Reaching Back
The modern guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts was commissioned in 1986, a direct descendant of the World War II ship of the same name lost at Leyte Gulf. In memory of his ship’s ancestor, the captain, Cdr. Paul X. Rinn, had a bronze plaque made with an image of the first Roberts and a roster of her crew engraved on it. The plaque was prominently displayed on the quarterdeck of the ship and was a key point in the indoctrination of each new crew member.
In 1988 the new Roberts struck a mine while escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. With a fractured keel and twenty-five-foot hole in the hull she was taking on massive amounts of seawater and in imminent danger of sinking. Captain Rinn thought, “I’m not sure we can save this ship, but we’ve got to try…”392 Working feverishly through a long night he and a determined crew saved the ship. During the night the bronze plaque on the quarterdeck took on a new significance.
In 2001 Paul Rinn was the featured speaker at a reunion of the World War II-era sailors of the Samuel B. Roberts and her sister destroyers. Rinn described in detail the heroism of his crew in saving the modern-day Roberts . He then told them the story of the bronze plaque with their names engraved on it:
It sent a chill through me on the night of the mining, as we were fighting to save the ship, to see crew members passing the plaque and reaching out and touching it, not just one or two guys but seemingly everyone who passed it. Clearly they were bonding with the heroism of the past.393
And so, these sailors of a new era reached back into the past to connect with the courage and struggle of those who had gone before. They were reaching back to the men who had experienced the same fears and hopes, and who had fought the same battle: to save a ship and each other.
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
—Proverbs 17:17