Station HYPO

CTR1 George Morton remembers the shock of returning to the base and learning about the fire:

On 24 September 1965 the Operations Building in front of the tunnel caught fire early in the morning. It resulted in the deaths of 12 CT’s including the Officer of the Day, LTJG Moody, who bravely went into the flames to help save some who were inside. Ironically, item number three on the Plan of the Day for 23 September 1965 was a Disaster Control Drill.

By Michael Frank

I arrived at Kamiseya, my first duty station after completing ‘R’ Branch schooling, in January 1964. Twenty months later, while our section was on watch, fire destroyed the tunnel. The following is my recollection of the events that took place inside the tunnel that night.

Captain Donald Clark Godwin
United States Navy
 September 13, 1888 – January 21, 1943

By: Sam DeDonatis

Yes, I was there as a third class petty officer and what a dark day for my friends. Kami Seya was a beautiful station and everyone was very close and morale was excellent. Those days were different, that’s for sure. We were between the Eve-Day watch and I was one of those light sleepers. I remember hearing the alarm being sounded in the barracks on that bad morning and I looked out the window and saw a large fireball in the distance. I ran to the rest of the men who were sleeping and told them what I couldn’t believe I was seeing. We all mustered and ran to the site which was called the “tunnel.”

Born September 12, 1939 in Woodville, Texas; after graduation from high school John joined the Navy in September of 1957 at the age of 17 on what was then called a “kiddie cruise”[1].  After basic training he was selected to go to Communications Technician School at Imperial Beach, California[2].  . Upon arrival at Imperial Beach John was designated as a CTO Seaman Apprentice.[3]  While in training to become a CTO, John took the Foreign Language Aptitude Test (FLAT) and was selected for language training at the Army Language School[4] at Monterey, California to study Vietnamese.