What is the scariest situation you have been in?
 

I was talking with my wife the other night and the news mentioned the sailors that had been injured on the carrier when an arresting gear cable broke and it was noted none were killed! I was amazed at that since when one of those cables snaps it turns into a huge whip.

It reminded me of the time I was flown out to the Big E in 1970 after having knee surgery to remove some bolts. The ship was in the Tonken Gulf flying air strikes and I was in one of the "COD's" with several other crew, mail and some spare engine parts. We got in line to land and the pilot told us it was our turn, remove glasses, dentures and anything else that was loose! I watched out the window as the ship's wake got larger and larger and suddenly we flew over the fantail which seemed a long ways down there. I thought "hells bells we are going to miss the wire" but suddenly we STOPPED! I mean we stopped NOW and my insides all rearranged for a minute or so. We taxied over just forward of the island and the engines shut down and the rear door started down so we could get out. I got up and got in line and started down the ramp and the crew chief was yelling to help with the mail and stuff when a siren went off and the loud speaker said to "clear the flight deck, cripple landing, rig the barricade, ETC" and I looked aft and here comes an F4 with one engine smoking like crazy and I ran as hard as I could to one of the doors at the base of the island! I got inside and leaned against the bulkhead and was gasping for air and several "red shirts" laughed like crazy saying...."hey it must be one of the engineers"!

I see why those guys (and gals now) earn that extra $$$$$ for working on a flight deck, what a place and I never went back! Oh yeah, the F4 landed safely but needed a lot of work!

Long ago in my single days and the only time I had a room mate we were coming home at just after 2:00 AM. My roomie drove a late 1970s Mercedes SLC but this was in the very early 1980s. We had been on late night photo shoot and were very tired.

It was winter and pretty cold outside at the time. There was almost no traffic. All of a sudden we see a lady running down the middle of the street barefoot and wearing shorts and a tube top. We both said WTF and we pulled up along side of her and asked if she was OK. She dove head first into the car right into my lap. More WTF, so we pull over into a parking lot and ask her what is going on and if we should take her anywhere. She said her sister was chasing her hand her sister's boyfriend was mad. About that time a couple pull up screaming. The dude screams something and punches the drive in the chin. He floors it and we get out of there. Then we hear, "Stop or I will shoot" but we are not going to stop. We ask if she wants to go to the cops and she says no. We let her off at a 7-11 and she runs inside and we get the hell out of there.

I went on a sailing trip in college. We (crew of about 25 college students and about 7 professional crew) spent 3 weeks at sea on a 135' research sailing ship. As one of the educational points, the ship trailed a taffrail log behind us, so we could try to plot our course via dead reckoning/celestial navigation/etc. But we also did science experiments which required periodically stopping our sailing to collect data. One of the times we hove to, we must have gotten the line for the log looped in our rudder or propeller, which we noticed once resumed sailing. Unable to free the line or pull the log back in, the captain decided to send someone over to free it. Oh, and it was night time.

So another kid and I hopped overboard armed with a knife and flashlight. The line was wrapped around the propeller. For about 10 minutes we worked to free it, unsuccessfully. I took a moment to tread water and rest, and it was about this time that I realized the ship was still sailing along, albeit at a very slow 3 or 4 knots. That's a lot faster when you're in the ocean, as opposed to standing on board, watching. And other than a ladder, we didn't have any other safety lines overboard. For a moment I thought I might get left behind (I was about 20 yards off the stern by now), a little black head bobbing in the sea somewhere off Jamaica at night. I had cut my finger trying to free the line, and started thinking of all those statistics on how well sharks can smell a drop of blood in millions of gallons of water.

Fortunately someone tossed a lifering into the water, and I sprinted to it. Finally just cut the line free to retrieve the log, and climbed up the ladder.

Three friends and I were driving back from a ski trip to Utah during winter break in college. We hit a bad ice storm on I 40 coming into Amarillo. I was driving and managed to stay in control as we headed down US Highway 287 toward Fort Worth. The ice was getting worse and I was exhausted. We were dumb college kids who had waited till the last moment to head home and had classes the next day. Did not want to stop so just kept slipping along. Before we got to Wichita Falls we heard on the radio that the freeze line was just to the south of us so we got on State Highway 25 for Archer City. It was starting to thaw out a bit so I let another guy drive and got in the front passenger seat. A few miles down the road he hit a patch of ice and totally lost it. Classic over correct steering. The car would slide till we hit the mud off one shoulder or the other where the wheels would dig in and head us for the other side of the road. Back and forth between oncoming traffic. Somehow we missed having multiple head on collisions while all I could do was sit helplessly in the front passenger seat and scream like a little girl.

I was a small ship guy and only flew over to the carrier to drop off somebody headed home on the COD, get mail, pick up a part for the ship or helo, etc.: I am thinking maybe 30 times in three six month cruises and other lesser deployments. In those visits I never shut down the SH-60B - the big fan never stopped turning.

I also never, ever, got out of my trusty SH-60B without getting an escort. I was aware of all the ways a newbie could get hurt on the deck of an aircraft carrier - except the one that was going to kill me.

Amazing environment: I was a stranger in a strange land and was not going on a walk-about.

I have had a number of scary interludes in my life, a few Play Misty for Me moments and enough aviation related close calls I think I am go to go.

I ignored the rip tide signs, and was out goofing around on a surfboard somewhere around Wilmington SC. I paddled out, caught a few waves, and when I looked back , I had floated way south of the island , or land mass we were near , and basically, out to sea.
I was in pretty good shape, and a real strong swimmer back then, but I barely made it back. I remember fighting with everything I had seeming like I was getting no where. There was nobody around, and I knew very well, that this could be the end . I Some how, managed to stay calm, and fought my way back in .
I dont think I was ever more tired than that day .

heading out through the inlet to go rockfishing (striped bass) in December or January a few years ago I misjudged the large standing waves that form at the entrance and it felt like the boat stood up vertically. I think it was far less severe than it felt but still thought I was going swimming.

second worst was on the table in the ER with AFIB which I did not yet understand. lots of doctors...not just nurses...standing around me and I heard 'move the crash cart'. then the doc hit me with two doses of some med that stops the heart. felt myself sinking into the table.

absolute worst was at the movies and my 5yr old daughter was suddenly nowhere to be seen. two minutes later my son found her she had gone into the bathroom on her own. total fear.

Doing emergency ascent training for my advanced open water cert I got a reverse ear block. Massive pain a few feet below surface (coming up from 25 feet), then unending dizzyness. Had to re-pressure myself (go back down) but my tank valve had been turned off by the instructor. Grabbed his regulator, dumped all air from my BC, and started swimming down as hard as I could just to get "away" from the pain.

Then there was the time I was out hunting on some public land, and some yahoo thought that it would be a great time to make sure his rifle was sighted in... by shooting at the tree I was using as a back rest. Almost got involved with a 2 way range exercise on that one.

Buddy of mine and I still talk about the time we were headed back from his parents place in Virginia on I-95. Crest a hill in South Carolina in my little Mazda pickup doign about 75, and there is an idiot from Canada backing up in the left hand lane of the interstate. Semi on my right, fuel tanker a hundred feet behind us... slammed brakes, let semi pass, jerk wheel over, spin out, end up perpendicular to the high way *in front* of the azzhat Canadian. Fuel tanker truck was able to switch lanes over, so in hind sight wasn't such a big deal.... but could've been.

[GREEN]One day I was in a Starbucks and ordered my "Venti Soy Quadruple Shot Latte with No Foam". They told me that they were out of soy milk. I was aghast. ;) [/GREEN]

Wifi went down.

I was leaving a friends house and the neighbor came out with a lifeless two year old in his arms yelling 'help me' with his wife hysterical beside him.

I helped him. She lived. It still gives me goosebumps.

I also got my SHO sideways in a ice storm at about 50 mph. I recovered, through good luck not skill. The guy beside gave me the thumbs up and we both slowed down.

70 mph backwards on the interstate , in traffic , wide body 911 turbo.

lying in a ditch next to a burning motorcycle trying to get my toes to move.

facing my neighbor's tweaking skinhead boyfriend and his two tweaking buddies as the neighbor cowered behind me.

hit the rev limiter in third going through the hyperion tunnel. running from the cops new years eve, silver lake 1999

We have a winner!

I have posted here before on a day kayaking trip on the Gauley River in West Virginia.

I was a very experienced kayaker but made some serious errors in judgement that day. Because of my lack of planning and cavalier attitude I got my a$$ handed to me. I was afraid for my safety for well over two hours; hurt, just trying to get off the river.

The worst mistakes are the ones that are easy to prevent.

I have a few....
When we were teens my best bud and I would go out late at night and buzz around he canyon roads.

We get pulled over by a sheriff...
Funny, we were not going that fast.
They get on the PA "get out of the car and keep your hands where we can see them"
My buddy and I look at each other and think "must be a slow night."
I get out of the car and there is a shotgun pointed at me!
We put our hands on the roof, they come up and take a quick look at us and the car.
"Sorry, a car answering the description of yours was just used in a robbery."

Helping a friend install a woodstove chimney on a metal roofed barn. I had rope thrown from the other side to lash onto, but was about a foot out of reach at first. I scrambled for it anyway and barely had traction to grab it. Would have been a 25+ foot fall onto piled rock surrounding the base of the barn. Palms still sweat thinking about it. Young and stupid....

My partner and I had pried open the back porch door on the bungalow that was on fire and had just started to work on the rear door. When we got it open we were met with black/green dark smoke. The kind that instantly blocks your vision even down to the floor. We had just started our search pattern when the branch man kicked the front door in letting all the oxygen the fire needed to become a blowtorch. It instantly lit up the whole house. You could see from one end to the other with a 4' thick wall of flame overhead, tendril's of flame licking down to scoop pockets of that black/green smoke it hadn't got on the initial ignition. Me I was trying to get my head below the floor boards to escape the heat. It lasted all of two seconds but I remember it like it was yesterday.

Doing a very long left sweeper on my bike, going close to 100mph and a german shepard jumped in front of me.
Couldn't get round it, it did a double back, I stood the bike up to brake hard, just missed it, brake off leaned back over, knew I was going to hit the shoulder so stood it backup again. Went off the road, felt like 90, but likely I was doing to 25mph-ish, landed in a marsh right side up.
All this in seconds, afterwards I just sat there.
Took me a few hours to push it out, took much longer to clean the brown stain off the seat.

Got rear ended by a drunk driver less than a year later, decided to give up street bikes not long after that.

Jail in Culiacan Mexico when the American Consulate called and told me I could be there for two years legally
Vietnam in 68 a couple times
Working in Alaska, once on a boat I didn't think would make it back to shore and once in a helicopter, just me and the pilot, he almost hit an Eagle, it was very close.
once when the barge we were unloading caught on fire with fifty 55 gallon drums of gas and jet fuel, the paint was burning off the side of the barrels.
A few bad motorcycle wrecks while racing.
A couple fights that could have been much worse
Stuffing my 911 into the back of a Tahoe on the freeway, I had been going 80
When speeder gets nasty on PPOT