I laugh about this everytime I remember it:  A Hurricane was bearing down on the Hampton Roads area. T.C. Hart was unable to get underway to ride out the storm due to problems in the engineering plant. I was part of a detail placed in a Van on the pier next to the ship(Code name: The Expendables). We were all given fire axes. Our mission?...if the ship began striking the pier from high winds, we were to cut the mooring lines.

Now, if the hurricane force winds were tossing T.C. Hart around, what was to prevent them from tossing 130lb EN3 Thornton to the next state? Well, the storm came through...the winds howled and buffeted the Van...waves crashed over the seawall...Hart bobbed around like a cork and everything turned out fine. Being typical sailors, we slept through most of it.

EN1(SW) Richard Thornton
84-89