Chapter 2: Command Presence Summary and Analysis

After flunking out of school, eighteen-year-old Wolff worked on a Coast and Geodetic Survey ship. Perhaps it was his youth and his cheerfulness that was off-putting to some of the veteran sailors that caused their resentful attitude toward him. One day he had gone down by the idle propeller to see if it was in good repair. While down there, it was so cool and refreshing that he leaned his head against it and dozed off. He had just raised his head and walked away when another sailor started to the propeller. Had he still been leaning against it, he would have been mutilated and killed.

While ashore one evening, he got so drunk that he couldn't drag himself back to the ship. It departed without him. He was already a loser having dropped out of school...