Well, maybe people will sharpen up now at the abandon ship drill, which incidentally had not been conducted yet. The big thing I see aside from individuals panicking, was that the ship really had no clue as to the accuracy of their manifest. Finding survivors, then dead bodies inside after more than a day and they apparently didn't know who they were looking for? I usually have some sort of abandon ship bag with me. Not real good because no personal beacon, and not much signal devices you can get through security on the cruise ships, but I have something and a plan. I never felt the need on a carrier, but I started keeping a prepped bag on the amphib I was on.
Now, mind you, I love all the Marines I've worked with/for. But I never let an abandon ship drill pass without asking one I knew just one question. Do you know why they put all the Marine abandon ship stations aft? .... None did. To slow the screws down before we get there!!! One can only hope that this spread like the viral scuttlebutt that permeates naval life.
One poor group of LCPLs who worked for me were pretty new to ship riding. About a week into sea time and a heavy drill schedule, probably for some NAVSEA cert, I walk into a shop and see them with their life jackets? WTF?? Well, they didn't understand the announcement about the ship being put into a simulated training environment, one where all word would be passed without being preceded by "This is a drill..." Those poor guys thought that the ship had been trying to catch fire and sink everyday they'd been on it.
On panic, The USMC is well trained and would no doubt do well if we went swimming. Especially since their water survival is way more hard core than the Navy. Go figger, we take guys 1,000 miles from land that can't swim.
However, on two occasions where we came real close to burning the ship to the waterline for real I could see the fear in the MEUSOC grunts. They were real unhappy to be there. Pretty much forcibly moved each other out of our way. So, I can imagine that a herd of untrained tourists would panic at the drop of a hat on a ship like that.
