I was thinking the same thing. I think they call it “normalcy bias” - that one never thinks it will get as bad as it possibly could.
Even the captain of the “boat” I suppose. “Well, it is pretty rough, but I’ve hit rough weather before - if I can just get behind that point of land...we’ll be okay, I’ve never sunk before...”
I imagine with those windows and canopy that think was hell to try to get out of once it was filling up with water and the doors half-submerged, etc.
But at the first sign of trouble, start filing out the emergency door with a life jacket on and jump into wavy, but at least probably fairly warm mid-July water and you could probably ride it out until you could get picked up.
Now that I look closer, the sides on these might not just be covered but also zipped up at the bottom because you can see the cloth/canvas blowing out in the wind but it doesn’t appear to lift up. The only ones I have ridden were at Wisconsin Dells as a kid and those were open all the way around so we could look out.
Those DUKW’s originally had a very high capacity pto bilge pump. I wonder if it was removed or the captain failed to activate it?
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