U.S. Searching for Overboard Sailor

AP | Wednesday, November 7, 2001

[Yellow Rose of Texas]

Great prayer, thanks!

May GOD welcome this man with open arms and may his family find peace knowing that he gave his life for our country!

[SmartBlonde]

And our prayers are with YOUR daughter (and her classmates).

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Who is this decaying imperial power called the U.S. trying to kid?

Your first paragraph was fine but it did not call for this. A few more years of leadership by the likes of GWB and we will be rid of all the girls and girlie boys. Even as it is, we are by far the strongest, best equipped, best trained, and highest motivated military in the world.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

One of my former Chiefs, STGC "C", (at school and on my last ship) was asleep in his rack while patrolling the Indian Ocean when his ship ran into a merchant vessel.

He woke up in the water and had to tread water for more hours than a man would ever want to before he was found.

It was while he was convalescing that I met him. He came to be an instructor at the ASW base in S.D. CA..

He told us he still had nightmares almost a year later and his feet were broken up pretty good so he couldn't stand to teach after all that time.

I was in school for about another year with him and we both got orders to the same ship (USS Elliot DD 967).

We deployed to the Persian Gulf in '91 and my division had the 50 cal. watch on the bridge wings.

I was confused as to why he kept coming up and taking an hour or two on watch every night out on the bridge wings. He would even sit on the bridgewing railing with his feet dangling over the side which seemed crazy, but what was I an STG2 going to say to a Chief?

I realized he was still wrestling with that experience when I found a note he wrote (and left in plain sight in Sonar Control) describing how he thought about jumping over the side some nights and slipping off into the blackness.

I went to my Division officer with the note and he said "Oh I can't believe Chief would ever do that"

How many times have people killed themselves after others ignored the warnings.

Well luckily I wasn't some new boot camp schmo. I went to the Chaplain we had on board with us and he marched me and the note straight to the XO's stateroom.

They then made what I thought was a terrible mistake. I hadn't told a sould within our division what was going on, but they decided they needed to bring Chief in to tell me everything was okay before they Helo'ed him off the ship for a psych consult.

When he returned to the ship a while later I had to work for this guy!

They should have never told him who turned him in and fortunately he didn't hold a grudge or my last 6 months in the Navy would have been a living hell.

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for the prayers! Been around the Air Force for years, but it sure is different when it is your daughter in the military!

[amom]

Thanks for recalling that story. Hope is a good thing to give folks. I appreciate it.

[dighton]

Though the chances may be slim, let's hope and pray that he's alive and rescued.

[whoever]

Amen and amen. Thank you.

[whoever]

That might be my son out there in that ocean.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

old tin can sailor praying for a sailor lost at sea


PRAYER WARRIORS: Adopt a Soldier and Pray Today Thread

Adopt a Soldier and Pray Today : Direct Link

Adopt a Soldier and Pray Today : Mirror Site

[Valin]

Right off the top of my head I seem to recall reading it in readers digest. Like I said its been a long time ago.

[JohnHuang2]

May God be with him, those searching for him, and with his family!

Amen, my friend.

[Tree of Liberty]

Dateline NBC did a profile of the story about a year and a half ago.

[semaj]

Your #14: It was a Marine PFC who was knocked over a rail by an unsecured hatch. He spent 3 days in the sea before being picked up by a Pakistani fishing boat.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Don't know if this is the same story you are thinking of or not, but in '95 or '96 there was a Marine L/Cpl who fell overboard at night from an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea and was rescued by some Pakistani fishermen around 36 hours later. Although this link doesn't identify the Marine by name it describes his story. I'll have to dig out my archived copies of Leatherneck to find the story. Dateline did a story about him as well. Hope is slim, but if the sailor survives the fall and keeps his/her head, there is indeed a chance.

Falling Down the Food Chain

[dandelion]

A beautiful prayer, and a heartfelt one from a swabbie's child. Oh Father, help this sailor!

[Hila]

Trusting in our Heavenly Father, that He will preserve him, that he is still holding on to Hope by His strength and that his crew will find him by the grace of God.

[Hillary 666]

The best thing going for this sailor is that he went over the side in warm waters. If he went over the side in the North Sea, especially this time of year, he would be dead in less than 10 minutes.

A few years ago, a Marine went overboard in the Persian Gulf and was in the water for 18 hours before being picked up by a Greek freighter. The guy was hungry, dehydrated, and sunburned, but for the most part he was okay. The man upstairs was looking out for that Marine. I hope the same is true for the sailor that went overboard.