Walking On Water
By Noel Adams
, , As a child I was
brought
up by loving, caring
parents that didn’t
have a lot by the
world’s standards. But
they were.adamant about
seeing that I went to
Sunday School and church
from a young age.
At that time, it was
largely to no avail. I
was from the start
rebellious, and hated
authority. So much so
that my Father took me
into a prison at an
early age to show me,
where I was going to end
up at the rate I was
going. Meanwhile the
Bible stories continued
from my grandfather,
Sunday school teachers,
etc. However, I was
more than a listener as
I openly made fun of
what they were
saying. Hitting a rock
and water came out for
the people. The
virgin birth. The sea
splitting and then
swallowing up the
Egyptians. God sending
his only Son to die for
us and then going
into heaven. etc. But
the thing I had the
most trouble believing
was walking on water by
Jesus and a disciple.
Now who in their
right mind would believe
that a real possibility?
Not me.
By the time I reached
the ripe old age of
seventeen my mind was
pretty well made up as
to what I believed and
it was certainly
nothing that would get
me into heaven. In fact
a fortune teller
told me I would die
before the age of 21. So
with graduation about
to take place I
convinced a large group
of my friends to have a
graduation party. We did
and did not make it home
for 3 days. When
we did, I was physically
sick from the weekend
and just wanted to
rest. My father had
other ideas. For some
reason he felt it was
time to start my working
career. He gave me the
choice--Army,
Navy, or Air Force. This
was while driving me to
the recruiters. I
chose the Army to become
a paratrooper. By the
time we got down
there the only recruiter
there was the Navy
recuriter. Dad wasn’t
to choosey which branch
I went in and the offer
of extra pay
without jumping out of
planes appealed to me.
So Navy it was. I
immediately went out and
talked 6 friends into
joining with me.We
went to boot camp in San
Diego, a couple other
schools, and then
submarine school in
Groton, Ct. In 1962 from
Groton I went to
Pearl Harbor to catch my
first sub. When I got
there the sub was
already deployed to the
Western Pacific, so I
joined another sub
that was going out on an
emergency mission to the
Western Pacific.
We completed that
deployment and when we
got back I was
transferred to another
boat which was asking
for volunteers. We
went out again to the
Western Pacific for
about 7 months. This
time it was during
typhoon season. The
weather was quite cold.
The sub I was on was an
WWII reconverted sub
with 4 diesel
engines. It was
considered a diesel,
fast attack. It had 9
compartments; 8 in a row
composed the main body,
and the conning
tower sat over the
control room; the
lookouts were above the
conning tower. On the
bottom/sides of the sub
there were tanks
which are filled with
air and some fuel,and
some water, or a
combination of these.
Half of the tanks are
closed and half are
free- flooding. Free-
flooding means that they
are open to the
ocean; they have holes
on the bottom like a
collander; as long as
the sub stays upright,
the air cannot escape
these holes, but if
the sub were to roll,
the air escapes and the
sea rushes in and
the law of gravity takes
over and the sub would
sink. Should that
happen the hope would be
that the sub would roll
back upright (the
bottom of the sub is
heavier than the top)
and then the tanks
could be blown with high
pressure air to expell
the seawater and
bring the sub back to
the surface. Before this
would be
accomplished however,
the sub would sink many
hundreds of feet
below the surface.
Anyway, we were in the
northern western pacific
during typhoon
season and there was a
storm coming in behind
us. Now a lot·of
people ask “Why don’t
subs just dive down
under during a storm
where its nice and calm?
The answer is, it’s not
nice and calm
down there any more than
it is on the surface. We
stay on top
because if the sub rolls
and goes under, there is
a better chance
of righting itself in
time, before reaching
crush depth than if it
rolled while under the
water.
Normally we would have
turned 90% to the
typhoons path to let it
go past us.
Unfortunately, land
considerations prevented
this, so
we had to try and outrun
it. Now a WWII diesel
sub is just not
fast enough to outrun a
typhoon, and soon we
were in the middle of
it. At all times
underway, one-third of
the crew are on watch,
and
during this watch I was
the port lookout, which
meant I was on top
of the submarine out in
the storm. Within a few
feet of me were
the starboard lookout
and the officer of the
deck, and because of
the weather we were
chained in place to
prevent us from being
washed overboard. All
hatches were dogged shut
and our only
communication was with
the Chief of the Boat
(COB) .The Chief of
the Watch (COW) was
responsible to man the
airtanks and control
the Christmas Tree--
which is a board on the
port side of the ship
with red and green
lights that indicate the
tank doors being open
to sea (red) or (green)
shut.
The reason we had to be
out there was to be the
eyes of the ship,
as radar and sonar were
not useable in this type
of situation. At
this time waves were
breaking 30-50 feet over
my head. Have you
ever seen The Perfect
Storm? It was kind of
like that, but darker.
You could see the
outline of the waves,
sleeting rain, and white
spray. And it was very,
very cold.
The waves were huge and
the bow was rising and
dropping 40-60 feet
as it crested the waves.
A wave broke over us and
then another one
came immediately, and
sent the sub into a roll
to port that would
have sent us plummeting
into the depths. The
thought crossed my
mind to undo the chains
that held me to the boat
so that I might
live a little longer.
But then I thought no,
my family should have
a body to bury. I
scrambled so that my
fingers were in the
decking
where my feet were
standing: moments
before, as the ship
continued
to roll.
In the dark, knowing I
was about to die, I said
Jesus please
forgive me. And at that
moment I realized that I
was walking on
water. I still remember
the blue green color of
the water as it
was beneath my feet, and
the feeling of absolute
peace. I had
never felt that before.
I don’t know how long
the sub stayed in
that position, but the
next thing that happened
is nothing short
of a miracle. From this
position in which it was
impossible for
it to correct the sub
rolled back over and
righted itself.
Afterwards I talked to
the COB/COW. He said
that his feet were on
the Christmas tree and
the overhead (ceiling).
His belief was that
everyone topside had
been killed and he was
trying to find
reliefs. He could not
understand how we had
righted ourselves
without going down at
least a couple of
hundred feet. No one
from
an educated, science
approach could explain
it--it was simply
impossible for it to
roll that much and
correct itself without
going under. They didn’t
understand it to the
point where they
didn’t want to talk
about it-- if people
don’t understand
something, they don’t
like to talk about it.
These people I talked
to were highly trained,
educated people who knew
every part of the
submarine inside and
out, blindfolded.
From that point on I
trusted God with my
life, but it was not for
some years later that
while attending Triangle
Baptist Church I
heard a sermon that made
a difference too.
Brother Bob, who was
filling in for the
Pastor, was speaking
about trusting and
obeying, saying that
trusting will get you
by, but obeying will
make you happy. This was
the point at which I
actually commited my
life to the Lord--up to
this point I had been
trusting but not
obeying.
Clearly God has a sense
of humor. He not only
had me walking on
water, he had me walking
on water with a
submarine over my head..
So when the Bible says
something, believe it.
He is Risen!!!
Hallelujah!!!
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