Sailor From Stark Serves 2nd Gulf Tour

Every night, Seaman James Brown performs the same ritual: He retraces step by step the escape route he would take from his sleeping quarters if the Simpson ever came under attack in the Persian Gulf.

The 20-year-old sailor has good reason for caution. Last May 17, Brown was on his first night of sea duty aboard the American guided missile frigate Stark when an Iraqi missile strike turned the ship into a floating inferno.

Most of the Stark’s survivors were shipped home to recover from the ordeal.

But Brown’s request for home leave was denied and he was assigned to another ship in the war-torn gulf.

“I had been through a real tragedy and deserved some time to get my head together,” he said.

Brown finally made it home to Houston in September, but was again sent to the gulf two months later.

Now stationed aboard the Simpson, Brown believes he is one of only a handful of former Stark crew members to return to duty in the strategic waterway.

The tall, soft-spoken sailor tries to look at his return as a chance to face his worst fears--and finally to conquer them.

Nearly 10 months after the Stark attack, Brown still has nightmares about the fires and explosions that tore through the heart of the ship, killing 37 of the crew and wounding dozens more.

“I have flashbacks,” said Brown. “I see all the confusion, the screaming . . . I smell the burning oil.”

Brown says he has struggled hard to overcome his fears, but he acknowledged that the process is slow.

“It’s been good to face my problems instead of hiding from them,” he said.

But that wasn’t the way he viewed the situation when he was first told of his new assignment in the gulf.

Brown went to his superiors and tried to have the order countermanded. His request was denied.

Last year, Brown was watching a karate movie in his quarters--a trailer housed on the Stark’s helicopter hanger deck--when the missile attack erupted at 8:54 p.m.