Journaling:

Kay’s Memories of the Enterprise Fire

I was in San Diego and I was busy getting ready for Mom’s arrival at 3PM that day. I got a call at 4 PM from one of the chief’s wives to ask how I was doing. She then told me about the fire on the ship... and wondered if I knew where Bill would have been at the time it happened. When I told her in the chief’s quarters, she said that it had been severely damaged!!! I turned on the TV and they were re-showing pictures of the fire and explosions. We could see some men jumping from the ship into the water. I had to stay calm and reassure the kids that we were hoping that their dad was okay. I had just put the boys to bed at 8 PM, when I heard a car stop outside. Looking through the window in their room, I watch a Navy car with 2 officers in it stop in front of our house, pull forward to the next house, then back up in front of our house again. I remember praying “don’t let them get out of the car”. After a couple of minutes, they drove off... then I got mad and said they should have let me know who they were looking for! (It was for another sailor’s family that lived a few blocks away)

The next morning I was on the phone when an operator broke in to say I had a collect call from Hawaii and would I accept it. It was Bill reassuring me that he was okay. Lots of laughter and tears of relief were shed during the too short call. The TV was on and showing the less serious injured being brought off the ship. We saw a chief from his squadron helping carry off a stretcher - and the injured sailor looked so much like Bill... if I had not just talked to Bill, I would have been sure it was him. Just a couple of minutes later, I got a call from Jim, Bill’s brother. He saw the same broadcast and was sure it was Bill. We laughed and cried at the same time to know that it wasn’t him.