U.S.S. Allen M. Sumner DD-692
The Body

LTJG Chuck Morrell had the 0800-1200 Deck Watch on May 3, 1965 while the SUMNER was patrolling off of the coast of the Dominican Republic during their political crisis.  His entry in the Ship's Deck Log is a bit brief and he has kindly expanded on the incident for us.  Chuck relates:

"I can remember a few things about recovering the body...we had a sig's chief, I believe his name was Chief Neville or something like that. Someone from the signal bridge reported a sea turtle floating on the surface, so we went over to have a closer look. Well we shouldn't have, cause it was a dead, very dead...bloated body. It was the first time I had ever smelled anything that dead and believe me everyone had come topside for a looksee. The smell drove most of the men back to their stations. We radioed the OTC (second mistake) and they told us to recover it and turn it over to the local authorities.

We had one guy...a BM...McCarty who was up to it and he used a boat hook. The more he grabbed onto it, the more disintegrated it became...all the time giving off more sweet sick nasty odors. Part of one of the legs came off and a shark nosed up and took a bite. McCarty got it into a black plastic bag and we took it in to the police...only problem was...they didn't want to be bothered.

After a long wait and some high level communications they came and got it. We went out again glad to be rid of it...and there were no more sea turtle sightings!"