SHILOH’s missing sailor found
Last week, the US and Japanese navies spent days looking for Gas Turbine Systems Technician (Mechanical) 3rd Class Peter Mims who they thought fell overboard from the USS SHILOH. Turns out he was hiding from them on board the ship, according to the Navy Times;
The sailor who went missing June 8 and was presumed dead…had reportedly hid himself in one of the engine rooms, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
It is unclear how Mims survived a week in the engineering space or where he was hiding. He will be been flown off Shiloh for evaluation soon.
Mims disappearance prompted a massive, 50-hour search-and-rescue effort off the coast of Japan that included Japanese Coast Guard and naval forces.
He must be the first sailor to miss chow for that long and to go without a steaming cup of coffee every hour.
Category: Navy
Did he get a “Dear John”?
Something is seriously wrong there.
On the other hand – I’m glad he’s alive.
Amen to that…
Just throw the litle turd overboard, no search party, let him swim to catch the ship!!!
Burn his ass and charge him for the man hours spent looking for his worthless ass.
Not just the manhours, but the fuel as well. Ship’s fuel, helicopter fuel, enriched Uranium… All of it.
I recall a similar incident occurring on a ship sailing from Hawaii to San Diego some time back in the 1990’s. Anyone else remember that one?
We had one jump for real between Hawaii and San Diego on the USS Lang FF 1060. I believe he was a FN and he was getting rode pretty hard by a MM2 – It was different Navy back then – We fished him out and he lived.
Don’t remember that one in particular. I do know of a case involving a ship out of Yokosuka in the early-90’s. A couple of crypto-types were smuggling some Filipina ladies of the night from The PI back to Yoko in a secure, cypher-locked space.
Needless to say they got caught.
Trafficking In Persons anybody?
More like trafficking in Poon-Tang…
I don’t remember that, but I remember when LCpl Rother was left behind in the 29 Palms desert in 1988.
That situation didn’t turn out well for anyone involved.
I was there right after the incident and it was still being used as a “lesson learned” when I retired in ’08. Too many fuck-ups that cost a Marine his life.
I remember that and I wasn’t even in the Army then
A year after that I was working in the summer’s for the USGS
Doing field work on Volcanoes in the Ludlow area by Dagget
We were working a field south of old 66 and were put on notice
About a missing marine and to keep our eyes open
Talk about crazy
Jason Rother. Very sad case. I was in Camp Pendelton at the time and we spent a lot of field time at the stumps.
They really stressed personnel accountability after that.
Rother’s unit was out from Lejuene doing a CAX.
He had got put on a S-4 detail guiding vehicles back at night at a checkpoint. It was supposed to be two Marines per checkpoint but for some reason they split him and his buddy up, and he was moved a bot away from the Checkpoint
The NCO in charge of picking up the ones on the detail was told by the Marine at the Checkpoint that Rother was not at the point. His response was “Get on or get left”.
He was probably assuming that the checkpoints had ALL the Marines HE was responsible for at them.
When they returned the Marines were told back to their respective Companies.
The next day the Bn S-4 assumed he was back with his company. His Company assumed he was still with S-4.
The Battalion went on a 96 and it wasnt until after they found out he was missing.
By then he was probably already deceased.
He walked over 26 miles and almost made it to a highway before he died.
He kept all his gear with him, including his weapon.
I had forgotten about this incident. So sad!
Similar incidents…on large deep draft ships it’s not all that uncommon. We had it happen when I was ships company on a birdfarm, but I don’t recall anyone faking that they had gone overboard. I did quite a few confinement physicals, but too many too long ago to remember the exact circumstances for each of them.
The one back in the 1990’s had them coming back to San Diego. A few days before hitting port, the sailor “fell overboard”, and they stayed about two days in the area searching for him. The ships hits home port, and everyone is depressed because they lost one of their shipmates. Then someone finds clues that someone was hiding out in some out of the way place on ship, and his POV that was parked at the pier when they set sail is now mysteriously no longer there. I think that they caught up with him in a sleepy little village down Mexico way, living with his Mexican wife’s family. A pasty white kid who speaks no Spanish tends to stick out in a town like that.
Idiot.
Either that, or he has some mental issues.
Well, he did join the Navy…
* ducks and covers to avoid incoming frying pans…
I second the motion.
Tehehehehe!
I’ll hunker down with you on that one..
You doggies sure can march!
Well, if that’s how things work in the Navy, I now understand why my son spent 26 years in it./smile
Shit! Posted the comment too soon without completing my thought.
It should read:
“I now understand why one son spent 26 years in the Navy and his twin brother spent only four in the Army.”
Self correction. I’ll go now and beat my face until you’ll are tired of watching me.
EPIC!!!!!
Wait………you guys have co ed showers???????
Atleast us hosers have beer machines on our ships! Stocked full of ice cold non-pissy CDN beer 🙂
This too.
I’m sticking with “idiot”.
1 – He’s in gas turbine mechanics. That’s not a dweeby PN’s job. GE, Siemens, Westinghouse, Mitsubishi – all looking for techs and engineers.
2 – Running away from the job he was hired to do, instead of sticking it out, is a dent in his resume.
3 – Naybe he just doesn’t like ships at sea. Well, no one made him join the Navy, did they?
That silly stunt IS NOT gonna look good on his resume’!
We had a mechanic with marriage problems stow away in a P-3 Doppler well before it flew back to NAS Jacksonville. He got away with it, as it’s all pressurized, but it gets bitter cold down there. He got an admin separation and a divorce.
And a nice display box for his dick-cicle…
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you USS SHILOH’s master shammer. His expertise at skating from duty were so great that he ended up becoming that ship’s hide and seek champion.
Pete’s next performance eval from a very pissed off CoC isn’t going to be very career enhancing I imagine. Some brig time, and then Pete can go hide out on the streets.
I’m quite sure that Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater never missed a chow call, head call, or cup of coffee.
More than likely chillaxin’ down in the bilges. Plenty of room onboard a CG to do that. If, IF, he ends up being retained and only gets a little NJP action, he might find himself back in the bilges doing a little extra duty as a restricted man except this time it will be with a rag and some Simple Green.
With multiple engineering divisions, he wouldn’t be exempt from that kind of work seeing as how you can’t do extra duty for your own division……lol
I was thinking he found a comfortable spot during field day and fell asleep… for a week. The best field day cleaning spots are the ones where no one else can see you.
I wonder if some of his “buds” didn’t duct-tape his ass into a cocoon, hang him up upside-down on lower level next to pump, and then forget about him. I’ve seen it happen but not for a week (more like 6-7 hours).
Not a rational choice no matter the circumstances. Pretty good chance he has acute mental health problems and they could be caused by a medical condition.
When I was in AIT we had a soldier completely lose it. He was running around the base naked and scared and screamed at people who tried to talk him down.
Turned out he had a brain tumor. Which you would not suspect in a healthy 20 year old. Fortunately the command approached his actions without assuming he was merely a head case that needed to be kicked out so tests were ordered that led to the diagnosis and saved his life.
If he had been a marginal soldier prior to the event the command might not have given him the benefit of the doubt and the tumor might have been missed.
Good to hear they caught the medical issue, and got him the help he needed.
Had an HM3/2 on Guam with rep as a no-load … late for work, naps during the day, etc. Facing courts martial, finally got a good workup including a nuclear medicine bone scan which revealed very nearly every bone in his body was consumed with cancer. I had never seen a bone scan with so much cancer. Shipped to Bethesda and he died within a few weeks. Never learned of the primary source. In this case it didn’t matter … no amount of intervention would have saved this young man. We might not die FROM cancer, but I’m convinced each of us dies WITH cancer.
The mighty Shiloh CG 67 gets a black eye for not finding this guy on the ship. Ouch would not want to be the CHENG, CO or XO – I bet MMC/MMCS are taking a beating in the CPO Mess but all in all sounds like there was some collusion by shipmates to hide him for a week. I have been stem to stern on the Shiloh 1997 to 2000 was SOY there in 2000 helped me pick up Chief. Hate to see something negative in the press about the Super Ship.
Collusion? You think some of his buddies or other watchstanders might have been involved? Quite possible an makes sense.
I was never on CG’s, only FFG’s and I can tell you that if we had of been in that situation (man overboard), the second that muster report came back negative/shy (1) person, that ship would have been tore apart searching for them.
So, looks like a version of the Human Shell Game was played.
I agree that’s why I feel there was some collusion – that ship is still small enough for most people to know who everyone is and yes you can go without eating for 5 days but its a stretch plus if he was in the engine room its still hot in all the good hiding places. Then you have the sounding watches making rounds and the initial search of the ship. I mean anything is possible I just don’t think it’s probable that he stayed hidden 5 days on his own and I don’t blame anyone on the Shiloh if that is the case further airing their dirty laundry but rather handle that situation in house.
I agree 100%.
I agree. No f’ing way you can lay low for that long and SOMEONE doesn’t know.
He’s fucked.
Agreed.
Only a wild guess on my part, but I think the need for Sideboys for his February 2034 retirement ceremony can be dropped.
Says he was forced to petty officer so he was a outstanding sailor prior to the incident.
There is definitely more to this and I hope the Navy approaches this from the standpoint of medical before they consider charges.
Frocked, not forced.
Apparently autocorrect never heard of “frocked”.
All frocked means is that he was recently advanced from E-3 to E-4 and isn’t being paid for it yet.
Outstanding? I wouldn’t say that either. Just because shipwreck was advanced to E-4 only means he met the minimum requirements as far as his performance evaluation and test scores go.
Advancement quotas for this past cycle: 327 eligible candidates for advancement to GSM3, 207 were advanced. That makes a whopping 63.30% advancement rate.
That’s almost as easy as making sure that the all the bubbles are filled in correctly with ye’ old #2 pencil and your name and social are correct – almost!
Coming out of “A” school in 1967 meant automatic advancement to E-4. When I took the E-5 tests, I passed but I had to wait 4 months to get the crow because I didn’t have enough time in rate at E-4. And in addition, I had to extend my enlistment by 4 months. Things may have changed since then, but that’s how it was back then.
Oh, then the Navy frocks enlisted more generously than the Army. Junior enlisted are usually frocked when the commander wants them to be given an accelerated supervisory position but the soldier is not yet eligible for the promotion due to time in grade, time in service, or limited promotion opportunities in the larger Army manning numbers.
For officers in most cases it is similar to the Navy in that the officer was selected for promotion but the Army has not reached them on the promotion list so their commander authorizes them to wear the next higher grade in the interim. Except commanders usually only authorize frocking for officers they think are high performers.
Nah they aren’t more generous with frocking as much as they are stingy about paying you.
In the Nav, you have to have all requirements for the next paygrade to be advanced, even if you get a meritorious promotion.
So I’m still confused. (which is pretty easy since I was Army)
The last paragraph of the Navy Times article says he was advanced to PO3 in August 2015, but wasn’t frocked to PO3 until just last month.
How does that work? Was he some type of an E-4 Mafia Acting Jack (Army term) PO3 for almost two years before pinning on the appropriate rank for real? And still never was paid for the grade of E-4?
Or is the last paragraph of the article FUBAR?
Somebody help me out.
Claw – He was frocked to E-4, got to sew the patch on and assume the responsibilities of an E-4 but was not getting payed for it until last month.
While frocked, say an E-3 frocked to E-4, if you mess up and go see the captain (NJP) and get busted down a notch in rank as a frocked E-4, you will be busted down to E-2 due to the fact that the rank of E-4 was not permanent.
Rank is only made “permanent” after you start getting paid for it.
“When you get paid” is based off of how you score on the Navywide Advancement Exam. If you score super-high (First Increment) you get paid almost immediately. If you score lower, but still high enough to pass the exam and advance, you get paid in successive increments which translates into waiting almost a year to start getting paid.
That’s how it used to work, at least.
^^^Truth^^^
Okay, I think I have a grasp on it now.
Thanks for the help.
Things certainly have changed, then, because I only had to wait until I had enough time in rate to sew on the crow. I got the pay raise immediately.
Yep!!
“Congratulations, you have been advanced to the rank of Petty Officer Second Class and get all of the things that come with it: rank, responsibility, authority but no extra pay for at least a few months!”
The only exception is if you made first increment if my memory serves me correctly, then you got paid with the quickness.
Yep… been on both ends of the frocking issue.
Frocking generally only occurs in the Army when a promotable SFC is holding a 1SG position. They can wear the rank, but don’t get the pay.
Same with the USMC for 1stSgt and SgtMaj ranks.
I also had a battery commander who was frocked to Captain
I say they bring him back to the U.S. and then put him on a ship off the coast of North Carolina and then throw his ass overboard and he can swim around and look for his shipmate that went missing earlier and now they have called off the search.
It’s only fair seeing as how he *faked* being missing.
http://myfox8.com/2017/06/12/navy-calls-off-search-for-sailor-who-went-overboard-off-nc-coast/
Old Army guy here…doesn’t the Navy still have 20 lashes well laid on and keelhauling?
Nope, and interesting point of history…the Navy banned flogging before the Army did.
I keep telling people most of these problems happen because of Fan Rooms.
Being locked in a Fan Room down with the Hole Snipes is cruel and unusual treatment. I bet anything some Deck Ape was out to kick his ass so he hid in the only place nobody ever goes…I heard things coming from out of those wells…strange things…from where only the red lights glow.
How much money did you lose playing poker down there?
I only went down there for the Bug Juice Wine that was aged to perfection.
I tried not to leave the First Class Mess as much as possible. They eventually kicked me out…something to do with rank and all.
Old Goats locker reeked of bengay and burnt coffee.
We use to call that “wisdom” and “lifer-juice”, Dave….
🙂
He went unnoticed onboard for a week?
Skating Level: Grand Master
The E-4 mafia could take lessons from this guy
Word ^^^^
If I had of been drinking something it would have been spit all over my monitor, just sayin’!
Bonus level new achievement unlocked: Stealth Master
A Grand MASTER Shammer that will be the subject of many a “NO SHIT, THERENWE WERE…” stories as well as safety briefings.
He put a lot of assets and asses in danger.
He better hope he has mental problems.
How they going to punish him? Give him food and cell with a bed? They going to make him swab the deck?
No, he’d like that. More likely, he’ll get extra watch stations, plus no liberty or shore leave once they pull into port. Instead of working in his rate, he may end up scrubbing floors, cleaning heads, and reciting the requirements for MM2, which he will never see.
Scrap the MM2. I meant GSM2
Ships have brigs. Bread and water is still a viable punishment. He is not required to have a bed.
I used to have to go to the ship’s brig to do welfare checks on the prisoners to be sure they were healthy and give them a chance to report any mistreatment.
Fukkers would be there sitting on the deck in skivvies with a box of bread and jug of water…looking unhappy.
After the brig they get whatever UCMJ punishment the Captain doles out: 45/45, half months pay x 2 and a bust was common. That 45 days restriction/extra duty you can bet involved a lot of swabbing, chipping, painting etc.
No shoe laces…and a type of head of the line privilege at chow that NOBODY wanted.
Or maybe a nice visit to CCU? That’s always fun!!!! We sent a couple of shipwrecks to CCU-B Pearl Harbor and let me tell you, it worked wonders!!!!!
CCU… ah, yes. The “come to Jesus meeting” for those that want to change their ways. Saw a few hard heads go in and become 4.0/5.0 Sailors coming out.
Tell me about it!!! I distinctly remember having the pleasure of standing POOW on the quarterdeck when we shipped a turd off to CCU. The “shipmate-in-question” was standing off to the side of the Q-deck with his seabag at the ready. As usual, he had a poor attitude and looked the same – Joe Crap The Rag Man. I moved outside the skin of the ship to rap with the OOD when a sparkly white, 12-pax van with US Navy plates pulled-up to the brow. A squared away Petty Officer 1st Class in his working whites came aboard after asking permission and properly saluting and politely asked the OOD and myself where his “pick-up” was….. I pointed over to where the shipwreck was and said “He’s right over there!” (I think I had a smile on my face) He politely replied “Thank you!” and headed toward the doomed. Old boy was just chillin’ and leaning up against the bulkhead and looked at the PO1 like “M’fer, please”. Well….that PO1 came unglued! He screamed at the guy “Come to the position of attention you effing POS!!” The look on dirtbag’s face was priceless!!! He popped to attention like a scared recruit!! The PO1 then turned his attention to dirtbag’s seabag. He screamed at him “Did you pack this?!” and the reply was a feeble and barely audible “Ye-e-e-ssss”. Old boy unhooked the clasp at the top of the seabag and held that thing up in the air and emptied the entire contents all over the deck and proceeded to kick everything that came out of it!! He then “instructed” – screamed – “Get your effing crap off of the deck, dirtbag, and put it back into the bag – DO IT NOW!!!!” This went on for a few minutes. Mind you, this occurred at roughly at 0900 so the passageway was full of dudes going about their daily work. There were guys on the pier smoking ciggy’s, there were folks topside doing maintenance – they couldn’t have picked a better time to pick him up!! He was escorted off of the… Read more »
Had a young Sailor that was a problem child when I was in Yokosuka and a new CPO in ’94. Every Monday at 0800, both of us were in front of the CMC’s desk for an ass chewing – the kids for some act of stupidity, be for being the CMC’s whipping boy (CMC had some ongoing problems including being hooked on prescription painkillers). beofe the kid transferred out, Butch (the CMC) wanted to ADSEP the kid… I told him that he was a vindictive SOB and that he might as well ADSEP me along with the kid since he “loved” us both so much. The kid PCS’ed off to the Stated and I headed off to the FMF after that.
Fast forward to ’07 – get an e-mail from the same kid. He made Chief and thanked me for standing up to Butch and for him and giving him a chance 13 years earlier. Told him he needed to do the same thing – find some kid that needed a little guidance and hope and give it to him/her.
Still have that e-mail… brings tears to my eyes every damn time I read it. One of the proudest moments in my life.
That is the best kind of service award anyone can get.
Congratulations, Sir.
Well done!
I’ve seen cases of 45 days restriction where the punishment depended on how much the Captain liked you personally. Some guys did 45 straight calendar days, other less popular guys got 45 days restriction applicable only when the boat was in port.
Had a Bn Commander in 1/11 LtCol Redlin. The Marines called him ” Max” Redlin because he had actually went into the copy of UCMJ punishments in his guideline for administering NJP and blacked out everything except for the maximum punishment.
Sounds like a CSM I once had who was nicknamed “Mad Max” because he NEVER recommended anything other than max punishment for Field Grade Article 15’s.
I submit he is only second best historically: at Ft. Benning in the other OCS company there was a guy in ’84 who was in his 11th week and the tac officers STILL had to read his nametag to remember his name. Lowest profile I have ever heard of, military or civilian.
That “invisible man” may have had a spectacularly successful career in clandestine operations.
Before going through Basic in 97, people told me to essentially be the gray man.
About six weeks in, we were doing the MOPP acclimation training (spending time being miserable at the various MOPP levels in July). At the end we each had to sound-off our names to the DS so he could check off that we had completed the training.
“Drill Sergeant, Private Watson, Drill Sergeant!”
“Private Watson, are you in my platoon?”
“Yes, Drill Sergeant!”
“Where have you been hiding?”
“Third squad, Drill Sergeant!”
“Carry on”
In basic we had to all do a stint in the mess hall. One for some reason was on the list every day and being basic training didnt say anything, he just reported there. He missed about all of the training before someone noticed and was given the option of seperation or doing basic again for real. To his credit he chose the second
On my 1992-93 Med/Adriatic Cruise aboard USS John F. Kennedy we had a young man decide he didn’t want to play Navy anymore and went UA on the ship.
We had a Man Overboard drill to ensure that someone was missing. But, they never kept it (the drill) going when he didn’t muster. I guess they had a good idea of what was going on.
The following evening during the evening news, the Ship’s XO came on the tv with an impassioned plea for this clown to turn himself in. Because XO didn’t want to have to inform his NOK that he’d gone missing at-sea.
That didn’t work, so the following night we had a ship-wide search conducted by all E-5 and above to see if he was hiding in a Fan Room, a void, or in some berthing somewhere.
He was not found, but word got around that a bed had been set up in a secluded fan room somewhere with a lot of cigarette butts.
Here’s the kicker:
Apparently he was a PN or YN and was able to forge a set of orders to get himself flown off the the ship in the COD.
Later, word got around that he had enlisted under a false name, and he was wanted for some crime back in USS Hometown…
That whole experience sure broke up the monotony of drilling holes in the ocean off the coast of Bosnia.
This guy might have had help hiding out, someone to bring food and water. Not sure about sanitary arrangements, though. Maybe they found him by smell?
I vaguely recall an incident back in the late 1970’s on one of the carriers I was on. A very junior sailor assigned temporarily to the mess decks supposedly slid out the trash chute. (A different time this was, when garbage was dropped into the sea.) The scuttlebutt was that another sailor in the trash room saw him go out the chute but in fact was an accomplice who helped hide the miscreant.
Would that be the Indy, by chance?
Right now, I’d hate to be on the Shiloh… the brass is going to be asking some really hard questions about this of the leadership and looking into how drills and searches are done on this ship. The sailor hopefully will tell them what he did to evade those looking for him, but how the crew went about it will come under some scrutiny.
It will be interesting to read the findings of any investigation on this.
Clown.
I spent a bit of time embarked on Navy Ships, but my real eye-opening about all the nooks and crannies of a ship was when I was a pipe fitter after I retired. I helped build a few and also did repairs.
A real cunning person can do what he did no problem. You just have to be willing to wiggle your way into a confined space. You can even seal yourself in if you have good enough ventilation.
I didnt see this question in the comments but if a man is reported overboard without eyewitnesses dont they do a full ship search?
Not immediately. The first thing they do is begin the search in the water and get a full accountability…everybody reports to their man overboard station for full accounting.
Overboard search first then on board? Seems backwards if no one saw the sailor go over but I guess the ocean is a big place
The assumption is that no one is going to intentionally go missing. The ocean is a huge mass of swells and troughs. A man overboard needs the ship to make a swift reaction in an attempt to find him. If you were to look in the skin of the ship and he was actually overboard…well, chances of finding him are slim.
Without full accountability, you don’t really know how many are missing either.
Man overboard drills are frequently conducted without notice and a random Sailor or two are often taken somwhere as a QA check to see if the division will submit a false muster.
To pile on what IDC SARC is saying…we also had time constraints to muster during a MOB drill. I think the Carriers I was on the brass wanted a full (5,500+ Sailors/Marines) muster within 8-10 minutes….you never wanted to have your name read over the 1MC; and you NEVER wanted to have your name repeated several times to come down to Admin…and you REALLY NEVER wanted the Ship’s XO to tell you to get your ass down to his office with your ID in hand.
I’d like to add that once a MOB is announced the helm is immediately ordered to conduct a hard turn to port that when completed will bring the ship right to the marker that was thrown in the water where the person was seen to go over, or the sound of a splash was heard at night.
We had some joker(s) on FID that thought it was funny to throw chem lights over the side on my 1st cruise. We had a MOB called every night for a week straight because of this. The Skipper came over the 1MC at dusk one evening and said he didn’t care how many ladders this clown fell up on his way to the bridge when he was found.
The chemlights stopped going in the water…
One advantage of serving on a sub; if anyone goes overboard, EVERYONE knows it!
And, you win the award for best comment of the entire thread!!!
GEE WHIZ, give the kid a break. Maybe he was skating as he laid on a fart sack above the chilled water tanks reading a Play boy magazine. At least that’s what I used to do in the fan/chilled water tank space. Someone put a fart sack above the chilled water tanks with a number of Play boy magazines. If one would enter the space, he would not see the set up because the sack was above eye level and there was one tank on top of the other with just enough room to grab a fast “nooner” Of course I showed up for chow and to turn two. This was a short time skating spot. usually 20 minutes before chow and when we were were operating in the Caribean, it was getting some rays up on one of the flight decks 5″50 gun tubs. AH, to be young again.
I’m an old timer out here, but do they still call the dummy that is thrown over board “OSCAR”?? Being a Fire man 1st in A div. we had to stand the under way life boat watches, so being an A “gang” snipe I stood the watch in the starboard motor whale boat as the stern hook. As the this is a drill this is a drill, Man over board man over board, away the starboard motor whale boat, away was piped over the 1MC there I was Holding on to those monkey line knotted ropes as we were lowered to the water, bow hook handling the sea painter and me on the stern line. And no I did not have to show a fresh air chit as a snipe in the forward hanger bay air dale country diesel engine repair shop.