JROTC Creative Writing Assignment
Three Words and Thirty Minutes
Imagine your life flashing before you. What you had yesterday, you might not have today. Your loved ones you had a conversation with and were able to see days ago, might have been the last time you might ever talk to them and see them. All of this happens within minutes and without any warning. Put yourself in the position of someone who has to question if they will be able to see the sun rise the next morning; like myself.
Early in the morning of October 25, the USS Tang shot its twenty-third torpedo. It went exactly as planned. It fired hot and its path was going straight. I was in the operations room with a few other crew members whom I have never really worked with. We were all down there performing our duties as directed. As the twenty-forth torpedo fired, we were convinced that our mission was over and that we succeeded.
“All ahead emergency!” was shouted out by Commander O’Kane. Apparently our last torpedo ended up circling around and hit the USS Tang. The floor shook beneath of us. Water started flowing in slowly but we didn’t have much time before we ended up hitting the bottom of the ocean. Looks were exchanged and we all stood there breathless. I ran to the door and pushed. I pushed again. As hard as I could, I pushed on the door for the third time. It wouldn’t open.
So there we were. Nine crew members trapped inside of the operations room. Most of us just came out of training and had very little experience. Precious time was passing by and we couldn’t waste another second. I spoke first, then someone else, and by then we were all figuring out how to get out alive. We decided to work as a team and that no one gets left behind. Fortunately, we found oxygen masks but there wasn’t enough for everyone. As quickly as possible we set them up to be used. One of the crew members suggested that we should leave the submarine linked together and that every other person would have a mask. Time was definitely not on our side so
Imagine your life flashing before you. What you had yesterday, you might not have today. Your loved ones you had a conversation with and were able to see days ago, might have been the last time you might ever talk to them and see them. All of this happens within minutes and without any warning. Put yourself in the position of someone who has to question if they will be able to see the sun rise the next morning; like myself.
Early in the morning of October 25, the USS Tang shot its twenty-third torpedo. It went exactly as planned. It fired hot and its path was going straight. I was in the operations room with a few other crew members whom I have never really worked with. We were all down there performing our duties as directed. As the twenty-forth torpedo fired, we were convinced that our mission was over and that we succeeded.
“All ahead emergency!” was shouted out by Commander O’Kane. Apparently our last torpedo ended up circling around and hit the USS Tang. The floor shook beneath of us. Water started flowing in slowly but we didn’t have much time before we ended up hitting the bottom of the ocean. Looks were exchanged and we all stood there breathless. I ran to the door and pushed. I pushed again. As hard as I could, I pushed on the door for the third time. It wouldn’t open.
So there we were. Nine crew members trapped inside of the operations room. Most of us just came out of training and had very little experience. Precious time was passing by and we couldn’t waste another second. I spoke first, then someone else, and by then we were all figuring out how to get out alive. We decided to work as a team and that no one gets left behind. Fortunately, we found oxygen masks but there wasn’t enough for everyone. As quickly as possible we set them up to be used. One of the crew members suggested that we should leave the submarine linked together and that every other person would have a mask. Time was definitely not on our side so