A Vivid Memory of an Event Long Past

In the Spring of 1988, I received orders to the Persian Gulf, to participate in Mine Sweeping operations. This was during the Iran-Iraq war -- before most Americans had heard of either country. The Iraqis (at least I think it was the Iraqis) had laid several mines in the water, hoping to get the upper hand in the long-standing stalemate between the warring nations. The problem was, this was having a disruptive effect on commerce -- namely oil -- flowing from the gulf, so we sent a small contingent to sweep for mines and to escort neutral vessels through the gulf.

I was stationed aboard the USS Dubuque, which was home ported in Sasebo, Japan. I was ferried from San Diego, CA to Okinawa, Japan on the USS Tuskaloosa, where I met up with the Dubuque. After boarding the Dubuque, we headed through the South China Sea on our way to the Persian Gulf.

After spending several weeks crossing the Pacific, what struck me most about the South China Sea was how calm the water was. The water was like glass, and it seemed almost sacreligious for the hull of the Dubuque to disturb the serenity.

On a day that initially didn't seem unordinary, I heard the engines stop, and I went topside to see what was up. A couple of hundred yards off of the stern, I saw a small wooden boat with far too many people on it... a boat full of boat people.

I remember how happy they were to see us... the shouting, the waving, and them jumping from their ship, swimming toward ours. Some of those who jumped ship and reached ours, began climbing the ropes we had over the side. The personnel guarding the ropes apparently had orders not to let the boat people board, and they shook the ropes as people climed. By the way, it was quite a distance from the water line to the main deck... 50' maybe. I saw people finally fall after making it about halfway up. I remember seeing one guy drop into the water and not resurface. Several minutes later, I finally found his body floating off of the stern of our boat.

In the end, we didn't pick up these boat people. I don't remember exactly what the Captain said, but it was something to the effect of "This is the Captain speaking... This is one of the most seaworthy boat people boats I've ever seen, so we're not picking anyone up. We've given them food and water, a map and a compass, and instructions in Vietnamese. They'll be fine." I was angry that we didn't pick them up, but I was a lowly Lance Corporal.

As is always the case, rumors abounded... we gave them food and water, but no can opener... the Captain was in a hurry to get to war, which is why we didn't pick them up... The XO (second in command) saw them the previous night but passed them by, and it was the Skipper who ordered us to turn around and attend to them...

Several weeks later, we heard that the boat people had made it to the Philippines, but not before running out of food and water a second time. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. The Captain of our boat was gone almost immediately after that.

Almost 20 years later, someone has made a film about the event. I haven't seen or heard anything about the film itself, but I did read someone's paper about what happened that day. The paper doesn't cite any sources, but it does coincide with what I remember. I am not taking it as gospel, but it seems substantially accurate. I'd highly recommend the paper, which may illustrate why I remember this event so vividly.