USS Chosin

I saw on TV where a couple of gentlemen are doing a documentary on the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.  This battle occurred during the Korean War when a battalion of Marines and solders became surrounded after the Chinese suddenly entered the war.  These Americans had to literally fight their way out of this trap.  When General Oliver P. Smith was asked how it felt to be retreating he responded with this statement;  "Retreat, hell! We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a different direction."


In the early 80's the Navy designed and built a new class of a guided missile cruiser called the AEGIS class ship. This was the first of any Navy ship that was built entirely around a fire control system designed to control the actions of a fleet of ships engaged in battle.  All of the AEGIS cruisers were named after battlefields that Americans fought on throughout their history.  The USS Chosin (CG-65) was named after the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.  She was also the first in her class to receive the new vertical launch SM-2 missile.  The earlier versions (Ticonderoga Class) would launch their missiles from twin rail launchers whereas the CG-65 class launched their missiles out of launch tubes built into the deck.


When any Navy ship came out of the shipyards either as a new construction or where they went through major changes in an overhaul, a team of people would run them through a series of assignments where all of their systems were tested for proper operation.  Everything had to be working correctly before turning the ship over to the Navy.  I was part of a team of engineers who would test and evaluate the weapon systems on these ships.


One of my assignments involved testing the USS Chosen who was stationed in Pearl Harbor. Testing usually took around four months to complete which meant that I had to live and work in Hawaii during this period.  I know, tough assignment but someone had to do it.  


Some of the tests required that we operate off of the coast of Kauai where we would test the AEGIS fire control capabilities in acquiring and destroying incoming missiles.  These missiles were launched and guided by a Naval facility that operated from Barking Sands Naval Base in Kauai.  Missiles would be fired from this base and programmed to fly toward a ship.  The ship would then attempt to acquire the missile using its fire control systems and shoot it down with the SM-2 missiles that they carried in their tubes.


In order to evaluate how the missiles performed we would track every firing and gather telemetry data for evaluation after the shot.  Interesting enough, with all the modern equipment that this ship carried, the test team often had to be content with using older equipment with which to test operations.  In this particular case a person would have to be outside during missile launches and manually point the telemetry antenna at the missile and track it as it sped toward and intercepted its target.  


This could be a dangerous job as the person is out on deck and totally exposed if the missile should malfunction, which they sometimes did.  Furthermore there was a great deal of noise involved with the firing of these missiles and the exhaust fumes left behind after a launch were quite toxic.  We would wear ear phones to communicate with other members of the team that would cover and protect our ears.  However, in the case of the fumes, we would hold our breath or at least not take in deep breaths and head inside as soon as possible avoiding most the gas that may come our way.  Mostly the amount of gas depended on the wind force and its direction at the time of the firing.


My turn came to operate the telemetry antenna.  We were to have three or four firings that afternoon.  The first two went off without a hitch, however, on the third shot the missile went straight up above the ship and exploded.  Now I have to tell you that standing outside on the deck of a ship and watching a missile blow up above your head is quite a spectacular sight to see.  So I stood there, like a good engineer, describing everything that I saw to the other team members inside in an attempt to gather as much data as possible.  In this case all the information we would receive after the incident would have to be visual.  At this point the real fun began.


This ship had other weapon systems on board as well.  One of these is a gatling gun called the Phalanx, affectionately called R2D2 because of its resemblance to the robot on Star Wars.  This gun was designed to be a last ditch defense for the ship should an incoming missile penetrate the defensive shield around the ship.  In other words, in case our SM-2s did not kill all incoming missiles.  The Phalanx system is radar controlled and when activated is fully automatic.  There is no manual guidance.  This unit fires hundreds of rounds a second so it is pretty impressive when it fires.  There are two of these units on board, one on the starboard side and one on the port side.  I was standing midship just a little aft of these guns.


Now, in all the excitement of watching the exploding missile we all forgot that what goes up will come down, including all the pieces of an exploding missile.  I was talking to the people inside when suddenly the Phalanx gun on the starboard side starting firing.  I looked over at the gun and watched it as it appeared to be randomly firing at one point and then another.  After a few seconds, 30 or so and it seemed like hours at the time, the gun suddenly turned around, quit firing and pointed itself at the deck of the ship.  Needless to say that me, and several sailors nearby, hit the deck trying to find anything to hide behind.  


No one was hurt other than maybe having a few years scared off their lives.  After evaluating the data we determined that the Phalanx did what it was supposed to do -- sort of.  The gun was activated, which is normal during launches.  It was attempting to track the debris that was falling from the destroyed missile, however, in its attempt to try to lock on to each piece it got confused and reset itself and went into its default state meaning that it would shut down, turn and point itself down toward the deck.  Not a good thing to a ship that is depending on it to shoot down a missile just before it hits the ship.


Interestingly it was the failed launching of the SM-2 missile that pointed out to us a defect in the programming of the Phalanx.  We were never able to determine why the SM-2 failed, however, we were able to identify and fix the programming error that caused R2D2 to fail.  The multiple target scenario is now part of the test procedures for testing Phalanx operation.