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Thursday, October 26, 2000

E-mail about the Cole: 'Sailors in hell on Earth'

By Deborah Martínez
Caller-Times
Lt. Landry's e-mail home was sent to one friend, trying to share the emotion of watching some 250 sailors aboard the USS Cole keep their ship afloat.
   "I know what you all have seen on CNN, because we have seen it too," Landry wrote. "I just want you all to know that what you see doesn't even scratch the surface. There are 250+ sailors just a few miles away living in hell on Earth. I'm sitting in a nice air-conditioned stateroom, they're sleeping out on the decks at night."
   Last week the letter from the young Navy officer aboard the USS Hawes reached beyond one friend's e-mail inbox, shooting through to Navy captains and admirals, to veterans and active servicemen and to politicians on Capitol Hill.
   USS Cole sailors were working in 90 degree plus weather, day and night, to keep their ship afloat, wrote Landry, who is assigned to the guided missile frigate that was assigned to assist the Cole.
   They were sleeping on their ship's decks because of the heat, stench and darkness inside their cabins.
   In the days immediately following the blast the ship had no electrical power.
   And fear of local food vendors kept them from eating anything not brought by the U.S. sailors working in supporting ships.
   The worst multiplied by 10
   "You can't even imagine the conditions they're living in," Landry wrote.
   "They are fighting 24 hours a day to save their ship and free the bodies of those still trapped and send them home . . . whatever you imagine as the worst, multiply it by 10 and you might get there."
   As the 17 families who lost their sons and daughters in the Oct. 12 blast bury their children, including Fireman Gary G. Swenchonis Jr. of Rockport and Petty Officer 3rd Class Ronchester Santiago of Kingsville, reports on the sailors who remain in Aden are capturing the country's attention.
   Funeral services for Swenchonis will be in Rockport today, before his burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio Friday. Santiago's funeral Mass and burial will be in Kingsville Friday.
   'A heads-up'
   Capt. John Ford, director of the Navy's School of Aviation Safety in Monterey, Calif., was one of the first to receive Landry's e-mail.
   Ford said he received the letter early last week from a member of his staff, and forwarded it to his friends and boss, Rear Adm. David R. Ellison. From there, it spread to computers everywhere, including an airman stationed in Korea, Ford said.
   "There are lots of people asking to get in touch with Lt. Landry," Ford said Wednesday. "I sent it off as a heads-up, saying this is what our junior officers are saying. It kind of went from there."
   Ford said he didn't know Landry's first name but he did know the young lieutenant was stationed aboard the Hawes. Navy officials at the Pentagon said they couldn't confirm where it came from but that the letter had been read at a congressional hearing.
   'They're pulling together'
   The e-mail's quick spread has a lot to do with Landry's ability to put a tragedy into perspective, said Carey Ruhnke, a 35-year-old Aransas Pass resident who late last week received the e-mail from a friend.
   "You hear of these tragedies and of course reading about it really makes you mad," Ruhnke said. "But until I read the letter it really didn't strike me, what kind of devastation this actually does. What really got to me was when I read the part of the conditions.
   "He talked about the debris and these people, their ship was blown apart and at the time their shipmates were missing. And they're pulling together, giving 110 percent. I mean you're feeling the shock of what they went through. You're proud of your country and the men and women who fight for it."
   'A little bit sad'
   Sylvia Arriaga of Corpus Christi counts her blessings that her 19-year-old daughter, Esther Arriaga Hood, survived the blast, but worries about her well-being aboard the Cole.
   "She said it was hot and that the food wasn't very good, not what they're accustomed to in the United States," Arriaga said.
   "She sounded a little bit sad. She was real sad about her shipmates here who died, especially the Santiago boy. She worked with him and knew him personally."
   Esther called her mother twice last week, but because of poor overseas communications can't keep in touch regularly, Arriaga said.
   When she heard her daughter's voice for the first time Oct. 16, four days after the blast, Arriaga said her heart missed a beat.
   "I couldn't believe it was really her," Arriaga said.
   "I thought someone was playing a prank. It was so muffled and far away and then she said, 'Mami?' I said, 'Esther, mija, are you all right? Are you hurt?'
   "She was very quiet. She told me she really wanted enchiladas and fruit salad. She wanted some good ol' down home food, menudo and all that good stuff."
   Stunned by flag's glory
   But it could be weeks before Esther returns home.
   A Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon said the Cole still has to be loaded onto a cargo ship before Esther and most of the other remaining sailors are flown back to their home base in Norfolk, Va.
   A group of 10 or 12 Cole sailors will stay with the ship through its journey.
   For Lt. Landry, a young officer still learning the Navy, the Cole sailors epitomize United States glory.
   It was stunning for him to see the U.S. flag flying aboard the Cole.
   "I wish I had the power to relay to you all what I have seen, but words just won't do it," Landry wrote to his friend and to the masses who read it after.
   "I do want to tell you the first thing that jumped out at me - the Stars and Stripes flying. I can't tell you how that made me feel . . . even in this Godforsaken hell hole, our flag was more beautiful than words can describe."



Staff writer Deborah Martínez can be reached at 886-3618 or by e-mail at martinezd@caller.com

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