I have always loved this movie, but have had one question. Doug Roberts was the cargo officer, a position appropriate for a Lt.JG, who is the executive officer of the "bucket"? This would be probably be a full Lt. Not really important for enjoying the film, but as an old sailor I've always wondered.
sharei have seen this movie several times, though not for 15 years or so, so please forgive my slightly purple haze.
but wasn't doug killed by a kamakaze hit? that would put his death after october, 1944, in the last 1/3 of the war.
with the huge shipbuilding program reaching its peak at that time, the navy was hard pressed to man its bridges (and engineering spaces, for that matter) with qualified men. i mean, in '43, three new liberty ships were launched every day!!! so, of course there was some blurring of the rank/resposibilty lines- whoever happened to be there got the job, even if the rank was not competely correct (though this usually went from lesser rank to greater resposibility, not viceversa).
however, in the movie, wouldn't the captain, who was so worried about his cargo-moving record, want to keep the best and most experienced man on the cargo job, even though that man had the rank and all the responsibilities of XO, too? all he'd have to do is to tell BuPers that the next guy in line wasn't qualified, yet, and he could double up doug's duties as much as he wanted to.
and BuPers wouldn't investigate, because they were too busy trying to find 3 complete crews a day.
i dunno, it's just what i think.
fine movie, no? 42