DATE=8/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA SUB - SURVIVORS TALK (L)
NUMBER=2-265590
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The crew of the crippled Russian submarine in
the Barents Sea is likely fighting fatigue, cold and
severe headaches brought on by a shortage of oxygen --
if in fact they are still alive. That's what
submariners who have survived other submarine sinkings
tell V-O-A's Nick Simeone.
TEXT: Gerald McLees was one of the lucky ones who
survived the sinking of the U-S-S "Squalus" off the
coast of New Hampshire 61 years ago. Now 85 years
old, he and other submariners -- 26 of whom did not
survive -- were trapped in the cold waters of the
North Atlantic for 36-hours.
/// MCLEES ACT ///
We were in pitch dark, no power, no lights, no
heat and we were not moving around because
they'd given us the word not to move around and
try to conserve all the oxygen we could and we
were laying down in our beds, in our bunks, as
we called them, and I laid down and covered up
to try to keep warm.
/// END ACT ///
But Gerald McLees at least had signs from above that
help was on its way.
/// MCLEES ACT ///
If they're there, they must be going through
hell. We had to start communicating by Morse
code, by us tapping on the hull of our submarine
and they were sending underwater Morse by their
sonar equipment.
/// END ACT ///
Clifford Smith was on board another U-S submarine,
this one conducting a secret mission during the 1950s
off the coast of what was then the Soviet Union. The
Russians spotted the sub, forcing it to go without
oxygen for several days. It was an experience that he
imagines those 100-plus Russian submariners must now
be going through, if they're still alive.
/// SMITH ACT ///
You're down there without too much oxygen in the
air and a build up of carbon dioxide and you
have shortness of breath and headaches. It
looks awful because they've been down since
Saturday and not knowing what kind of equipment
they have. None of their equipment that runs by
electricity, oxygen generators or C-O-Two
(carbon dioxide) absorbers would not be running
if they didn't have power so it kind of looks
kind of grim.
/// END ACT ///
The biggest unanswered question is what caused the
Russian submarine to sink. John Pike, a defense
analyst at the Federation of American Scientists,
thinks all this talk about surviving cold temperatures
and little oxygen may be beside the point.
/// PIKE ACT ///
The Oscar class submarines are the biggest,
toughest, meanest submarines the Russian Navy
has ever built. They're designed to be
virtually unsinkable. For this submarine to be
on the bottom of the ocean, it obviously
encountered a major problem that almost
certainly has flooded a good chunk of the
submarine and probably killed a significant
fraction of the crew more or less immediately.
/// END ACT ///
(SIGNED)
NEB/NJS/JP
17-Aug-2000 13:13 PM LOC (17-Aug-2000 1713 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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