WEBVTT

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the one thing that , that we failed on

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was not bringing a flotation device

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with us . As I reflected on this , I

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know that was a big failure . Mm hmm .

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Something that I thought would just be

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leisurely fun was extremely dangerous ,

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extremely fast . We had been

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spearfishing around camp Schwab and so

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I want to take my guys out , take a day

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off and do something fun , you know ,

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something active . So I'm thinking

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maybe we try a new spot with it looked

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a little choppy , but nothing out of

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the norm where we would have been

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alarmed . We're just making our way out

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like we normally do . And then

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immediately lost all control of our

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ability to like go where we wanted to

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in the water .

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Originally from California , southern

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California Corona . I started surfing

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when I was 10 And then I played water

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polo in high school . You know , we

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grew up about 45 minutes to an hour

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from the beach and my grandfather and I

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have been fishing as long as I can

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remember . I have a pretty good

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understanding of the water . And then

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I'm a , I'm a quiz as well in the

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Marine corps . So I've been pretty

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active in the water My whole career .

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I would say we probably went from 50 m

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to 350 m in less than 10 minutes . At

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that point it becomes energy

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conservation . I was really concerned

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for my marines because the looks in

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their eyes and the things that they

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were telling me that was what was in my

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head and that's what was terrifying me .

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I felt that I needed to get to shore so

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that I could get , get that help . We

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made it a point that all the marines

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that came out to the island were either

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advanced from quote from my platoon or

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we're working towards that . I get to

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shore . I'm looking around for my guys

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and I could see them at that time . I

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could see them . They just had gotten

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circled back into that washing machine

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on the reef current , mm hmm .

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Meanwhile my gunny had broken off and

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he's swimming back to shore and the

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other three marines knew that they

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didn't have the strength to be able to

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kick out of it . So they just stayed

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together treaded water in place coming

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up complete transparency . I didn't

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know if my marines were gonna live or

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die standing on the shore . So hands

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out . One of the scariest moments of my

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life , you know , had they had

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something to float on , It probably

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would have eased stress a little bit .

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But in that situation we needed to get

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them out of the water before the night .

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And so I , I sprinted up the beach . I

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found a guy who was able to call and

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the locals were extremely helpful there .

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I was extremely thankful to them

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because they were gonna speak japanese

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and start the whole rescue process .

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They're very fit guys , They fell back

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on their training . Nobody needed any

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medical attention . Ultimately , the

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Japanese Coast Guard came and conducted

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their rescue just as the sun was

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getting ready to set . But the marines

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ended up treading water in place in

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that reef current for about three hours .

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It's just equipping guys with the tools

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that they need because ultimately the

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ocean wins . Thank God this case , it

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didn't . I've learned that that's not

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the case for a lot of marines and and

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service members on the islands . Yes .

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Mhm . Yeah .