An Incredible Saga of Seaman Hegdahl - American Hero - Page 11

Dick Stratton, Lieutenant Commander, USS Ticonderoga

"My name is Seaman Douglas Brent Hegdahl, Sir. What's yours?" It is awful hard to look dignified when you are standing in your underwear, knock-kneed, ding-toed, pot-bellied, unwashed and unshaven for 100 days. I automatically recited, "Dick Stratton, Lieutenant Commander, USS Ticonderoga." Immediately I saw that I probably made a mistake as his eyes rolled back in his head and you could see what he was thinking: "Cripes, another officer!" But notice that instinctively he asked the critical and most important question for survival: "Who is your senior?" The rule we lived by was: "If I am senior, I will take charge; if junior, I will obey."