the story is that was in the navy during WW II and on a oil tanker near Rajavick (spelling?) Iceland and he and some of his buddies were on the "fan tail" of the boat playing cards and they started getting torpedoed and the ship took quick evasive action and several of his good friends got swept overboard and they couldn't turn around and go back to get them because of the enemy fire so they had to leave them in the ocean - and he never quite got over that.