Just Lucky Enough
I firmly believe that quality over quantity is a solid principle to live by. Be it clothes, cars, or accessories, the best that you can afford or manage will ultimately save you in hardship, heartache, and expenses down the road. It’s been a hard lesson to learn and I’ve fallen prey many times to, “this is cheaper and immediately gratifying!” instead of investing time, saving and appreciating what I already had.
Lately I’ve been trying to apply this maxim to my personal life as well, in particular, my friends. You make a lot of friends in the Armed Forces; I think it’s a universal characteristic of the profession of arms regardless of what nation you serve. Some of those friends you are merely co-workers, to be tolerated, while others are closer and more dear than blood relatives that you’d do anything for. It’s in the latter category that I count the author of the submission I’m introducing tonight.
Timm Desroche and I met on our Basic Submarine Qualification (BSQ) course in Esquimalt, BC. and quickly became steadfast friends. He’s an amazing wit, a voracious reader, deep thinker and a truly kind and compassionate soul. In terms of a Naval Officer, I was impressed with his natural leadership abilities, skill at sensing and responding to the mood of his subordinates, technical prowess and indefatigable sense of calm during stressful situations. These skills would see him navigate more than his fair share of unique experiences in the CAF which you’ll read below shortly.
I consider myself (to coin his phrase) “just lucky enough” to had the pleasure and honor to serve together and call him friend.
I hope you enjoy Timm’s submission as much as I did.
All the best,
John
Just Lucky Enough: My Experience in the Royal Canadian Navy
Lieutenant (Navy) Retired Timm DesRoches (Served 2010 – 2017)
Before being posted to my first ship, I was attach posted to HMCS ORIOLE, our Navy’s oldest commission, for training officers and sailors. This is where I experienced my first “Just Lucky Enough” moment. We took the ship out of Esquimalt and discovered a wonderfully crisp breeze in Constance Bank. As we hoisted the sails and came up in speed we began to dip the leeward rails- this was PROPER sailing! In the view of the Olympic Mountains, we heeled over and were in the full majesty of the main sail as we glided through the water. That’s when we heard it… Popping. Air escaping. Everyone was on deck searching for the source of these concerning sounds. I happened to be the one who looked down into the engine room from the hatch above and found the source of the popping. It was sea water activating the life wests! Our engine room was flooding! I immediately raised the alarm which brought the Captain to my station. His eyes were saucers. He ordered the boat to a new course and as she came about the heeling stopped. We noticed that we were sitting much lower in the water than usual! The wind was picking up and the fetch was increasing as we pointed toward the mouth of the harbour… With our engine flooded we could only lower the sails and, mercifully, we were able to call a tug to come get us. Once we arrived at the jetty, it was determined by the vacuum truck that we took on some 19 tons of seawater, which on a 93 ton sailing yacht is quite significant. This was my first, and unfortunately, not my last encounter with a real-life damage control situation.
My first posting was HMCS PROTECTEUR. As the supply ship, she would refuel and stock food and water for not only our fleet, but those of our Allies operating in the Pacific. Since she had just come out of a major refit in Dec 2012, we had much work to do. They filled her with some 14 million litres of diesel and we began our work up training program to get the ship ready in all respects to sail. This involves an organization called Sea Training which is made up of a group of subject matter experts who come onboard to make the crew ready in every task we will be asked to perform. There are daily tests and exercises ranging from fires, floods, and air-emergencies where we are judged on our actions as leaders and teams. Once we complete their tasks the ship becomes certified, we can take it out “on our own” so to speak.
In late August 2013, we were working in concert with HMCS ALGONQUIN. Sea Training was onboard and we were starting a towing exercise. This meant that PRO would sit dead in the water and ALG would approach, pass gear, and eventually engage in a tow as we pretended to be a disabled ship. I was the Range Officer on the bridge wing and my job was to report the distances of ALG to the navigation team and Captain. As ALG began her approach I started reporting ranges…
“1000 yards closing… 800 yards … 500 yards… 300 yards… 100 yards… 50 yards… 30 yards still closing…”
It was at this point I could tell something was going wrong. She was still closing. We watched silently with mouths agape as the bow of our ship narrowly missed ALG’s bridgewing full of personnel and then slowly bobbed up and down with the sea state. There was a sudden glimmer of hope but it didn’t last as the bow cut into the helicopter hangar of the aged ALG… As it can-opened the side of the much smaller destroyer you could see the wave height in the side of the hangar. Our heavy larger ship rode the sea state… Insulation, paper manuals, and parts of the fire suppression system were ripped from ALG and were now laid on the foredeck of PRO. The stem of our ship went through their Flying Compartment. Fortunately, there was no one in that space at the time of this exercise- surely, they would have been injured or possibly killed. There were in fact people in the ALG hangar working out that were scared shitless when the bow of PRO came through the bulkhead… We got Just Lucky Enough.
In the fall of 2013, during Air Work Ups, I was on the bridge as Second Officer of the Watch. We were launching and landing helicopters working towards that certification with HMCS REGINA. PRO has a large flight deck and it is an asset for other Air Dets to practice with. One of REG’s pilots came in a little “too hot” as they say. Hitting the deck firmly the rotors flexed much more than usual and connected with the fiberglass tail guard for the rear propeller drive shaft… We brought the ship to Emergency Stations for a no duff crash on deck. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Again, we were Just Lucky Enough.
Fast forward a few months to Feb 2014 and PRO is enroute to Esquimalt after successfully completing her tour as the MIDPAC Oiler in and around the warm waters of Hawaii. Spirits were high as we embarked family members for the ride home and the expectation was that of 2 weeks of sailing and enjoying the relative rest of a successful mission. That all changed on the night of 27 February when our Port Turbo Alternator decided to catch fire during an engineering drill. The MARS Officers were on the Bridge Top taking star sights with sextants for training when one of the officers came up yelling that the engine room was on fire. We stood there shaken and in disbelief for a few moments then snapped out of it and began what was to be an 11 hour battle with the fire.
This is where I faced the most “Just Lucky Enough” situations.
- I was the Officer placed in charge of refilling the SCBA air bottles that the fire fighters and sentries were using. These were the critical piece of the fire fighting puzzle. At one point, we were placing the last four full bottles on the Attack Team that was going into the fire. The smaller back up diesel air pumps took 20 minutes to fill 4 bottles… The bottles were typically consumed in 15 minutes… Just Lucky Enough
- During the fire, temperatures in the Engine Room soared- so much so that rubber was melting off fire fighting boots and helmets were dripping and forming to people’s heads if they stood up in the space. There were two 40-ton diesel fuel day tanks in that super-heated space on the starboard side of the ship. We were Just Lucky Enough that the Starboard TA didn’t catch on fire or that any of those fuel lines didn’t melt away… surely those tanks would have caused the remaining 9 million liters of diesel to erupt.
- After we put the fire out, the about 20 crew suffered from smoke inhalation and minor burns- We were Just Lucky Enough not to have lost any personnel from the 17 attack teams we sent into the fire and the dozens of sentries that were posted above and around the fire.
- The day after the fire, when we were drifting without any power, the USS CHOSIN made 5 tow approaches on PRO. They got almost as close as ALG in a much higher sea state and finally we were able to pass lines. Their Commanding Officer had never done a tow approach in his career. Just Lucky Enough he didn’t crash into us like ALG.
- Once that tow line was secured, the next morning at 0537 it snapped. I was on watch at the time and radioed CHOSIN to tell them they had 900 feet or so of thick tow line now hanging off the back of their ship and to stop the props immediately so they didn’t become fouled… Just Lucky Enough.
- As we drifted, we tried to fix our Emergency Generator in the forward part of the ship to restore some working power. As the engineers affected repairs and started the gas turbine; the cables in the engine room had been melted and fused to the deck. This sudden generation of electrical power caused ANOTHER fire in the Engine Room. I was on watch at the time, and we brought the ship back to Emergency Stations for a Fire in the Engine Room. Again, we were Just Lucky Enough.
After this perilous journey on surface ships, I joined our Submarine Squadron… A quick internet search will show you repeatedly how many “Just Lucky Enough” moments THAT platform has had. Not long after that, I decided to retire from the Navy. My safety concerns grew to the point of no return and I wanted to leave before I was no longer Just Lucky Enough.