I met with federal firefighters, some with 25 years experience, as well as industry experts who fight ship/maritime fires for a living. They described conditions they have never seen before (1200 degree heat; zero visibility; multiple explosions) … providing unsolicited admiration for our Sailors. Four descriptors were common: resiliency, fearlessness, confidence, and competency.
Then, I met with our Sailors … and I listened. How fortunate we are to serve with Sailors like them. Meeting with all of them was humbling, uplifting … and reassuring. The group I met with was preparing to head back into the ship again; some for their 8th time on a fire team. They had experienced the intense, inferno-like heat, the dark smoke that obscured view of teammates by their side, and the explosions – the latter had to be like a mine field … unknown when and where, and how severe, those blasts might be. Some had been knocked down by these blasts – some, more than once – but they got up, re-focused, and re-attacked.
As you would expect, they spoke calmly and unflinchingly about heading back in, this time to compartments we had not yet accessed to check for hot spots and to guard against re-flash. Tired, but focused. Smiling, yet dead serious about what they had experienced and what might lie ahead. Confident in their individual training that began at boot camp as well as their collective training at sea and with their inport duty sections. There were Sailors from across the San Diego waterfront who responded to this fire – hundreds of them; many without receiving direction to do so. Every single fire team was led by BONHOMME RICHARD Sailors – no question, this was THEIR ship and they would walk point on every firefighting mission. Most had to be ordered … and re-ordered … to go home at some point and get some rest. I also met with the air crews of HSC-3; the aerial bucket brigade who dropped nearly 700K gallons of water on the blaze, day and night, from their helos. Their efforts were critical in helping get the fire under control; and they used their IR capability to locate hot spots and vector fire teams to the source. Awe inspiring teamwork.
In the days since, I thought about Warrior Toughness and the way we transformed the warrior mindset at boot camp as a result of what we learned from the 2017 FITZGERALD and MCCAIN collisions. NTC Great Lakes is the Navy’s crucible of leadership training for our new Sailors. It really focuses on the two pillars that define our Navy culture – professional competency and character – rooted in honor, courage, and commitment and exhibited by traits like initiative, integrity, accountability, and resiliency (mind, body, and spirit). Most of the Sailors fighting the fire on BONHOMME RICHARD joined the Navy within the past few years. For me, what I saw in San Diego is inextricably linked to those formative weeks of training at Great Lakes. As described by those federal firefighters, the competency, fearlessness, resiliency, and confidence displayed by those Sailors most definitely exhibits our Navy culture. It was tested on BONHOMME RICHARD. My gut tells me our Sailors met that challenge head-on.
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