Read Abandoned: MIA in Vietnam for Free Online

I don’t remember him as having a fatalistic or suicidal personality.”
    Gundersen again scanned the room for eavesdroppers. He scooted his chair nearer to Wolfe. Both hands clasped together on the table, he leaned closer to the retired physician and whispered. “A resident from Shands Hospital in Jacksonville was on the ward that night. He’s doing a community medicine rotation here in Flagler this month. The dead man was one of his long-term patients. I’d assume he knows more about the dead man than anyone else in this hospital. And the CEO can’t fire him.”
    “Got a name?”
    “If anyone asks, we never had this conversation,” Gundersen said.
    “Just like the old days,” Wolfe said. “Where can I find this resident?”
    “Medical ward, third floor. Name is Gadhavi, Amit Gadhavi.”
    “Indian?” Wolfe asked.
    “Yep.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 5
     
    Byrnes landed in the water face first, arms flailing. The force of hitting the water after a fifty-foot drop knocked the air from his lungs. The ocean forced its way into his nose, mouth, and sinuses. He surfaced coughing and spitting. Panic raged in his mind.
    A ship making headway through the ocean creates a bow wave that travels down both sides of the ship and becomes its wake. 30,000 plus tons of aircraft carrier, air wing, supplies, and crew makes a huge bow wave and wake, even at slow speeds. Byrnes fairly surfed away from the ship and into the path of one of the trailing destroyer escorts. Though not as large as the carrier’s, the bow wave from the destroyer pushed him farther away from the carrier.
    He didn’t wait to see if the ship would stop for him. Training at Annapolis took over, pushing aside the panic. Taking a deep breath and holding it, Byrnes doubled over and untied his shoelaces. Cursing the fact that he double knotted them, Byrnes kicked off one shoe, took a second breath, and untied the second. The steel-toed boondockers sank.
    Slipping out of his dungarees the third-class petty officer treaded water in his skivvies and T-shirt, while he tied a knot at the end of each pant leg. He held the dungarees behind his neck. Kicking as hard as he could to gain altitude, he flung the open waist of the dungarees over his head and into the air, holding the waist with both hands. As when he had practiced the maneuver in the Olympic-sized pool at the Naval Academy, the dungarees inflated with air. Now he had a temporary life preserver, and time to search for rescue.
    By then a mile distant and lit up by red deck lights, the carrier and two destroyer escorts steamed slowly farther away. Knowing it was useless to yell he did so anyway, “Man overboard! Man overboard!” Spinning in place, he searched for other ships. Large swells lifted him and he could see long distances in the moonlight, over the waves. No other ships appeared.
    Close by he could see several objects floating on the water. As the air leaked out of his dungarees, Byrnes retrieved three life jackets that had fallen into the ocean during the fight. Using their straps he tied the three together, and slipped his arms through the center one. He secured it around his waist. Carefully, he tried to unknot his dungarees and pull them on, but they slipped away and sank. Great , he thought, they’ll find my body in my underwear. If they find it .
    Unable to sleep in the rough water and still hopeful of rescue, Byrnes watched as the sun rose several hours later. He had to pull his T-shirt over his head to keep from being sunburned as the day wore on. Toward evening, dark clouds gathered on the western horizon. As the sun sank in the west, lightning flared all along the horizon in towering black clouds. Thunder boomed; lightning drew near. The wind rose, and with it the amplitude of the waves. Byrnes sank into deep troughs and then found himself flung to the tops of huge waves. He clung to the flotation devices, arms wrapped tightly in front of his chest.
    By