Posted on 09/02/2003 1:03:23 PM PDT by presidio9
In the 1960s, life in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries became unbearable for many people, some military personnel included. Quite a few tried to escape to the West, occasionally risking their lives for the chance of a new life. A navy buddy told me the story of one sailor's attempt to leave the Soviet Union behind.
In the summer of 1960, when the standoff between NATO and the Warsaw Pact was at its height, a Soviet battle cruiser from the Northern Fleet, with a destroyer sailing in its wake, cruised into the Mediterranean. The senior lieutenant in charge of the ship's anti-aircraft weapons, whom we'll call Sergei, frequently stopped on the bridge to ask about the ship's location.
As the ship steamed back toward the Atlantic that evening, Sergei once more stepped onto the bridge and inquired about the ship's position. The cruiser was then approaching Gibraltar, about six miles off the Spanish coast. Sergei was dressed in a warm uniform, as was customary for an officer preparing to go on the night watch. When he left the bridge, five miles or so remained to Gibraltar.
That evening, the ship's commander was informed that Sergei had gone missing. A search of the ship came up empty, though it was discovered that Sergei's chemical warfare suit, life jacket and gas mask were missing. Someone reported having seen Sergei earlier in the evening on the forecastle, a part of the deck that stands about seven meters above the waterline.
When the ship docked at Severodvinsk, the commander was interrogated in one office after the next, and was made to file endless reports about the incident. Three theories were being considered. First, that Sergei had fallen overboard. Second, that he had been pushed. And third, that he had jumped into the sea, hoping to swim to the Spanish coast and ask for asylum.
Sergei's death was a foregone conclusion in any case. The seven-meter fall from the deck in a chemical warfare suit was enough to kill him straight off. He could have drowned or been chewed up in the propeller of the cruiser or the destroyer. Even if Sergei had managed to swim away from the ship, the likelihood that he would have been sucked into the propeller of one of the many ships plying the Straits of Gibraltar was extremely high.
Sergei's father refused to believe that his son had abandoned the motherland and jumped overboard of his own free will. The ship's commander retired from the navy after suffering a heart attack following one last interrogation.
That same winter, news arrived from Spain that fishermen had found the corpse of a man in a chemical warfare suit wearing a life jacket. His face was hidden by a gas mask. Documents in the drowned man's pockets established that this was Sergei. The poor bastard, driven by his dream of a better life, never made it to shore.
On second thought, after 8 years of Clinton, maybe he would.
And swim back. :^(
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