“Our program  for January 11^th is about Destroyer Operations in Vietnam 1964-1966.  The emphasis will be on what those times were like from the perspective of a Junior Naval Officer. 

On 25 March, 1967, while on a naval gunfire support mission off North Vietnam, The Ozbourn (DD 846) was hit twice by enemy fire.  One round penetrated and exploded in the ASROC nuclear storage area and destroyed one of the nuclear warheads stored there.  This hit came as close to causing a nuclear detonation as it is possible to come short of an actual nuclear explosion.  As far as I know, this is the only time a “Broken Arrow” incident has occurred as a result of enemy action. This incident occurred about six months after I left the ship. 

Mike Krause, then the Weapons Officer, wrote about this  and I have attached his account.  If this were not a virtual meeting, I would have printed it up as a handout at the meeting.  Since I cannot do this, I have attached a copy of his account to this email. I think you will find interesting.  

I have also attached an image of the first test of an ASROC nuclear warhead (depth charge) fired from a sister ship of the Oz.  This test, called “Swordfish”, took place approximately 375 miles SW of San Diego in 1962.  It also shows vividly the power of this weapon and what would have happened if the weapon had detonated. 

I hope you have had an opportunity to see the move “Greyhound” with Tom Hanks