From inside the whine of the engines was louder than the helo’s blades. Jazz felt heavy for a moment as the helo’s engines revved up and the aircraft began to climb.
Once airborne, Jazz noted Ashland visibly relaxed. The EOD Tech closed his eyes, leaned over and began to nod. Jazz looked out the window across from him. They had turned and were already over the Atlantic Ocean. He could see several boats in the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
When the boat traffic thinned Jazz surveyed the inside of the helicopter. It was nearly a relic. He noted the deck was covered with hydraulic fluid and there was a visible leak from the overhead. Keating warned him earlier to be careful not to slip off the ramp.
Jazz thought it a crime that most Americans drive a car no more than five years old while the Navy had to fly aircraft more than twenty. Not a single –46 pilot in the fleet was older than his aircraft. The most recent vertical lift aircraft expected to replace the Sea Knight was experiencing difficulty. Jazz surmised the Navy should simply buy new models of the –46 while waiting for the emerging technology.
As he pondered the ways that he would improve his Navy, the blades eventually lulled Jazz to sleep.
Once Chief Keating tapped Jazz, everything happened quickly.
The jumpers could barely hear the chief yell as he held up one finger, “ONE MINUTE!”
Jazz and Ash donned their masks again, then slipped their fins around each wrist. The aircraft was in a tight turn, pulling Jazz into his seat. He looked down to make sure the satchel around his waist containing the demolition charge was still fastened. He felt a rush of air as the aircrewman opened the ramp.
Keating moved aft to the ramp. When he got there Jazz saw him hold his hand up like a puppet screaming, “THIRTY SECONDS!”
Jazz and Ashland unbuckled their seatbelts. They could feel the aircraft nose come up some as it slowed forward airspeed and began to hover.
“STAND UP!”
At this command the pair stood and began walking toward the ramp. Jazz ducked his head as he stepped on the ramp. Keating slapped him in the ass.
“GO!”
Jazz jumped. He crossed his legs and pulled his right hand over his mask and his left arm over the satchel in one motion. The fall was just long enough for him to think about it.
He surveyed himself quickly after hitting the water; nothing was broken. He kicked hard to the surface and held an arm straight up over his head giving the “thumbs up” sign. He saw Ashland doing the same. Keating waved as the helo climbed again, leaving the EOD Techs to their work.
They both bobbed over on their stomachs, slipping the fins off their wrists and onto their feet. Jazz kicked, treading water as he looked for the mine. There was a two-foot swell with whitecaps from winds coming from the same direction.
Jazz first looked for the telltale smoke dropped by the aircraft to mark the mine. The winds were keeping the smoke low on the water and disbursing it quickly.
“Do you see it, LT!” Ash called out.
“No!”
“Ah, I got it… look to port!”
Jazz looked to his left side. He saw the swells breaking on it, each time a wave crashed over the mine it seemed to roll like a buoy.
“Go ahead, LT, I am right behind ya!”
Jazz began swimming for the mine. He concentrated on developing a rhythm of breathing that matched his stroke and the seas. Still, every now and then he got a mouth full of seawater when he tried to breathe as a wave came over him. Suddenly he realized that he had lost track of time.
Damn it! he cursed to himself. Had he been swimming five minutes? Ten?
Now he remembered Ashland’s advice. “Remember, LT, don’t swim at it like a bat outta hell. Make sure you stop and watch it in the seas. In three feet swells these things bob like a motherfucker.”
Jazz stopped and looked up, he could not see the mine. He quickly became confused. The seas and winds were increasing still.
Did the mine sink? he wondered. Have the seas dragged it under?
He looked back from the direction he came from for Ashland. At first he did not see him, creating a moment of panic. He noticed the helo circling overhead passively. From Keating’s perspective all was going well.
Jazz looked again and saw Ashland behind him near the mine. He had swum past it. By misjudging the current, not keeping his eye on the mine, and worst of all losing focus, he had gone past it by fifty yards. Immediately he realized his dilemma. Now I gotta swim against the current and wind to get to it.
He rolled over on his back and screamed, “FFFUUUUUUCK!”
He could not wait a moment more. Jazz began a hard swim into the current back toward the mine. He swallowed seawater with every breath. After what seemed an eternity he reached Ashland and the mine.
“What the fuck are you doing, LT!”
Jazz looked at Ashland sheepishly. The LPO could see the exhaustion in his eyes.
“Well, let’s get it over with, sir. Put the charge on.”
Jazz took a breath and rolled onto his stomach again. He opened the satchel and extracted the demolition charge. Then he swam up to the mine. Jazz timed the movement of the mine in the waves and being careful of its horns, attached the charge to it.
When he finished, Ashland was right behind him. “Good job, sir, now head for pick-up while I attach the dogbone.”
Swimming with the current again was almost relaxing. Jazz noted that Keating was watching the evolution closely because the helo was in perfect position down-current, with the hoist already in the water.
He did not make the same mistake twice and repeatedly noted the position of the hoist to ensure that he did not swim past it. As he got close to the downwash of the -46 on the ocean surface he could feel the blade pushing air against him. It took the last bit of his strength to plow to the ‘sweet spot,’ the calm right under the helicopter.
Jazz slipped the hoist under his right arm, around his back and under his left arm. Then he clipped the free end to the lifting shackle and again gave the thumbs up signal. He looked up, watching the aircrewman guiding him as the helo got closer. At the top the aircrewman pulled him into the bird and got Jazz fully on the deck. He put slack in the cable and unshackled him.
Jazz gave Keating the “okay” signal and flopped back to his seat. Within seven minutes the process was repeated with Ashland.
The helo stood off at a safe distance and altitude. The two pilots, the aircrewmen, and all three EOD Technicians looked out the starboard side of the helo, watching for the mine to detonate. Ashland had the time running on his watch from when he lit the initiators. Jazz looked over and saw that it read, “00:00:05.”
He looked back to the mine. It erupted in a flash of fire and black smoke, followed by water spray and white smoke that lifted high into the air. All the sailors shouted simultaneously.
“WHOOOOHOOOO!”
Keating slapped Ashland on the back
Grinning, Ash mimed jerking off. “EOD, BABAY!” he yelled. “DAMN I LOVE THIS SHIT!”
Just as Ash and Keating sat down, Jazz bent over and threw up a stomach full of seawater all over his feet and the deck.
They both looked at him in disbelief as he sat up and screamed, “HOOYA!”
“ARE YOU ALRIGHT, LT?” yelled Keating.
“HELL YEAH! THIS IS MUCH BETTER THAN STANDING THE MIDWATCH!”
As Jazz laced up his boots in the locker room, Denke handed him a message to call Captain Solarsky. Jazz dialed the number on the det phone. Solarsky answered after one ring.
“EOD Mobile Unit Six, Commander Solarsky speaking, may I help you?”
“Sir, it’s Lieutenant Jascinski.”
“Jazz! How are you? I’ve heard you guys are doing very well up there.”