Hero of the Week 42

Welcome back viewers!

This week's hero is...

Kurt Carlsen

Kurt Carlsen was born on February 20, 1914 in Denmark. He became a sea captain and was placed in command of the SS Flying Enterprise, a simple cargo freighter. It seemed like a pretty uneventful job to many people. However, one day proved to be unlike any other. It was one that would test Captain Carlsen in a way he never could have predicted.

On the night of Christmas in 1951, the Flying Enterprise was steaming from Germany to the New York City. All seemed well until the ship was caught in a terrible storm while off the coast of England. During the storm, the Flying Enterprise was struck by a massive rogue wave. The impact of the wave  caused the freighter to crack amidship. This crack along with the ship's own shifting cargo, caused it to list 45 degrees to port. By December 28, it became clear the ship was sinking. Carlsen quickly sent out an SOS.

Within hours, rescue ships responded and took off the 40 crew members and 10 passengers from the Flying Enterprise. To everyone's astonishment, Captain Carlsen refused to evacuate the stricken freighter. Instead he returned to his cabin and radioed to that he intended to stay aboard as long as the ship was still afloat. Despite knowing that the listing freighter could plunge beneath the sea at any moment, Captain Carlsen was determined to try and save his ship.

For the next two weeks, Captain Carlsen remained aboard the Flying Enterprise. He used a makeshift radio to maintain contact with rescue ships. His plan was to get a tug boat to tow the stricken ship into the British port of Falmouth in order to salvage the cargo. When Carlsen wasn't coordinating the salvage operation he scavenged for food and water throughout the listing ship (while it was being pounded by waves). He even continued to manage the ship's log. After about a week, Carlsen was joined by another sailor from a tug. The two then secured a tow line to the bow of the Flying Enterprise.

Despite the best efforts of Carlsen and the rescue tugs, it became clear that the Flying Enterprise could not be towed nor saved from its inevitable sinking. At 3 PM on January 10 of 1952,  Captain Carlsen and his companion jumped from the ship (now almost completely on its side) into the sea and were picked up by a tug. An hour later, the SS Flying Enterprise finally slipped beneath the waves.

Although Captain Carlsen had failed to save his ship, he found (to his astonishment) a hero's welcome awaiting him when he reached Falmouth. When he arrived in New York City, he was greeted with a parade on January 17. Captain Kurt Carlsen received the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Award from Congress. Within days he returned to his job to captain another ship (Flying Enterprise II). He continued to work as a sea captain for the rest of his life. He died on October 7, 1989.

The heroism of Captain Kurt Carlsen is a great example for all those who command vessels on the high seas. He showed an enormous amount of responsibility and dedication to his job even at the risk of his own life. He is definitely someone to be held in high regard.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/opinion/the-captain-who-stayed-aboard.html

http://portsidenewyork.org/portsidetanke/2012/01/captain-who-stayed-with-his-ship.html

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19530605&id=MS9WAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H-YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5990,1778702

Hero of the Week 41

Welcome back viewers

This week will honor two heroes who share a connection

They are...

Henry Breault and Sheppard Shreaves

Henry Breault was a US Navy sailor from Putnam, Connecticut. By 1923, he was serving on an American submarine called, O-5 as a Torpedo Man 2nd Class. Sheppard Shreaves was a dockworker and diver from Newport News, Virginia. By 1923, he was working at the Panama Canal. Neither of them could have every known that their fates would become intertwined by a terrible accident at the Panama Canal on October 28, 1923. It was an accident would turn both men into heroes.

Part I

Early in the morning the 28th of October, the O-5 (with a crew of 21) was heading south on Limon Bay, on the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. The sub was one of many ships that were on a routine transit between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. At 6:24 AM disaster struck. Due to a series of miscommunications and maneuvering errors, the O-5 collided with a cargo ship called the, SS Abangarez. The collision tore a ten foot long by three feet wide gash in the hull of the O-5. As a result the sub rolled sharply to port then starboard before plunging bow first beneath the water. The sub was rapidly sinking. 

The crew of the O-5 immediately rushed topside in order to escape from the stricken ship. Henry Breault was one of the last ones out. However he realized that one of his shipmates (Chief Electrician's Mate Lawrence Brown) was asleep in the sub. Instead of jumping ship with the rest of the crew, Breault decided to go back into the stricken sub to try and rescue Brown. He quickly shut the deck hatch before heading below. 

He found Lawrence Brown in his bunk. Brown was awake but unaware of what was happening. Breault and Brown then tried to get to the escape hatch but found it blocked by water that was flooding into the sub. They then made their way to the torpedo room which was airtight. They quickly shut the door to the torpedo room and locked it. Moments later the O-5's battery shorted out plunging the sub into darkness. Although Henry Breault and Lawrence Brown had saved themselves from drowning, they were now trapped within a sunken ship 42 feet beneath the surface. Their only hope was for someone to rescue them from above.

Part II

The O-5 had sunk less than 1 minute after her collision with the Abangarez. Rescue ships quickly arrived and tried to save the crew in the water. The ships rescued 16 crew members from the water. They then realized that five men were missing. At 10 AM almost 4 hours after the O-5 sank, divers descended on the sub and began to hammer on the hull in order to check if there were men trapped inside. When they began to hammer on the torpedo room they got a response from Henry Breault and Lawrence Brown.

Hoping to save the two trapped men a major salvage operation was launched. The only way to rescue Breault and Brown, was to physically raise the massive submarine from the mud and out of the water using cranes and pontoons. Although the rescue team did not have any pontoons, they did have a massive crane barge, Ajax on the Pacific side of the canal. A plan was then made for rescuers to dive to the wreck, attach cables around the sub, and have the Ajax haul it to the surface. The man who would be in charge of this rescue operation was Sheppard Shreaves. 

Shreaves ("Shep") quickly put on a diving suit and took a team down to the sub at 11 AM. From there, they began the painstaking process of digging a tunnel (using a fire hose) under the O-5's bow before wrapping a cable around it. He later described the conditions in an interview, "The O-5 lay upright in several feet of soft, oozing mud, and I began water jetting a trench under the bow. Sluicing through the ooze was easy; too easy, for it could cave in and bury me. Swirling black mud engulfed me, I worked solely by feel and instinct. I had to be careful that I didn't dredge too much from under the bow for fear the O-5 would crush down on me. Once in a while, I'd rap the hull with the nozzle to let the boys know someone was working to bring them out. Their raps were returned weaker each time" The Ajax arrived at the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal at about 10:30 PM.

By the time the tunnel was through, it was about 11 PM. Shep then attached a 4-inch-diameter steel cable around the O-5's bow. The cable was then hooked to the Ajax which began to haul the sub out of the mud. Unfortunately the weight of water-logged sub coupled with the suction of the mud caused the cable to snap under the strain. Despite the setback, Shep and his crew immediately began to dig another tunnel and attach a second cable to the bow of the sub. At 2 AM of October 29, the Ajax again attempted to pull the O-5 to the surface. And again, the cable snapped.

For a third time, Shep and his team began to dig a tunnel under the O-5. By 12:30 PM, they had attached a third cable around the bow of the sub. This time however, Shep decided to alleviate some of the strain on the cable by releasing compressed air into the engineroom of the O-5 to unflood the compartment and lighten the boat. Once again, the Ajax attempted to pull the O-5 to the surface. Little by little, the Ajax continued to haul the sub for what seemed like an eternity. Until finally, the bow of the O-5 broke the surface of the water. 

Epilogue

Rescuers then quickly opened the hatch to the torpedo room. Henry Breault and Lawrence Brown emerged from the sub and were helped to the dock. The two men had been trapped beneath the sea for nearly 31 hours. They were rushed to a decompression chamber and later a hospital. Both men made full recoveries. The three missing crew members were confirmed to have drowned during the O-5's sinking. The submarine was later stripped and sold for scrap on December 12, 1924.

Henry Breault was hailed as a hero for going back to save Lawrence Brown during the sinking. On March 8, 1924 he received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Calvin Coolidge. He was the first submariner and to date the only enlisted submariner to receive the medal for heroism onboard a submarine. Breault would serve in the US Navy for another 20 years. He died from a heart condition on December 5th, 1941.

From the time of his first descent to the final haul of the O-5 from the depths, Sheppard Shreaves had spent nearly 24 hours in the water. For his dedication and hard work in saving Henry Breault and Lawrence Brown, Shreaves was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal. It was personally presented to him at a banquet hosted Henry Breault. He would go on to make more than 1,000 dives in his lifetime. He retired and moved to St. Petersburg, Florida after working at the Panama Canal for more than 32 years. He died in January of 1968.

Throughout history, there have been many incidents that have produced people who have done heroic deeds. But very rarely has there ever been an incident where a hero was saved by another hero. The connection between Henry Breault and Sheppard Shreaves was one of those incidents. Both of these men put their lives on the line to save another. When Breault realized that one of his shipmates had been left behind, he chose to reenter a sinking ship to save him and became trapped in the process. When Sheppard Shreaves arrived on the scene, he worked day and night in hard conditions to save to men from a terrible fate. The way I see it, both of these men are people who should be held in high regard.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/submariner-ever-receive-medal-honor-locked-inside-sinking-submarine.html

http://militaryhonors.sid-hill.us/history/o5-pcr.htm

http://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/2016/10/21/torpedoman-2nd-class-henry-breault/

http://www.onenewengland.com/article.php?id=120

http://www.panamahistorybits.com/htmfiles/2015-08-15P.pdf

Hero of the Week 40

Welcome back viewers!

This week's hero is...

Irena Sendler

Irena Sendler was born on February 15, 1910 in the town of Otwock about 15 miles southeast of Warsaw, Poland. Although she was a Roman Catholic, most of the residents in Otwock were Jewish. As a result, she grew up with many Jewish friends. She was greatly influenced by her parents who were quite friendly with the community and raised her value for all her neighbors regardless of their differences. As a young woman, her values would be put to the ultimate test.

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. By the month of October, they were full control of the country. Almost immediately, the Nazis began to persecute Poland's Jewish population. Those in the city of Warsaw were one of the Nazi's main targets. In November 1940, as many as 400,000 Jews were forced to move into a 1.3 mile complex called a ghetto. Once they were inside, the Nazis walled up the ghetto and sealed it off from the outside world. The conditions in the Warsaw ghetto were deplorable. Its inhabitants suffered from lack of food and medical supplies. This coupled with very poor hygienic conditions and occasional abuse from the Nazi guards caused thousands to die on a daily basis. 

At the time, Irena was working as a Senior Administrator for the Warsaw Social Welfare Department (a humanitarian organization). After seeing the eviction of Warsaw's Jews into the ghetto and hearing of the terrible conditions, she decided to do what she could to help them. As an employee of the WSWD, she was granted a special permit that allowed her to enter the ghetto under the pretext of conducting sanitary inspections. Upon entering, she witnessed the horrible treatment of the Jews firsthand. She then resolved to do everything in her power to help them. In the Fall of 1942, Irena joined Zegota. This wan an underground network made up of Poles who were dedicated to helping Jews in Warsaw. Their main method was to smuggle people out of the ghetto and to secret hiding places in or outside the city. 

At first, Irena and other members of Zegota smuggled out orphans living on the ghetto's streets. Later, she would meet with Jewish parents and asked them to let her get their children out and placed with a Polish family. Although many of the parents were reluctant to do this they relented when Irena promised them, that their children would be returned to them when the war was over. Irena always wrote detailed lists (which she kept in a jar) of the hidden children and their locations so that the families could be reunited. For the next year, Irena smuggled at least 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto. 

Unfortunately, the Gestapo became suspicious of her activities and arrested her on October 18, 1943. She was then imprisoned in a notorious prison (the Pawiak) for several days. Despite being severely beaten and tortured (she never fully recovered from her injuries) she refused to give the Gestapo any information. As a result she was sentenced to be executed. Luckily, Irena's guards received a bribe from members of Zegota. On the day of her execution, they simply left her in the woods and listed her as executed. Irena spent the remainder of the war in hiding.

At the end of World War II, Irena worked to track down the hidden children and reunite them with their families. Sadly most of children's the parents and extended family had all been murdered at death camps like Treblinka. Of the more than 400,000 people who had been imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto (including 80,00 children) just over 1 percent survived the war. 

In 1965, Irena Sendler was recognized and honored by Israel as one of the Righteous among the Nations. She became an honorary citizen in 1991. For the rest of her life, Irena Sendler lived in Warsaw where she worked in education. She was often visited by many of the children that she had rescued. Despite being hailed an international hero, Irena never thought of herself that way and often lamented for not being able to save more people than she had. Irena Sendler passed away on May 12, 2008. She was 98 years old.

Irena Sendler was one of the bravest and most remarkable individuals in history. In one of the greatest tragedies in human history, she was one of the few who saw the horror and chose to take action. She displayed great courage and compassion for those in need. As a direct result of her actions, more than 2,500 people survived the Holocaust. I believe that she should be recognized as one of the greatest heroes in history.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/irena-sendler

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/righteous-women/sendler.asp

http://www.auschwitz.dk/sendler.htm

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-379-egota

https://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/939081/jewish/Irena-Sendler.htm