The Texas Tower Disaster

By EDWARD ROWE SNOW

It was my pleasure two Sundays ago, while going down the harbor on the Bay State, to discuss the Texas Tower Disaster with Joe Pitts of Pembrooke. Also aboard was the daughter of one of the civilian employees of the Texas Tower, Vincent Garrett Brown, Sr., who lost his life in that terrible event which occurred on Sunday, January 15, 1961.

Texas Tower Number Four, under command of the Air Force at Otis Field, Cape Cod, was built at a total cost of $21,000,000. Six stories high, the tower rested firmly on three steel legs driven through 180 feet of ocean water into the Atlantic Bottom 65 miles off the New Jersey coast. It was erected as one of the United States' early warning radar systems which guard against surprise enemy attack, and was one of three in the Northeastern area, the fourth not having been constructed. The three were called Texas Towers because they resembled the structures used to draw oil from the sea off the Texas coast.

Started In Summer

Construction, begun during the early summer of 1956, was finished in December, 1957. Similar to the Texas Tower Number Two, located on George's Shoal about 107 miles easterly of Highland Light, Cape Cod, number Four had two decks, including full facilities for a crew of 90 men. There was a recreation hall, gymnasium, swimming pool, and infirmary. Outstanding features of this particular tower were the three plastic domes on top of the edifice. Housing radar gear, these domes indeed made the appearance of Number Four resemble something from outer space, or to say it another way, an "oversize three-legged Erector set," as Newsweek stated.

Hurricane Donna, which lashed the Northeastern states on Sept. 12, 1960, apparently weakened the supports of Texas Tower Number Four. Skin diving at the scene confirmed the belief that Number Four was in serious trouble, and workmen were sent out to the tower to begin repairs. The tower was then christened with the unhappy name of "Old Shaky."

General William E. Eider of the Boston Air Defense Section ordered a cut in manpower after the hurricane damage had been appraised, and the directive was carried out. Nothing further developed until a storm began in the middle of January, 1961, but by Sunday afternoon, January 15, the waves were so high that the tower began to shake violently.

At 7:15 that night the Navy supply ship AKL-17 was only ten miles from Number Four when she picked up an SOS from the tower. The edifice was now tilting back and forth. Capt. Gordon T. Phelan, commanding officer in charge of the 13 Air Force personnel and the 14 civilians in the Texas Tower, is reported to have said that he thought the tower could hold out until dawn. As a lull in the storm was expected around two o'clock Monday morning, he was planning on evacuation of the men at that time.

Immediately upon receiving the SOS the AKL-17 proceeded as fast as the great storm would allow toward the tower, keeping the structure on its radar screen. Suddenly at one minute past eight that night the image of the tower vanished and was never seen again. It is presumed that the tower collapsed at this moment.

The aircraft carrier Wasp was also in the vicinity, having been directed there by Navy officials that evening after Capt. Phelan had requested evacuation of the personnel on the tower. Men on duty in the Wasp's radar room at the time noted the vanishing of the image at about the same moment that it was reported from the AKL-17.

No Survivors

There were no survivors from whom the story of the disaster might have been learned, and we can only attempt a reconstruction of the final moments of Texas Tower Number Four. All evidence indicates that the men on the Tower had been thrown into the sea without warning and with no preparation for the collapse. Even if there had been time to use lifeboats and other survival gear, however, it is unlikely that any man could have survived the overwhelming gale which was then blowing.

Wreckage later picked up in the vicinity "clearly indicates there was no time for an organized attempt to abandon the Tower," according to Task Group Bravo Commander Rear Admiral Allen M. Shinn.

Five craft soon reached the scene: the Wasp, the destroyer F.T. Berry, the destroyer Norris, the destroyer LLoyd Thomas, and the destroyer McCaffery. Helicopter and S2F search of the area had to be postponed because of wretched weather and visibility conditions.

At 8:10 that night, the McCaffery, based at Newport, R.I., was ordered to the scene of the disaster by the Commander of Task Force Bravo. At 10:17, Salvatore A. Esposito, 3rd Class Sonarman of Schenectady, N.Y., heard definite metallic tapping sounds on his sonar receiver. At the suggestion of Lt. Commander Kenneth G. Hyland. USN, of Lynbrook, N.J., it was decided that communication using well-known rhythms should be attempted.

The beat of the well-known saying "Shave and a haircut-two bits" was used. This phrase was tapped out and repeated from both the McCaffrey sonar group and the personnel of the Texas Tower at 10: 30 that night, two and a half-hours after the Texas Tower had collapsed.

Immediately afterwards, in adverse sea conditions, the McCaffrey put over a boat from which Lt. J. G. Bevearage Cash, USN. of Georgia, made a shallow water dive that determined the jagged edges of the tower were then within 20 feet of the surface. In the luminous glow from the structure below, he was able to estimate that the mass of the tower was still lying parallel and nearby.

The McCaffrey was then under the command of Lt. Commander Robert D. Fisher, USN, of Fort Worth, Texas. The information in the above three paragraphs was sent to the USS Wasp on January 17 by flashlight.

Found No Body

Because of this hope for survival, civilian divers were taken out to the Wasp; among them James Cahill of the Northeast Divers of Beverly, Mass. In all, four men descended into the sea to look for signs of life on the sunken radar tower. These efforts resulted in definite proof that no one was still alive within the structure when the diving was carried out. Divers who opened the structure found no bodies but plenty of debris.

The only direct evidence of the loss of the 28 men was found that Monday when the McCaffrey pulled the body of Air Force Master Sergeant Troy F. Williams, 32, of Salt Lake City, Florida, from the water, after his remains had been spotted by helicopters from the Wasp. They also noticed another body floating, but it sank before they could recover it.

Sixteen miles from the tower searchers found one small boat heavily smashed and a capsized 35-foot motor whaleboat. A floating mattress, some loose debris, and the heavy smell of diesel oil and gasoline were all that remained to indicate that a $21,000,000 Air Force installation had once stood out in the stormy Atlantic off the New Jersey coast.