Coast Guard:
Pulled in for mid patrol break on a small island on the Alaskan chain – expected four days of relative quiet.
Duty section established and the crew scattered.
Some went into the community for “food other than galley” some went fishing, some went hunting. A few went for “a beer”.
8 hours or so into this the ship got a call that some guy on a nearby island had basically broke his neck and had to be medivaced to Anchorage to save his life.
The ship started it recall siren and we all came running at best possible speeds.
I wasnt far, maybe a mile, I broke into a trot – the towns folk saw us all moving and I was picked up on my way to the ship by a convoy of trucks.
When I arrived one of the pilots for the helo was in his seat wearing muddy civilian clothes going thru his checklist. I manned my getting underway position, was bumped up to the bridge to the chart table due to our lack of bodies.
The plan was to get far enough away from the dock to deploy the helicopter then follow it out as it went to the other island. Then send it toward the nearest airstrip with the injured person to be flown out by a waiting fixed wing craft.
The captain ordered us underway.
( if the CAPTAIN steps up on my ship to take the deck and conn instead of letting the junior officers split the duty, it was serious.)
I found myself swinging fixes under the XO, ops was on deck with the bosun. As soon as we left the dock the captain swung us around and told the pilot to get going.
I looked around to see coasties who had missed the rides sprinting down the dock.
One crewman hit the end of the pier and landed with a roll onto the fantail before we got too far from the pier. I saw others all around us running thru bogs and coming from the town having missed the ship.
We were a coast guard commercial – the dolphin helo spun up and and as the ship was spinning in place he deftly took off – casually avoided powerlines and whipped out of the harbor while we brought our jet engine up on line and prepared to switch from diesels to follow.
Out of a crew of 70 or so, a little more than 20 of us missed movement. These guy’s slogged it back to town to wait for our return.
I cant speak for navy but I do know that in the Coast Guard if you have a legitimate reason to miss movement like I described there is no penalty other than ragged for being too slow.
Do it on purpose or be stupid like leaving the town to go to another town or waking up after a bar crawl and you will be on the wrong side of the green table.
You will at best be restricted to ship at worst we can’t use you and you will be sent back to the nearest large ( relative) base to be treated badly.