SUBMARINE BASE, PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII Snakes Invade Sabalo At Sea!! Cruising on the surface in the South China Sea at night, the last thing a submarine lookout worries about is snakebite.** Yet snakebite suddenly became the number one worry of the entire crew on the USS Sabalo recently, when the starboard lookout found himself face-to-face with a very poisonous sea serpent. As he scanned the darkness to starboard, Electronics Technician Seaman Tom Giffin felt something brushing the back of his neck. For ten minutes, however, he tried to ignore it and concentrated on his lookout duties. Finally, though, he turned to investigate and found a two-foot long black and yellow snake dangling inches from his face. It had apparently become entangled in the ladder as Sabalo broke surface. It was very dead, but Giffin didn't stay around to examine it. *** "We just couldn't reprimand the lookout for leaving his post," quipped Sabalo Commanding Officer Hal D. Barker. Lieutenant Commander Barker had the snake preserved and upon return to Pearl Harbor he presented it at a briefing for Rear Admiral E.B. Fluckey, ComSubPac. "My crew is just a little
apprehensive
about going topside at night now when we surface in that area," he
said.
"I can depend on them to be up there all right, but even if the
temperature
is 90º they're liable to be
wearing
foul-weather jackets, boots and gloves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ C.O. Barker adds [recd 2007] some comments about the
events: *** "When the skipper sat down to breakfast in the morning,
the bottled snake was at his plate." |