THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 30, 1995 TAG: 9511300372
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN AND JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
When the phone jarred them awake at 4 a.m. Wednesday, Stan and Cindy Mayo figured that at least the uncertainty, the gut-wrenching emptiness they'd endured for four days, was finally over.
The Mayos had stayed close to the phone since Saturday, when their son's former ROTC sergeant-major showed up to report that 20-year-old Zachary Mayo, a Marine lance corporal, had fallen from the aircraft carrier America into the Arabian Sea.
Her husband had prowled their house in northern Idaho during the ordeal, Cindy Mayo recalled, repeating a single sentence over and over: ``I just want my son to call.''
And now Zack was calling.
``He just said `Hi Dad,' in a real nice, controlled voice,'' Stan said. ``It knocked me off my feet. I about collapsed.''
Picked up by Pakistani fishermen after 36 hours at sea, Zack Mayo phoned home from Gwadar, Pakistan, a coastal town near the Iranian border and his rescuers' home port. He stayed afloat until the fishermen found him, he told his father, with help from a life preserver fashioned from his clothes.
Sailors and Marines learn to make the preservers in boot camp. The procedure calls for the person overboard to remove his trousers and knot each leg at the cuff. Using his hands, he then rapidly pulls the pants through the air, inflating the legs.
The waist of the trousers either can be held over the water, keeping air trapped inside, or tied off. The stranded swimmer can hang on to the ballooned legs and float for some time before the process has to be repeated.
The Mayos were able to talk to Zack for just a few minutes on Wednesday, long enough to learn that except for fatigue and a mean sunburn, he was unhurt. ``There's not a scratch on me,'' he told his dad.
The Mayos didn't learn much about how their son got into the water in the first place, a circumstance the Navy is still trying to figure out as well. He told his father he was having trouble sleeping and went to the carrier's stern sometime after midnight Friday to get some air. ``He said a large metal door swung open and knocked him into the water,'' Stan Mayo said.
From the America's flight deck to the waterline is a drop of more than 90 feet. If Mayo was on the ship's fantail, a popular spot for crew members taking a break, the fall would be roughly half that.
Wherever he was when he fell, Mayo wasn't missed until around 7 a.m. Saturday. After a search of the ship, four airplanes and two ships that are part of the America's battle group were dispatched to retrace the carrier's overnight steaming. They found no sign of him.
By Saturday afternoon, Sgt. Major Dan Garrett of Osburn, Idaho, Zack's old ROTC instructor, went to the Mayos' house with the family pastor to tell Stan and Cindy that the young hydraulics technician was missing.
Garrett and the Mayos said that Zack had wanted to be a Marine since his early days in his high school Junior ROTC program. He signed up a year before finishing school and was inducted just a few days after graduation.
``He was cadet captain and executive officer, which is the No. 2 ranking cadet while I was here,'' Garrett said. ``He stood out.''
On the America, Mayo works on Marine EA-6B Prowler jets, which are used in electronic warfare. Mayo is assigned to the Marine Tactical Electronics Warfare Squadron Three, based in Cherry Point, N.C.
When Garrett went to the house on Saturday, ``We tried to explain what would be happening,'' he said. ``I was explaining to Mrs. Mayo that particular body of water is a pretty busy place and that there would be a lot of tanker traffic and other ships that could spot him, along with lots of islands that he could get to.''
Garrett turned out to be prophetic. Sometime Sunday, the Pakistani fishermen hauled Mayo aboard their vessel, which apparently did not return to port until shortly before the Marine called his parents early Wednesday.
The young Marine apparently spent the rest of the day in transit, heading first for the port city of Karachi; from there he was expected to catch a flight to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain and then return to the America.
The family hopes he may get home on leave in a few days, Stan Mayo said, but they know he may prefer to stay with his shipmates. ``He's a dedicated Marine,'' his father said.
As her husband talked to Zack on Wednesday, ``I was just screaming, just screaming. I was so goofy . . . being happy,'' Cindy Mayo said. When Stan Mayo handed over the phone, ``I giggled. I laughed. I told (Zack) I loved him over and over.''
By then Stan Mayo was outside. ``I kind of had to go walk out in the rain to make sure I wasn't dreaming,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: 1. Zachary Mayo, left, a Marine lance corporal, may have fallen
from the ship's fantail, a popular break spot.
2. Mayo stayed afloat using a life preserver fashioned from his
trousers. He knotted the legs at the cuff and filled the pants with
air.
3. After 36 hours at sea, Mayo was picked up by fishermen. He
arrived Wednesday in the town of Gwadar, Pakistan.
KEYWORDS: RESCUE U.S. NAVY USS AMERICA MARINE by CNB