| Bad judgment isn't
reserved for seamen; it also affects chiefs. Before you disagree, read
these accounts of two incidents that occurred five days apart. Granted,
the two Coast Guard victims weren't assigned to the same command (not even
the same geographic location), but their problem was the same.
In the first incident, a CPO was returning to his ship from liberty
when he decided to take a shortcut and climb a base fence, instead of
using the gate. He caught his foot on top of the fence as he was going
over and fell on the pavement. Doctors initially thought he only had
sprained his foot, but X-rays revealed he had torn some ligaments. The
doctors put a cast on his foot and gave him light duty for six weeks.
In the second incident, a seaman was walking back to the base alone
after a night of partying with a shipmate and some local college-age
people. When he arrived at the gate, it was closed, and he couldn't
remember the combination to open it. He knew he should ring the call
button and wake up the base OOD to let him in, but he instead decided to
climb over the 52-inch, steel, security fence.
His plan worked OK until he reached the top of the fence. His foot then
slipped, and he fell, impaling himself on a three-quarter-inch-by-six-inch
point. He hung there screaming for help until a civilian neighbor heard
his cries and called the local police. They arrived 10 minutes later and
found the seaman hanging on the opposite side of the fence by his thigh,
with the tip of the spike sticking out the back of his thigh and pants.
The police called fire-department and EMS personnel, who then notified
duty officers aboard the base and the victim's cutter. Once a surgeon had
given permission, five people on the scene lifted the seaman off the
spiked tipan hour and a half after he had impaled himself. He had three
puncture wounds in his right, upper thigh, but the spike had missed all
major arteries and bones.
The seaman spent two days in a hospital and seven days on convalescent
leave. Doctors then put him on 14 days of light duty.
After this mishap occurred, the cutter's skipper asked the injured
seaman why he didn't wake up the OOD. "I didn't want to get caught
for underage drinking" was his response.
"I've been an OinC for nine years," said the skipper,
"and have seen young men and women go to all kinds of lengths to
avoid being caught after a night of illegal alcohol consumption. This
attempt, though, is the worst I've ever seen." |
