I heard a story once about how every time an aircraft carrier goes out to sea at least one crew member is killed during the voyage. The point being that even in times of peace, serving on the big ship is a dangerous job.

But still, I imagine serving on one of these modern marvels to be amazing.

The aircraft carrier is a veritable floating city with thousands of crew members that sails around the world visiting exotic ports of call. The ship can catapult planes into the air and catch them with a hook and cable upon return. The experience has to be incredible.

Unless, of course, you happen to be that one guy.

The “fun factor” drops dramatically if you are that one sailor that gets blown overboard or gets electrocuted while fixing wiring or somehow otherwise dies in an accident.

To be honest, I have no idea where this story came from or if it is remotely true. The average number of non-combat deaths per mission could be less than one. It could be three or five. But, I can be pretty sure that it is not a hundred.

If a hundred crew members were killed every time a carrier left port, there would be uproar from the sailors and their families calling for the entire fleet to be dry-docked. Congressional Committees would be grilling the Secretary of the Navy for answers.

But one, three or maybe even five deaths could probably fly under the radar of the news media and the general public. The deaths would still be tragic, but there certainly wouldn’t be protesting in the streets.

The story does me think of the current administration’s position on the indefinite detention of American citizens.

Conspiracy theories abound of FEMA concentration camps and of top secret plans to round up all of the patriots/gun owners/left-handed, etc.

The President is not going to execute provisions of the NDAA in the middle of the night that will send storm troopers crashing into homes to round up thousands of citizens in one fell swoop. It is not going to happen that way.

The real threat is that it will happen to one single solitary person.

While this “vilest of enemies” is secreted away, most American citizens will be unaffected. They will live their daily lives as if nothing had changed. It will still be pretty freak’n awesome to be a citizen of America, the land of the free and home of the brave.

Unless, of course, you happen to be that one guy.

For that one guy that has been labeled a “terrorist” or “enemy combatant” and stripped of all the liberties endowed by his Creator, being an American citizen will quickly lose its shine.

With no evidence released by his captors for “reasons of national security”, this villain will surely be prosecuted in the media, when reported on at all. The indictments always boiling down to this: “Trust us. He deserves it.”

Have no doubt that indefinite detention is not a nuclear bomb used to take out a city, but a sniper’s bullet intended as a surgical strike against a single target. Taking out a hundred or thousand couldn’t be hidden, but if it is only one…

The government will bank on the average American being too distracted by life and entertainment to take full notice. They will bank on those who do notice being too fat and happy, even with their struggles, to risk the modest life they have achieved by speaking up. They will bank on this one flying under the radar being effectively camouflaged by rhetoric and propaganda.

And with that it could stop. But, the precedent will have been set.

If this act goes unchallenged then all future administrations will know that when the going gets tough or when a secret is too embarrassing, or well, just too secret to come out, then the Rule of Law can be discarded without penalty. There will be no limit to what the American government could do to its own citizens.

If we do not fight for this one, then we will all be destined to the fear of being the second.