draw breath; you were free. If the point was toward you, all that remained was to hear sentence pronounced.…

He set his cap and reached for the door.

The cafeteria tables were littered with the leavings of Pentagon officials, civilian analysts, contractors. A few were still eating; one was an Army three-star, surrounded by a bevy of thickset men in suits wearing admission badges on chains. He picked up a tray and got in line for beef tips on noodles.

He bumped into Reed at the checkout. “Hey, Aaron.”

“Hey.”

“How much longer, you think?”

“I get the feeling they'd like to wind up.”