Training for the Real Thing : Submarine Sailors Stem Tide in Damage Control Olympics

Petty Officer 1st Class Jerry Davis, 24, and his Navy buddies were standing inside the “submarine,” surrounded by pipes, when suddenly there was a tremendous crashing and the walls shook and the pipes burst, gushing out water.

They had only minutes to seal the pipes and save the “sub” from sinking to a “watery grave.” The water crept higher and higher, swallowing their feet, then their knees, then their waists . . . then the lights went out. All in all, “it scared the hell out of me,” the Spokane, Wash. resident later admitted.

It was only a rehearsal, of course--and a strange new kind of sport for the submarine crewmen at San Diego’s Naval Submarine Base on Point Loma.

The “First Annual Damage Control Olympics” tested the mettle of more than 80 submariners who were exposed to a simulated major leak inside a sub.

The 16-year-old, 55-by-15-foot training device--called the Wet Trainer--allows crewmen to prepare for the dreadful possibility that the sea could invade their sub, turning it into a sinking coffin.

A collision with another vessel could damage pipes inside a sub, unleashing torrents of water, Navy spokesman John Corbett explained.

If crewmen act fast enough, they can

seal holes with pieces of wood, sheets of rubber and tar-coated ropes.

If they don’t, then they could join the submarine Thresher and U-boats and other skeleton-filled hulks on the ocean bottom.

There’s plenty at stake: The typical sub has a crew of more than 100.

In a real-life situation, the water might gush out so quickly that it could hurt someone. “They say 40 pounds of pressure (per square inch) in a fine stream can bruise your hand,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Marvin Abercrombie.

During the Olympics, each team consisted of 15 or so crewmen who rushed into the flooding Wet Trainer. Their first task was to seal the pipes on the floor before they were submerged and became extremely difficult to close.

One crewman cut his finger during the Olympics and required several stitches, Corbett said.

The winners were crewmen from the nuclear submarine Pintado, who will receive a plaque for bringing the flooding under control within the time limit of 15 minutes and for keeping the amount of water at a lower level than any other team.

Today there will be a second round of events involving skills such as the use of underwater breathing devices and fire hoses.

Crews from four other vessels --three of them subs--participated in the first day of the two-day Olympics. The submarine Plunger came in second; the floating dry dock San Onofre, third; the submarine Blueback, fourth, and the submarine Drum, fifth.

The Wet Trainer is “like nothing I’ve ever done before,” Davis said. “The adrenalin is really pumping.”

Agreement came from Alan Price, a hull technician on the San Onofre: “You can’t take your time. If you take your time, you might as well forget about it.”

A videotape camera recorded the proceedings. Later crewmen studied the tape to review their mistakes.

“All you can do is try to do your job and pray that everyone else is doing theirs,” Michael Bowman, another hull technician on the San Onofre, said. “It’s good training.

It breaks you back into reality and makes you think about what could happen.”