I was just seventeen yrs old when I entered the Navy's "Boot Camp". I was consumed with fear, doubts and ignorance. It was a period of endless drilling, classes and adherence to the Navy's way. However, each day I would learn new and exciting things. I knew I had made the right decision. I came from a family of Navy Men. My dad was a Navy lieutenant when he lost his life at sea. His ship was torpedoed by an enemy submarine in the Pacific near the end of World War II. From a crew of eleven hundred, only three hundred and ten survived. Dad wasn't one of them. His body was never recovered.

After training and, as an apprentice seaman I was assigned to a sleek new destroyer. I became a new member of the deck division in this beautiful warship.

We were then deployed to the Pacific area. While en-route we were to join a battle group of ships, much like mine, that surrounded a magnificent aircraft carrier.

While at sea I stood watches on the bridge as a messenger. After three days underway I was awakened to assume the four to eight a.m. duty. I dozed back to sleep for some minutes and then horrified that I would be late for my watch I became stupid. Very, very stupid!

The sea was a bit rough and instead of using the inboard route to the bridge I decided to take a short cut going via the outboard weather deck. As soon as I stepped outboard the ship sharply rolled with the sea and I was thrown over the life lines into the darkness of the cold sea.

Terrified, I yelled in vain. The ship churned up a wake pushing it farther and farther away, until it was out of sight. I was now a speck in the center of a huge three hundred sixty degree circle of ocean. My mind told me I was doomed. A strange feeling then consumed me. It was a feeling of superiority that I've never felt before and I knew I was going to survive. I knew I wasn't alone in this terror. Strong arms seemed to lift me and kept me afloat. A deep voice said "Remember your training son, remember everything you were taught".I struggled to get out of my shoes, and pulled off my dungaree trousers. Tying the cuffs in knots and then capturing air in the legs it became buoyant. I could now stay afloat. I couldn't believe the confidence that was nearly overwhelming me. When I felt the air in my dungaree float begin to get low, the deep voice would tell me to keep faith. The air volume would seem to self-increase. "You're going to be fine son, you'll be just fine". I knew what I was hearing would be the truth.

Aboard ship when I didn't report for my watch and it was confirmed that I was indeed missing, the conclusion was that I had been lost overboard.

Calculating from the time I was last seen and the ship's speed and course the Captain reversed the vessel and correctly headed, at flank speed, for the approximate spot that he prayed I would be.

I was very cold and tired. The sun rose from the East and blinded me. Three hours had passed but that feeling that all was fine never left me. "Was it the ocean sounds themselves, that sounded like a deep but gentle voice?" A small cloud cover blocked the sun and there on the horizon was a form that grew larger. My ship was coming for me, but then, I knew all along it would.

Lookouts covering all three hundred sixty degrees of the sea had been posted and one of spotted me. "There THEY are, there THEY are", was shouted all along the bridge. How could that be when only one was missing? A small utility boat was put in the water and soon I was yanked aboard.