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Sub rescuers briefly gripped by danger oceans away
By JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 23, 2002

California-based submariners participating in one of the largest-ever submarine rescue exercises off Denmark were nearly in the wrong place at the wrong time Wednesday when one of their own got into trouble back home.

``It was an eye-opener,'' Lt. Cmdr. Fred Bahrke said after learning his squadron's research submarine Dolphincaught fire off the San Diego coast with 43 people aboard.

Bahrke, speaking by telephone from one of the ships participating in the European exercise, is the diving and salvage officer for Submarine Development Squadron 5 in San Diego, to which the Dolphin is assigned.

He is among American submarine rescue experts participating in the monthlong exercise ``Sorbet Royal 2002,'' held every three to four years to demonstrate the ability of NATO partners to save a submarine in distress.

His team had just finished attaching a Deep Submergence Unit to a Swedish submarine in a demonstration of how to rescue trapped submariners. The device can be flown by transport planes to any of the world's oceans within hours.


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The squadron was formed in 1971 following the loss of the nuclear-powered submarines Thresher in 1963 and Scorpion in 1968.

The squadron's commanding officer ``was in contact with us immediately and we were trying to figure out if we needed to respond,'' Bahrke said after learning the Dolphin was on fire, but had surfaced.

``Obviously, we had very limited information here,'' he said. Fortunately, his squadron mates in San Diego ``had the situation under control.''

The reality that a submarine can get into trouble makes exercises such as Sorbet Royal important, he said.

When the Russian sub Kursk sank nearly two years ago, Bahrke said, his team was prepared to help. The Russians never asked.

Part of the Sorbet Royal exercise, he said, ``is to show the mutual cooperation among the many countries in the world so that if there is a sub accident, the assets from many nations could be pulled together to assist.''

Sorbet Royal continues through May 31 using rescue vehicle systems from Denmark, France, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States