BALTIMORE, Md. — The date was April 19th, 1989.
“We lost 47 guys and 1500 of us became brothers," said Eric Worthen Sr.
Worthen, a Baltimore native and Navy Veteran, was 20 at the time, aboard the USS Iowa in Norfolk, Virginia.
“It was kind of a relaxed day. We weren’t really doing a whole lot and heard a big boom," he said.
He was on one of the turrets on the ship, an armored structure with one or more guns.
There was an unexplained detonation in turret 2.
The reality of the situation hit Worthen when he came to the deck.
“I was like flabbergasted. So I reached down, I pick it up, and it was a lower mandible. And that’s when everything went south for me.”
Pushing through shock, he helped gather his fallen brothers.
“We literally put them in bags, body bags, you know, then transported them down to the medical bay for proper identification," he told WMAR-2 News, “One guy, we literally scooped him up with a dustpan. And put them in, you know, garbage bags. That’s how we got him out of the turret.”
They had to put their friends' bodies in the refrigerators.
“We were just playing cards with some of these guys the night before, you know, and it wasn’t even lunch - we lost 47 of them.”
Scars from the day are still there 37 years later.
“My wife had to deal with years of me just waking up screaming. I still do.”
For decades, he didn’t think he was worthy enough for help until his fellow veterans got through to him.
The Baltimore VA has helped him with sleep therapy and other activities.
“I’ll never be cured per se, because what is a cure? A cure would be to make the whole thing go away and that’s never gonna happen, and I wouldn’t want it to happen. But it’s just the support that they offer.”
That fateful day changed his outlook on life.
“It made me realize that life changes in an instant. It made my family a little bit tighter.”
There's one main aspect of his story, he hopes others like him can take away.
“We’re sailors, we’ll get through it, you know, but we don’t have to get through it alone.”
Now, he helps other veterans through the American Legion, with a specific mission to give women veterans the notoriety they deserve.
