SHMC Kevin Ford USN

On the evening of 14 April 1988, while conducting operations in the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Ernest Will, USS Samuel B. Roberts FFG 58 struck an Iranian MO-8 mine causing catastrophic damage to the ship structure and extensive fires in the engineering spaces and superstructure. With the ship on fire and sinking rapidly from massive flooding SHMC Ford lead a damage control team into a severely damaged engineering space (AMR2) that was actively flooding and in need of immediate effort to save the ship from sinking (Since two main engineering spaces had already totally flooded).  Ford lead his team fearlessly despite working in water already at or above waist level and with the certain knowledge that the damaged bulkheads that were already fractured and leaking massive amounts of water could collapse at any minute drowning all team members in seconds. Undaunted Ford directed his repair team expertly, patching, plugging, shoring and dewatering the space until it was saved and the ships buoyancy maintained. After setting a dewatering watch Chief Ford lead his team to join other damage control teams fighting fires in the superstructure of the ship. Despite the fact that temperatures were high enough to melt the soles of the shoes of the firefighters Ford lead an attack team that was instrumental in extinguishing upper level fires adjacent to the 76MM gun magazine that seriously endangered the survival of the ship. Chief Ford's performance was significantly instrumental in the saving of Samuel B. Roberts and was awarded the Bronze star for his heroic actions.

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