ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A Navy ship that ventured close to Soviet territory in May generated a show of Moscow's military might that thrilled some sailors and unnerved others, crewmen of the USS Arkansas said before ending a port call Sunday.
The confrontation involving the USS Arkansas, the Navy's newest nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser occurred 500 miles west of Alaska's Aleutian Island chain in the Bering Sea, near Petropavlovsk, a sensitive Soviet naval base in Avacha Bay on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The Navy's close approach to the sensitive Soviet submarine port and naval base apparently caught the Soviets off guard. They responded in force with planes and ships, although no shots were fired.
'I didn't think there was any danger of them shooting us,' a crewman said, 'but there was talk of them ramming us.'
The 11,160-ton ship was not forced away by the Soviets nor called away by the Navy. 'The assignment was finished,' said Capt. Harry E. Selfridge, who took over as commanding officer of the Arkansas right after its voyage to Kamchatka.
When the Arkansas left, the Soviets followed half way back to Alaska's Aleutian chain, crewmen said. 'They weren't happy with us being there,' onecrewman said. 'They dogged us the whole time.'
At the time, the Soviets issued a public protest accusing the United States of violating Soviet territorial waters. The United States responded to the May 21 protest by denying the charge and asserting the Navy ship was in international waters.
Neither government disclosed details of the encounter.
Navy 3rd Fleet headquarters, citing State Department restrictions, also declined to disclose details. But, in interviews with United Press International, ship's officers and crew talked about what happened -- up to a point. Reluctant crew members wanted anonymity.
'It's the topic of conversation consistently,' Selfridge said. 'I've heard it over and over and over again.'
One crewman said of the incident, 'I was scared to death, man.'
'I would consider it a thrill,' another crewman said. 'It got the adrenalin flowing. It was the response of the Russians that generated the thrill. It was being surrounded that generated the real thrill. We caught them off guard. It was a surprise. It was a hell of a carnival ride.'
'It was a very unique experience,' said one man, who called it one of the highlights of his 15 years in the Navy. 'It paralleled crossing Gadhafi's line of death.'
Several other crewmen compared the encounter off the Kamchatka Peninsula to events in the Mediterranean last year when the Navy sailed across Libyan leader Gadhafi's 'line of death' to assert the American contention that the Gulf of Sidra was international.
In this case, the Arkansas sailed inside a 36-mile zone the Soviets claim as their exclusive territory. The United States recognizes a 3-mile limit as national waters. Neither side said how close the Arkansas got. The Arkansas apparently was well away from the 3-mile limit but deep inside the 36-mile zone.
'If you accept a boundary that's been declared long enough, there is a tendency for it to become recognized,' explained the captain. 'We have a right to operate in international waters.'
'There is no doubt that the actions by the U.S. warship were premeditated and provocative and they were taken in clear violation of the laws and rules of the U.S.S.R. regarding the regime of Soviet territorial waters,' Yuri Gremitskikh, a foreign ministry spokesman, said at the time, threatening possible 'serious consequences.'
Before the matter was finished, 'the two countries were at each other's teeth,' a crewman said. 'We got some pretty serious attention.'
Several crewmen said they were happy to leave, not so much because they feared the confrontation might turn violent, but because the weather was cold and nasty -- they reported occasional snow -- and because leaving meant going home.
The Arkansas is equipped with anti-plane, anti-ship and anti-submarine missile launchers, 5-inch guns, torpedo tubes, and Tomahawk long-range missile-launchers.
Alameda, in San Francisco Bay, is home port for the Arkansas, which was docked at the port of Anchorage for four days.
While the 585-foot cruiser was sitting off the Soviet coast, it launched a small boat to snap pictures of the Navy ship with Kamchatka's impressive snowy peaks in the background.
The confrontation made such an impression that the command decided to make copies of the photo for the 40 officers and 530 enlisted men on board. The picture, without any accompanying article, is displayed prominently in the current issue of Navy Times. And, Selfridge said, T-shirts were made with the same photo showing off the cruiser with Russian mountains looming behind.
