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I was stationed aboard two US Navy ships in my twenty years in the US Navy. Both ships were different on the outside and the completely the same on the inside.
You may be thinking how the ships of various sizes and shapes could be the same. Well, they are the home to the best-trained people in the world. These ships hold readiness drill after drill day and night to keep their sailors sharp and ready for the day they may be called upon to save both their shipmates, but also the very ship they sail on.
I reflect on these bits of information after the June 2017 incident with the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and a civilian freighter. Seven brave professionals lost their lives that night in the middle of the ocean far from home and their families.
The Fitzgerald is a warship of the finest kind. She carries the newest and most accurate operational systems available today to keep the ship and crew safe as well as defense and strike force capabilities.
We are highly trained professionals for sure and we are human. We get tired of long repetitious hours 7 days a week until we get back home again. The various readiness drills can take hours before you get a break. Every ship wide drill at sea requires the highest condition of readiness set – General Quarters. Every sailor aboard has a specific job to perform during these drills even on no or low sleep.
Readiness drills are performed night and day because war can come to your night or day and sometimes with little or no warning like the night of the collision during the most dangerous watch of all – the mid-watch from midnight to 4 in the morning. If you are transiting, even more, dangerous as the watch standers are already tired and there is little or no activity around the ship to stay focused on.
The captain is ultimately responsible for all that happens, good or bad, onboard their ship for the entire time they are captain. Countless hours of formal and on-the-job training prepares sailors for their watches. These drills I mentioned make the sailor able to perform tasks without thinking and mechanically.
All of this does not prepare for when the ‘real’ event occurs in your sleep or on the watch is slow and no-one seems to be fully engaged at their station. These aren’t bad people—they are human. This brings to mind a similar watch I was standing once and a similar scenario was taking place.
Although the freighter was several miles away, my estimates of our courses and speeds showed an opportunity for collision. Under international law, I was to remain on my course and speed and the freighter was to give leave. However, this freighter was a super-tanker and course changes are very long and very hard to accomplish. I decided to recommend to my captain that we maneuver to let the freighter pass safely and avoid a collision. He agreed so I made a left turn and slowly turned the ship around completely causing the freighter to pass by while we turned around safely. Both ships passed safely and easily upon the ocean blue.
I will never forget what my captain said to me that day. He said, “sometimes it is better to be wrong and safe rather than be right at the bottom of the sea.” Profound words I keep sacred.
The worst scenario to happen at sea is a collision. You can be killed instantly or drown in your bed or compartment. A 20-foot by 40-foot compartment can fill with water in under a minute—yes under a minute! Let that sink in for a moment. Some sailors were saved and some died in that berthing compartment that night.
I want to pose a question to you now. How do you think the survivors feel now? Maybe some of them who were saved are now feeling they should have died instead of someone else. Suicide Ideation runs high in the military day to day. When members are lost in a firefight or suicide bombing and now collision at sea; the pain is just as real for the survivors. These heroes will carry this burden with them for the rest of their lives and some will take their own lives.
Today I invite you to take a moment to think about those lives lost in the dead of night in their bunk with their shipmates on watch. Please connect to loving thoughts for their families who will be resting their loved ones this week.
We wish them all “Fair Winds and Following Seas” on their journey to Davy Jones Locker.
I lost a shipmate to suicide on my first ship and was honored to escort him home for burial. I feel a lot of the feelings of loss I felt so many years ago seems like yesterday.
My work in Repetitive Behavior Cellular Regression™ has stopped suicide ideation many times including among combat and non-combat Veterans and their family members. I invite people to research this new and consistent tool before they have to bury someone they know whose life ended too soon.
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Photo Credit – Getty Images