“Get Back Somehow” was an episode of the CBS television series Navy Log, originally airing on April 24, 1956. (The series was touted as a military drama based on true naval stories.) It was directed by Jean Yarbrough and starred Stanley Clements and Francis De Sales. In the episode, set in 1942, a United States Marine fighter pilot is shot down over the Pacific and parachutes into the enemy-held jungle. He is forced to fight for his life against the elements and the Japanese in an attempt to survive. The episode opens with Marine pilots participating in a series of survival training exercises, where the officers are constantly reminded that their standing order is always “to get back somehow.” As the pilots talk about their upcoming missions and ultimately take off in their F4U Corsairs at mark 10:15, but during the mission one of the Marine pilots is shot down. After a failed rescue attempt at sea remaining concealed from Japanese search parties, the pilot makes his way on shore at mark 17:15 and remembering his training buries his life jacket and covers his tracks in the sand before heading into the bushes. “If you need food you may have to kill for it,” as we hear the pilot’s thoughts after stumbling upon an enemy soldier at mark 19:20 — and he is eventually forced to do just that. In the end, the hero encounters an Allied coast watcher and he is rescued.
