
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990                   TAG: 9005100512
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/9   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

FIRE VICTIM DIED SAVING SHIPMATES

A Navy officer killed in the blaze aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Conyngham roused sleeping crewmates from their quarters before he was overcome by smoke, a crew member says.

Lt. Algernon Pope Gordon, 34, helped evacuate fellow officers from their berths, which were filled with smoke from the fire Tuesday morning that began in a boiler room three to four decks below the berths.

Gordon rescued one officer, who was among the 18 injured, then re-entered the smoky area and did not leave it alive.

The crew member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in today's Daily Press and Times-Herald of Newport News that he didn't know why Gordon returned.

"He might have thought somebody else was in there," he said. "He was an unselfish individual."

Gordon, who was married with three children, was the son of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Montgomery, Ala. He was in charge of the ship's combat information center.

The fire spread to the command center, leaving the ship temporarily dead in the water.

The crew overcame a failure of communications and water-pumping equipment by using walkie-talkies and hand-held pumps that allowed fire hoses to draw sea water until other vessels arrived to help, the Navy said.

by CNB