Anytime, peace or war, rough water or calm, moving people between two boats on the water is never a sure thing.
I remember one time, coming back from liberty, as the liberty launch full of drunk sailors pulled up to the stern of the carrier, the water was rough enough that the platform attached to the stern of the ship was rising and falling, while independently of that, the liberty launch was rising and falling at a different rate.
The result was, the boat and the deck were sometimes as far as six feet away from each other, and were swinging wildly past each other. We had to time it, so that as the two rushed past each other, they would occasionally pause for a second or two nearly even, and two or three drunk guys would leap over before it began oscillating again.
There were a few instances where people leaped badly or stumbled and either ended up in a heap on the other side, or had people grabbing them to pull them all the way over. People all doing this while completely intoxicated. To this day, I am not only amazed they were trying to get people aboard in this fashion, but also that nobody was seriously hurt or crushed between the vessels.
I also read about the battle for Iwo Jima, where they had a large pallet with 24 wounded Marines in litters on it, and they were hoisting it onto a ship. The hoist gave way, and all the men went into the water. None were recovered.
Tragic, tso think you’ve survived hell only to drown strapped to a pallet. Pure horror I suspect before the great reward, Thanks to Jesus.
The result was, the boat and the deck were sometimes as far as six feet away from each other, and were swinging wildly past each other. We had to time it, so that as the two rushed past each other, they would occasionally pause for a second or two nearly even, and two or three drunk guys would leap over before it began oscillating again.
There were a few instances where people leaped badly or stumbled and either ended up in a heap on the other side, or had people grabbing them to pull them all the way over. People all doing this while completely intoxicated. To this day, I am not only amazed they were trying to get people aboard in this fashion, but also that nobody was seriously hurt or crushed between the vessels.
We were on A MED Cruise in 79. I'd been on boat duty for 24 hours and was fixing to get relieved. We went to Deck House one {quarterdeck} to pick up a load of officers and my relief was to meet me there. I was working on a PB crew. I decided to lay against the windshield while waiting. Big Mistake. Seas were calm but a swell caught the boat. I heard someone yell my first name and Jump so I looked up and dove into the deck just as the windshield was busted by the deck house ladder. I got back to the states a few months later and my dad asked if I had a close call one night. He said my mom woke up yelling Jump.
I did the boat crew a cruise and a half till I got my Crow. All A-Division Snipes E-3 and below were sent T.A.D. boat crew in port on deployments. The liberty boats were ran by two deckapes and a snipe plus after dusk till morning a boat officer.
I know what you mean about getting from boat to deck house platform. I missed once myself and went between the barrel and platform. I was lucky the Coxun saw it happen and kept the boat off me till I got out. The only thing harder is trying to get on a boat from a Jacobs Ladder from a boat boom. On a carrier the boat booms are level with the hanger deck. When we weren't making runs we tied off to a boom and used the Jacobs Ladder to get on and off the boat onto the ship. That usually required leaving one man on the boat so he could drive the boat under the guy coming down. I about got my skull cracked a couple of times trying to get from the Jacobs Ladder onto the boat. Swells are not fun.
It seems the media in this article is trying a blame game for circumstances they know little about. No one wanted to drop the woman but there are too many uncontrollable factors in an at sea transfer even under best of seas.
I've seen wire mesh stretchers used for transferring drunk and disorderly sailors from Liberty Launch to ship. We would put a life jacket on them, tie them in, then place another stretcher on top forming a restraining cage of sorts. We then tied a couple of life jackets to the cage as well. Drunk could not hurt you during transit was the goal. Getting them from the boat onto deck house platform was a P.I.T.A. The sailor for causing such a ride always won a free visit to see the Old Man and usually lost liberty the duration of the cruise, a rank, and some pay.
The one thing I hated with a deep passion was being first on duty when we hit port. That meant I had to launch the boat. Instead of simply climbing on the boat while still on the ship the ships Bosun always made us jump from the aircraft elevator onto the boat. That meant trying to climb out of the wire safety net on the elevator and jumping onto the boat. Then the crane would lower us on down to the water. It was a dangerous manuver.