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Originally Posted by STEED
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Well, I saw one in Dec. of 1973 passing through the San Bernardino Straits just north of the island of Samar on the transit from Midway to Subic Bay on Luzon. He was wearing a white hat, the old style blue chambray shirt and the old Stove-pipe dungarees. I was sitting on the bitts on the focs'le late one night in a calm sea when the forward brake door opened up and this guy walked through the doorway and up towards me. There was no moon and the only light was the stars and the comet Kahoutek low in the sky. He walked forward past me without saying a word and continued forward around the 5"38 gun mount. I started to follow him after he passed out of view, then we took a wave over the bow so I ducked behind the ASROC launcher to keep dry. When I came back around and forward he was gone.
When I told the OS's on watch in CIC about it later, they pointed to the chart. When I had seen this guy, we were passing over the wreck of USS Johnston(DD-557), sunk in the battle off Samar and Leyte. The reason I never called man overboard was my ship had 250 men in the crew so I knew everyone aboard. I had never seen this guy before or since.