How Sailor Hid for A Week on the USS Shiloh Without Being Caught

GIKorea | January 3, 2018 | U.S. Navy | 2 Comments

The Navy Times has an interesting read about the Navy’s 2017 Hide and Seek champion on the USS Shiloh:

Peter Mims was a troubled sailor who wanted out of the Navy.

He had financial problems, his marriage had fallen apart and his chain of command was riding him about qualifications. He’d sought mental health counseling, but was not treated when he needed it most.

Before he disappeared from the cruiser Shiloh on June 8, Mims was known for making crazy-yet-sincere claims. Shipmates recalled him saying he had been to space, and that he could shoot fireballs out of his hands.

After he went missing and sparked a massive, 5,500 square-mile man overboard search across the Philippine Sea, the ship’s crew continued a hopeful and fruitless search for him inside the claustrophobic catacombs of the ship’s engineering spaces.

A week after he disappeared — and after his family was notified of his presumed death — a search crew found him hiding in an escape passage leading out of a sweltering engine room.

He was covered in urine and feces, and had a camelback, a multi-tool, Peeps candy and an empty peanut butter jar with him.

Mims could have been apprehended prior to his discovery when another sailor spotted him in the middle of the night, days earlier. But that sailor just went back to sleep instead of sounding the alarm.

The details behind the curious case of Peter Mims involve a struggling sailor and a crew having to scour the dark, filthy parts of a ship where most shipmates never go. [Navy Times]

You can read the whole thing at the link, but this guy clearly had some mental issues going on that probably wasn’t helped by the highly publicized bad command climate on the USS Shiloh.