When I was in the Navy my ship, WILLIAM H. STANDLEY (DLG-32), was crossing the Pacific Ocean on our way to our second deployment to Vietnam. When we got to the Philippine Sea, we ran into a gale, just short of a hurricane.
I was standing watch as Officer of the Deck on the ship's bridge and we were hitting some heavy waves. We had just crested one huge wave and went deep into the trough behind it. We hit the next wave, even bigger, as we were down in that trough.
That second wave broke completely over the bow of the ship and even over the bridge of the ship which was 44 feet above sea level. I was actually looking at green water through the bridge windows when the wave crested over us.
I have always wished I had a camera with me, but this was long before digital cameras.
Well, I ran across this video from a military web site of a recent occurrence of one of our ships. It is so similar to my experience I thought I would share it. You have to click the link below, but it's only 28 seconds long.
Here's what our Navy folks deal with even today to protect our freedoms.
Posted with Blogsy
