''SHOT LINE''' TAKE COVER

We were in the Virgina Capes Operation Area. (VCOA) steaming around practicing war and stuff like that. We had occasion to re fuel a destroyer escort and send them some food and ice cream.
When you have to transfer anything between two ships you send over a ''shot line''...... A shot line is a ''small stuff'' rope with a lead weight attached to the small stuff. This whole mess is jammed down the barrell of what looks like a single barrel shotgun. Over the PA system they yell ....''STAND BY FOR SHOT LINE''........''TAKE COVER'''........
a few second later a gunners mate takes careful aim and shoots the lead slug with the small stuff trailing behind at the Destroyer Escort. This is how it is ''suppose to be done''..........
I was standing on Secondary Conn watching the complete mess and when they yelled ''STAND BY FOR SHOT LINE''........... ''TAKE COVER''........
One guy on the DE squated down behind an air intake vent but his helmet was still sticking up just enough to clear the intake vent. The gunners mate was luckey to hit the DE much less the guy with his helmet sticking up but he ''beaned him'' perfectly. The guys helmet could not have been sticking up more than half an inch but that is exactly what the lead shot hit. It glanced off his helmet and hit the bulkhead. The guy fell backwards and I just knew I had watched a sailor get killed for sure. The medics were all over the guy and the rest of the deck gang was rigging for transfern him over to the Norton for medical care ..... We had a fully staffed hospital..... We highlined him over and hustled him down to the Sick Bay....... He was mostly just frightened real bad. They checked him for a brain concussion but he was ok. We kept him for a couple days for observation and then we ''high lined'' him back to the D.E........
If his head had been sticking up three or four inches he would have been dead because the ''lead slug'' probably weighed five or six ounces.
So it went in the VCOA steaming in a circle on the Norton........
GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS AND BRING THEM HOME SAFE AND SOON
GOD BLESS OUR VETS FOR THEIR SERVICE TO THIS NATION...
Seajay the sailor man.....