They just left him out there.
The guys were all laughing when he first fell over. Then, when they realized that the ships weren't going to stop to pick him up, they stopped laughing and got real serious.
I have heard of actual incidents like this.
Found this interesting article that talks about a man-overboard situation during the Korean War on the USS Missouri
http://www.marionstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200881110033
""In the middle of the night, a life body guard phoned the bridge and reported a man overboard. Missouri doesn’t attempt to stop rather we immediately turned hard a starboard while slowing and sailed beyond the sport of the overboard call, continuing right turn until we stopped south of the reported overboard. Each division aboard has a location to assemble for morning quarters. After everyone had assembled, a sight muster was held. Each division counted by name everyone, then men were sent to every station aboard to actually see and record every man on watch. It was not permissible to phone each station and ask the names of all hands on watch. The whole routine took over an hour. Finally, a steward in the officers mess fessed up to throwing a wooden crate of lettuce, that he thought was rotten, overboard.
In early dawn when we were nearing Panama, many men took their pillow and a blanket up to the fantail to sleep because of the heat at about 8 degrees N. Latitude, heard someone running. Once again, the ships crew was roused and in fact a young 17-year-old sailor had jumped overboard. His locker was opened and a note was found requesting his belongings and what pay he had on the books be sent to his mom. He added “Blame this act on stupidity plus.” Missouri searched four hours both in motor launches and by helicopter and planes from Panama, nothing was found.""
Hey, Mr. Furies, just curious - do you think "life is hell"? Wonder if you would intercede if you were on the light rail and saw somebody being mugged or robbed? Do you stop on the road when you see somebody distressed with a broken down car?
"Victim of the war machine?" Why is it that certain people have something to say about any tragedy that happens in war but are silent on everyday tragedies that happen in civilian life? Are you as outraged over the 17,000+ murders that occur in the US each year? What about the 37,000+ drunk driving deaths per year? How about the 22,000+ drug overdoses per year? The 1.2 million abortions every year? You care to pick the banner and crusade against these tragedies? 76,000+ deaths a year (not counting abortions) from drugs, murders, and drunk driving. Is this not a tragedy? What are these due to? Are they victims of the "life machine"? Where is your outrage? Better yet, how about some profound statement from you on these tragedies. Ho hum....
Stuff like this, and worse happened, all the time -
On 2 October 1942, Queen Mary accidentally sank one of her escorts, slicing through the light cruiser HMS Curacoa off the Irish coast, with the loss of 338 lives. Due to the constant danger of being attacked by U-Boats, on board the Queen Mary Captain C. Gordon Illingworth was under strict orders not to stop for any reason, the Royal Navy destroyers accompanying the Queen were ordered to stay on course and not rescue any survivors.
And I remember hearing on VJ day the guys signing the treaties wanted a lot of bombers flying overhead for a 'show of power'. They didn't care that they lost 2 or 3 bomber crews that day due to mechnical failure. In a war that size individuals are not so important.
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I have read that when convoys of ships were being sent from the US to England, there would be a designated lifeguard vessel towards the back of the convoy who were tasked only to pick up men falling over board or survivors of ships torpedoed by German U-boats. In the cold waters of the North Atlantic, even being in a lifeboat and left behind was the same as a death sentence. In order to keep civilians crewing the merchant marine cargo vessels, there had to be some kind of hope for the crews to come out alive. These were generally smaller ships that weren't worth wasting a torpedo on, and they weren't always taking a combatant ship off the line which would reduce their counterattack capabilities. By the time the Iwo campaign came along, I'm sure this was standard practice, so the guy could have been recovered. The grunts probably didn't know about this so they'd be afraid of acting up like this guy did.
I may not have a brain Gentlemen,....but I have an idea!
Look under the Trivia section, and it explains it... really happened...
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