re: What was the scariest experience you have ever had?

We were only about 65' down but being in a submarine that is taking on seawater will certainly spook you.

Cliffs:

1. running a drill where we simulate the nuke reactor going down
2. We are snorkeling while running our diesel generator
3. Senior enlisted guy makes a series of blunders at his watch station resulting in tens of thousands of gallons of seawater entering our ventilation room.
4. seawater gets distributed throughout the ship and pours in through vents. The air handlers were essentiually pumping the seawater everywhere.

seawater in our battery well = very bad news as it can cause a release of chlorine gas.

A junior sailor immediately recognizes the threat and closes the vent valves to the batteries. He also throws a mattress over the non-airtight access hatch. Dude (E-4) earned a Navy Commendation medal for his quick action.

There was a period of 2-3 minutes where we didn't know what the hell was going on but quick work by the crew limited the potential damage.

As a junior sailor, I gained a tremendous amount of respect for the chiefs (E-7's). They, not the officers were steady, decisive, and knowledgable in a situation we had never trained for.