BOATSWAIN MATE JIM VINE HAS HIS LEG BROKEN DURING THE DANGEROUS UNDERWAY REPLENISHMENT OPERATION

BOATSWAIN MATE JIM VINE HAS HIS LEG BROKEN DURING THE DANGEROUS UNDERWAY REPLENISHMENT OPERATION

Two other Yorktown boatswain's mates
almost go over the side
but their lives are saved
by their shipmates

The accident happened of the coast of San Diego in 1966 after the 1966 West Pac cruise. We had to go pick up those damn airdales off San Diego California so they could get their required flight time in. We had been cruising about 50-75 miles off the coast and had to refuel a destroyer around 10 am or so.

We had been refueling a while. I was outside on the "fantail" on the starboard side hooking up the cable's and lines for refueling. We were also high-lining a couple of guys off the destroyer. The destroyer bow was going under quite a bit and waves were hitting the side on the Yorktown but below the sponson.

We all were told by the petty officers not to fall over the side because there were no Hilos (helicopters) or escorts ships to pick us up. The seas was somewhat confused and high (20-30ft). Every now and then the seas would awash the fantail and soak the men. I was on cat walk forward of the sponson checking on the connections on the refueling hose.

The wave came right out of the sea and was so large it reached the hangar deck level. Ray Colón, a fellow boatswain mate described it as "a wall of water."

When the wave hit I'm not sure if anybody saw it coming.

( Underway replenishment "we're refueling at sea...that tells us something." click link to see a "Wall of Water" hit sailors alongside USS Yorktown)

When it was over I was laying over the hose. I looked up and saw some one hanging over the side with both hands trying to pull himself up.

Another sailor, Ray Colin, Seaman, also had one arm and one leg over the side off to my left. Seaman Aaron Wayne grabbed Colin's life vest and pulled him back onto the ship.

Once they were rescued and pulled back up on the ship I looked down and saw the front of my foot pointing backwards. I thought "shit something is wrong" but there was no pain.

My leg had hit the jet fuel connection underneath the hose we were using to refuel the destroyer. These connections were steel and about 3 ft long. I said to BM3 Hanson "I think I have a problem" and he looked down to see my foot. I can't remember how but two of them carried me out onto the hanger bay.

Corpsmen arriving on scene crashes into Vine's broken leg

And here come two medics (Medical Corpsmen) running toward us. There was 3 of us there (not sure who) there were just shook up. The one medic doesn't stop quick enough and trips on my broken leg. No pain before but now boy there was a ton of pain.

I'm sure I called him every name in the book and none were nice. A doc came up with some morphine and gave me a shot. The pain was gone in no time. They get me down to sick bay and put a plastic bubble cast on an put air in it, and when the pain came back-- more morphine.
So they said they could not set it on the ship they would fly me off and send me to Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego. picture caption: Yorktown Medical Officer LCDR Olesijuk

Seaman Vine flown off the Yorktown without the catapult

They put me on the plane on the Yorktown's flight deck and the pilot comes back and says they are going to fly off from the fan tail because if they used the catapult it might be worse for my leg. I said "fine", than he says "I want you to know I've never done one of these before... but we should make it."

But with the morphine in my system I really don't care. So we take off from the back of the Yorktown and the pilot gives the plane full power and make it just fine without using the catapult. Matter of fact it was really neat watching the ship below me as we leave the flight deck of the USS Yorktown. I wonder if I will ever see "The Fighting Lady" again.

So I get to the hospital they set my leg put a cast on. The next day the regular Doctor comes in they take an x-ray. They have to reset it. Well they did that 2 more times after that--so four settings.

Seaman Vine begged to be sent back to the USS Yorktown

I spend 10 months in the hospital than 2 on limited duty in San Diego base. Than I begged to get back on the Yorktown as I was told when it first happened I would never get back on the same ship.
But I got lucky and they cut me orders back to the Fighting lady. I had quite an adventure after that. The Yorktown then took me to the Western Pacific Cruise in 1968, which was was diverted to the Sea of Japan for the show of force by the US Navy after the North Koreans captured the USS Pueblo. Then on to Vietnam, than back home and on the go again to pick up Apollo 8, the first men to travel to the moon.
In January 1969 the USS Yorktown left Long Beach for the last time to replace a carrier in Norfolk. We went to Chile around Cape Horn, Stopped in Rio during Mardi Gras. Than on to Norfolk. Adventures I am telling my grandchildren about.

"Set the Special Sea and Anchor Detail...make preparations for getting underway..."

The Boatswain Mates, the "keel of the US Navy". Here, Seaman Ray Colón tying the anchor lines together and attaching the rat guard onto the USS Yorktown while sitting in a "boatswain's chair", hanging out of the water of the harbor.

where is Vine now? As of August 2002, he is running his own company in Michigan