Maybe they are confused how they could be shipmates and not on the same boat. Not everyone knows that they all lived together on a barracks ship, and then fought together from little squadrons of small gunboats.
I can see how this might be true of a someone that is new to this story, but the talking heads have been informed time and again about how one didn't have to be a "crew member" in order to have "served with" him. They KNOW, they just play dumb so as to convince others to think the same way. Burns my bacon.