Tommy Cox - Tango Charlie

"Conn, Torpedo in the Water" By Tommy Cox [Reproduced here with permission.]
On Lapon's first mission, we got into a situation, which certainly got my attention. We were closing on a submarine of another nation when Lapon Sonarman Don Salisbury reported., "Conn, Sonar, Loud bang from the target. Conn, Sonar. The contact just started up a big motor. It's a torpedo, Conn, torpedo in the water." The next voice we heard was that of Chief Sonarman McNally. His voice was as calm and controlled and professional as any I've heard: "Conn, Sonar, torpedo in the water bearing---…closing fast." By this time it was clear this torpedo was heading straight for Lapon. At this point Captain (Whitey) Mack stated, "I have the deck and the conn. Right full rudder, come right to course---(which was the reciprocal of the torpedo bearing), make your depth 380 feet, ahead flank." The Lapon came alive. The main Cooling Pumps shifted to high speed with a loud clunk , and we were making "get out of Dodge" turns post haste. Now chances were this torpedo was a practice "fish, but could Captain Mack take the chance? Nope! He had to take evasive maneuvers, just as if this torpedo was fired at us in wartime. The torpedo had a mind of its own in the form of its own acoustic search and acquisition system. So when the torpedo launched, the first thing it heard was Lapon, and that's where the torpedo headed While this was transpiring, I was sitting in the Radio Shack listening to the action on what we called the "White Rat." This was an open microphone in the Control Room (Conn) that let the watchstanders in Radio and Sonar know what was going on in Control without the Officer-of-the-Deck having to pick up interior communications microphone for each acknowledgement.. Somehow, call it a sixth sense, I knew what the loud bang (opening the outer door of the torpedo tube) and big motor sounds (starting the torpedo motor) from the contact were, even before Chief McNally took the sonar stack. I knew it was a torpedo. For about thirty seconds, from the time of the original report and while Captain Mack was giving his evasive maneuvers orders, I thought, "This was it. I'm going to die." Within the next minute or so, Chief McNally reported to Conn that the torpedo had shut down. It was out of power. Then Chief Russ Krause came into Radio (he felt the cooling pumps and the ship vibration and got up out of bed). The chief took one look at me and said "Geez, you guys are white as ghost> What's going on?" I told him we had just had a torpedo scare. The above article was published in the Bangor Daily News, Bangor, Maine Newspaper Supplement on November 10, 2007 as part of their Veterans Day 2007 "A Day of Remembrance." The material was excerpted from the book "Tango Charlie" written by Tommy Cox (an intelligence specialist) aboard American fast attack nuclear submarines from 1960 to 1979. Tommy Cox , a member of NCVA-NE, is retired and lives in Caribou, Maine. If you wish to know more about his book you may contact him at 207-493-1131 or cell phone 207-557-2696. His e-mail address is tommycox@maine.rr.com. His book "Tango Charlie" can be acquired on the www.amazon.com web site.

"Conn, Torpedo in the Water"
By Tommy Cox [Reproduced here with permission.]

On Lapon's first mission, we got into a situation, which certainly got my attention. We were closing on a submarine of another nation when Lapon Sonarman Don Salisbury reported., "Conn, Sonar, Loud bang from the target. Conn, Sonar. The contact just started up a big motor. It's a torpedo, Conn, torpedo in the water."
The next voice we heard was that of Chief Sonarman McNally. His voice was as calm and controlled and professional as any I've heard: "Conn, Sonar, torpedo in the water bearing---…closing fast."
By this time it was clear this torpedo was heading straight for Lapon.
At this point Captain (Whitey) Mack stated, "I have the deck and the conn. Right full rudder, come right to course---(which was the reciprocal of the torpedo bearing), make your depth 380 feet, ahead flank."
The Lapon came alive. The main Cooling Pumps shifted to high speed with a loud clunk , and we were making "get out of Dodge" turns post haste.
Now chances were this torpedo was a practice "fish, but could Captain Mack take the chance? Nope! He had to take evasive maneuvers, just as if this torpedo was fired at us in wartime.
The torpedo had a mind of its own in the form of its own acoustic search and acquisition system. So when the torpedo launched, the first thing it heard was Lapon, and that's where the torpedo headed
While this was transpiring, I was sitting in the Radio Shack listening to the action on what we called the "White Rat." This was an open microphone in the Control Room (Conn) that let the watchstanders in Radio and Sonar know what was going on in Control without the Officer-of-the-Deck having to pick up interior communications microphone for each acknowledgement..
Somehow, call it a sixth sense, I knew what the loud bang (opening the outer door of the torpedo tube) and big motor sounds (starting the torpedo motor) from the contact were, even before Chief McNally took the sonar stack. I knew it was a torpedo.
For about thirty seconds, from the time of the original report and while Captain Mack was giving his evasive maneuvers orders, I thought, "This was it. I'm going to die."
Within the next minute or so, Chief McNally reported to Conn that the torpedo had shut down. It was out of power.
Then Chief Russ Krause came into Radio (he felt the cooling pumps and the ship vibration and got up out of bed). The chief took one look at me and said "Geez, you guys are white as ghost> What's going on?" I told him we had just had a torpedo scare.
The above article was published in the Bangor Daily News, Bangor, Maine Newspaper Supplement on November 10, 2007 as part of their Veterans Day 2007 "A Day of Remembrance." The material was excerpted from the book "Tango Charlie" written by Tommy Cox (an intelligence specialist) aboard American fast attack nuclear submarines from 1960 to 1979.

Tommy Cox , a member of NCVA-NE, is retired and lives in Caribou, Maine. If you wish to know more about his book you may contact him at 207-493-1131 or cell phone 207-557-2696. His e-mail address is tommycox@maine.rr.com. His book "Tango Charlie" can be acquired on the www.amazon.com web site.