January 30, 2002
Saigger receives combat action ribbon
Former TC student aboard USS Cole during 2000 attack
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
In a blinding flash, Matt Saigger was thrown across the deck, his glasses flying off his face and over the side.
Fewer than 60 feet from the blast, Saigger survived last year's attack on the USS Cole, where two terrorists piloted a small boat right next to the ship before detonating their explosives. Seventeen sailors belowdecks in the ship's engine room, where the blast was concentrated, were not so lucky. Another 39 were seriously injured by the blow, which tore a gaping hole in the Navy destroyer and demolished the main engine room.
"It was 11:15 during the morning and I was on overflow watch, which means making sure fuel doesn't overflow from the tanks during fueling," recalled Saigger, now 20, one of three eyewitnesses to the blast. "The fuel tanks are in the middle of the ship and they pulled up there slowly so we wouldn't be suspicious. They were five or ten feet away from the ship."
Saigger suffered flash burns and had some hearing difficulties after the blast, though his ear protection may have saved his hearing. He also has a nagging though elusive knee injury that persists to this day.
Saigger quickly volunteered to help and eventually was one of a crew who took the dead sailors off the ship. It was his first encounter with death.
"It was a small ship, under 300 stationed on board," said Saigger, who received a Combat Action Ribbon and is being considered for a Purple Heart. "You knew everyone."
In the 15 months since the October 12, 2000 attack, Saigger has moved on with his life. The 1999 Traverse City West High School graduate has gotten married and been reassigned to a new ship, the USS McCampbell, currently under construction in the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.
The memories of the attack on the Cole have faded some, though the terrorist attacks of September 11 reminded him of it. But with his next overseas deployment at least a year away, the nagging worries are dim - and he works to keep them that way.
"During wartime especially you worry more about retaliation," said Saigger, who had a month's leave after the incident. "But I can't do anything about it so I try not to worry."
Worry is part of the Saigger family lore now. Worry, however, is an improvement over the numb terror that the family faced when they heard of the attack on their son's ship. Suzee Saigger, Matt Saigger's mother, vividly recalls the endless evening after she heard about the bombing.
"We were devastated, we had to decide whether to go to a soccer game with our other son, Adam, or stay home and wait by the phone," she said. "We decided to go and had to travel to Alpena to watch him. We listened to the radio all during the game."
"My husband, Dave, raced home and by the time we got there we had 12 messages on the machine. My husband wouldn't let me hear the messages. Finally, he heard that Matt was not on any list, which meant he was OK."
After calling an 800 number to verify the information, the Saiggers began calling family members with the news.
"About a half an hour after Dave got off the phone, Matt called and he was all right," she said. "He had to carry the bodies off the ship and he and two other sailors weren't allowed to return to the ship, so they stayed in a hotel that night and were able to call."
Saigger came through Traverse City last week on his way to Maine. He will be moving aboard the McCampbell with the crew in March or April. His ship is scheduled to travel to its base in San Diego in July, where he will reunite with his wife, Christina. The ship will be commissioned in August in San Francisco though it may not be deployed overseas for another year until the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier is completed.
Saigger has been in school for nearly a year, learning about the engine workings of his new assignment. After having been on land ever since the Cole attack, Saigger is looking forward to getting back aboard with mixed feelings.
"It's different being on a ship, I haven't been on one since the Cole," said Saigger, who was recently promoted to Petty Officer Third Class. "It's different for everybody, some people like it, some people hate it."