USS Gridley (DLG-21) the "Spruance"-class destroyer to escort reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz during Operation Earnest Will. While homeward bound, transiting the South China Sea, "Gridley" rescued Vietnamese refugees sighted in a small boat off of the coast of Vietnam. A Vietnamese-speaking crewman aboard "Gridley" was able to translate for those rescued, facilitating the process. "Gridley" returned to San Diego in June 1989. On 17 October of that year, the ship's visit to Naval Station, Treasure Island, California, was interrupted by the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay area. "Gridley"s crew provided assistance to victims
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake Beroza, a seismologist with Stanford University, made several distinctions regarding the 1906 and 1989 events. Near Loma Prieta, the 1906 rupture was more shallow, had more strike-slip, and occurred on a fault that was near vertical. The 1989 event's oblique-slip rupture was at 10 km and below on a fault plane that dipped 70° to the southwest. Because much of the slip in 1989 occurred at depth and the rupture propagated up dip, Beroza proposed that the overlying San Andreas Fault actually inhibited further rupture and also maintains that the occurrence of an event at the location that was forecast