The training began immediately, but it wasn’t real training. There were no calisthenics or any of what was so common to Marine training, but there was running, not in the outside, racing through the wondrous areas of conditioned and well-managed tropical paradise. No, the running was on a machine, modified ot provide inclines that took everything out of me in less than an hour. It was hard to run at speeds not set by myself or that changed in speed and angle all the time, while attached to wiring and breath measuring equipment. I was being tested, not conditioned or trained. I gave the book several times. I was questioned by one smock-wearing member after another, not normal UDT specialists. The first day was the expected hell I thought it would be, but not in any way that I could have predicted. The second half of the day was spent in and out of the pool, a pool commandeered from the common public, whatever that was composed of on the island. I swam miles and then dived the deep end, one of only about eight feet in depth, and stayed underwater for long periods, again under machine and human observation and management. As it had been in OCS so many years before, there was no freedom of anything and no social time whatever. There was the ‘training’ and work.
There was no class. I was it, which meant I got a lot of attention, but not the kind I might have wanted. I fell into a hard bunk for six hours and then rose at five in the morning of my second day. To my relief, Nguyen and Kingsley were at breakfast, which was all liquids. I’d been informed as I fell into a shower and revived myself before bed the night before that I would be eating no solid foods through the training. There was no explanation, but I didn’t need one.
They wanted no air or any other gas in my system that could suffer compression and potentially destroy the mission and me along with it.
Nguyen and Kingsley wore the same gray sweat clothes that were my only attire, other than a single swimming suit. My sweatshirt had the number six printed large in black on the front and back, while both Nguyen and Kingsley had a big zero each, likely denoting that they weren’t a part of the training at all, but the center had no choice but to admit them. I was running in unknown territory and trusting people and situations without much knowledge at all, and that made me intensely uncomfortable. With my two lifelines at my side, no changes might be made given any emergency, but at least they would be there for me in whatever way anyone could be there for me.
Both men would sleep in the same room, as the room had six double bunks, from which I presumed that classes usually consisted of six men unless there were more rooms in the structure with bunk beds in them. There was no one to ask questions of, however, as all my ‘trainers’ seemed analytically committed to scientific, medical, or therapeutic specialties. The macho men I’d met coming in and assumed would be the normal trainer material had disappeared, and no one like them had taken their place. I’d already learned and brought both my men along in understanding that nobody answered questions that weren’t related to their field of study…or rather, their study of me.
The second day was spent mostly in the pool. The UDT Frogmen appeared, all looking like Adonis creatures of great physical conditioning. I was okay, but nothing like them, although none of them said anything. I took a dozen swimming tests and passed all of them I knew. I held my breath underwater for six laps of the pool, which meant more than a hundred yards, and I knew that was okay without anyone doing anything but timing and writing things down. I wanted to call my wife to see if she’d arrived with the kids on Kauai, but was told that all three of us in the class were remotely barred from outside contact until the mission was over.
I looked at the woman, a supposed psychiatrist, as I finished my final swimming test and dried off. Nguyen and Kingsley sat on a nearby bench, never having to dress for entry into the water at all. The woman’s name was Doctor Hitachi. I had a rice cooker at home, given to me by my parents for Christmas, and the company was called Hitachi, too, but I said nothing. Commander Doris and Doctor Hitachi. Strange names, if real.
“Dr. Hitachi,” I began, sitting down in a folding chair next to a similar one she occupied. She was dressed in the usual smock and was writing nearly constantly on a clipboard. “It would seem that this is my mission, and therefore I should be the one making the decisions on nearly everything instead of nothing at all.”
“You are training for the mission, not on it yet, and your superiors are very impressed with your ability to understand without having to be furnished unnecessary details.”
“My family is not a detail,” I said back, trying to keep my temper under control.
“Your family is secure on Kauai in the Princeville Resort with a set of rooms bigger than this pool,” she replied, waving her free hand out to indicate the pool I’d been swimming in. The nice feature about the pool was that it was outside, which was wonderful, but the ten-foot-high walls around it allowed for no outside viewing or vice versa.
“Thank you,” I replied, softly, mollified but wondering why no one had thought to tell me.
“The next step is to get into the rig they’re bringing into the pool area in a few minutes. The men helping you and within the water will be wearing normal SCUBA gear, but not you. I was sent to prepare you mentally for what’s ahead.”
Hitachi then gently placed her clipboard on the concrete next to her chair and gave me her full attention.
“My information is deliberately scant, so please stay with me about the necessity of paying close attention to what you need to acquire to react in the best survival mode possible.”
“Yes, doctor,” I replied, taken a bit aback by her delivery. Nobody had mentioned the word survival to me, or not surviving for that matter.
“Steady state,” she said back, and then waited, as if I was supposed to say something at that point, but I had no reply I could think of. “Your coming adventure is as much about mental control of your physical presence as the physical things that will be applied to you and affect you. Panic can kill a SCUBA diver in minutes. Panic in the use of this equipment can kill you in a few seconds.”
“Breathing the liquid,” I finally said, glancing at Kingsley and Nguyen as I did so and watching both men visibly recoil a bit. Neither man said a word, however.
“You can’t cough. You can’t fight the intake and outflow. You can control your chest muscles and draw in and out, but you must never forget that the liquid must continue to flow at all times, regardless of that. It’s not air. It’s a thousand times as dense. Part of the equipment will ensure that your mouth remains always connected to your trachea. There can be no closure, no ‘holding one’s breath,’ so to speak. The nitrogen and oxygen in the liquid come into your tissues much faster and more effectively than air.”
I stared into the woman’s opaque black eyes. She was no therapist. She was the one person who understood and operated the entire liquid breathing invention and operation.
“Has anyone died using this?” I asked, as two double doors opened across the pool and the UDT team brought in all the equipment on carts, headed through and moved slowly to other side of the pool.
“No human,” Hitachi replied curtly, looking away.
“Other animals?” I continued, having guessed that the answer would be yes.
“What killed them?” I asked, truly curious.
“I could not talk to them or give them what they needed to know,” Hitachi replied, her brow knotting up over her thin, dark eyebrows.
“It will take a few minutes for them to hook you up, so I’ll come back momentarily,” Hitachi said, picking up her clipboard and then departing without saying another word.
The coxswain from the longboat came around the pool, decked out in SCUBA gear, all except for the swim fins. The water and air were Hawaii warm so he also wore no wetsuit.
“We need you now,” he said, his voice and tone different from what it had been back at the docks. “We didn’t know you were the one,” he half whispered, leaning toward me.
“Give me ten seconds with my men,” I said to him, without waiting for an answer. I walked the few steps over to where Nguyen and Kingsley sat watching silently.
“Okay, where do you come in?” I asked, but then went right on talking. “You come in when they bring me up from the bottom. I want to make sure that I make the transition back to being a man again. This is mermaid stuff, and I’m not sure anyone would be ready for it. I know I sure as hell am not. But this has to be done, for a whole lot of reasons I have no understanding about, any more than I do about why I have become ‘the one.’”
“Star Trek,” Kingsley said, with a gentle laugh. “There was an episode in the movie when the crew was trapped inside a planet with no means of getting to the surface. After a while, Captain Kirk pulls out a flip phone communicator and calls the Enterprise to beam them out. Nobody expected the Enterprise to be anywhere close enough to do that. A crewman asked Spock how Kirk had pulled that off.
Spock said: “That’s what he does. He makes the impossible possible.”
I shook my head to clear my thoughts and try to understand what Kingsley was saying.
“That means what? I finally asked, about to throw up my hands and get back into the pool.
“That’s what you do,” Kingsley said, as if coming to a mathematical conclusion that was patently obvious, “It’s why you are here, why they chose you, and why you are doing what you are doing.”
The pool water felt cold as I turned and entered the shallow end. I’d shed my sweatshirt but kept my Marine Corps red and gold “T” shirt on. I had scars, and I wasn’t going to put on that kind of show to all the fit people around me. I was damaged goods, but it appeared that I was the only one who thought that way, or at least so it seemed.
The team spent an hour getting the umbilical connected, along with attiring me with a depth gauge, an electronic unit of some sort, and then the complexity of the mouth and throat devices so the liquid could be started. Part of the robotic device covered my teeth, and instead of my mouth working the normal hinge way it did, there was like a delay, as the machine seemed to permit me to open or close my mouth at will, but certainly let me know it could control that if necessary. I understood. Hitachi had clued me in. The liquid would be pumped in and out of my lungs no matter what action I might take, because if that didn’t happen, I only had seconds to live.
“We’re going to hydrate for the first time,” the coxswain said, his face only inches from mine. I tried to answer, but the device wouldn’t allow me the ability to speak. I could only grunt, which is what I did. “It’s said to be uncomfortable but tolerable, and the feeling of choking or vomiting will pass in seconds if you only hang on.”
The liquid came without warning, almost immediately filling my lungs but feeling more like it was filling up my whole torso. Hands on my shoulders gently pushed me down until I was underwater. I wanted to look to see if my belly was swollen, but I didn’t, as the itching was too great. My lungs itched from the inside, and I wasn’t aware that this was possible. I felt no need to cough or reject the stuff; instead, I helped it come in and out, until after a couple of minutes, I reached an equilibrium where there was no point in resisting. I breathed, slow and steady, like I’d been told, although I was now certain that none of my trainers or even the scientists had tried it before me. Everyone was there, above and below the water with me. I let the umbilical tow me around the pool, its connection in the center of my upper back keeping me head down as I moved.
Suddenly, without warning, I was being pulled up. I came to the surface but then was brought out of the water by three UDT guys, unidentifiable in their masks and snorkels, until I was out of the water before two of them grabbed my ankles and upended me. I was taken by others, head down and suspended, as the mouthpiece and machinery inside were removed. I drained, and then the coughing and convulsing began. I fought it, but there was no stopping for several minutes, which seemed a lot longer. Finally, all that stopped, and I was let down to lie back down on a thick rubber mat.
“How do you feel?” Hitachi’s voice said, although I could not see her. All I could do was breathe in and out and stare up into the cumulus cloudy sky above and be happy that I was alive and back.
“Nguyen,” I rasped out, lifting my head slightly.
His face almost instantly appeared in front of my own.
“Am I okay?” I asked, immediately feeling stupid. It was like I’d died and come back, although I’d never lost consciousness at all.
The extremely uncommon smile appeared across his lower face, and his eyes were lit up like tiny lanterns.
“Your vitals are normal,” Hitachi replied, although I hadn’t been talking to her.
I was stripped of everything but my swimsuit, then guided to the showers and on into my room. I lay on the bunk with Nguyen and Kingsley sitting on the one below mine.
Hitachi came into the room without announcing herself or knocking.
“We will repeat this series three more times today and then four more tomorrow,” she said, as if reading the words from her clipboard. My mind went back to the movie Right Stuff. She was exactly like the attendants portrayed in that movie.
“I want someone to call my wife since neither of us is allowed,” I said to her, my voice coming out normal, which gave me a sense of relief.
“I will make the call,” Hitachi replied, making a note when she said the words.
“No, not a woman,” I objected. “It’s got to be a man. She has no idea what’s going on, except she knows this is mission-related. There will be no suspicions if she talks to someone like Commander Doris. She must have regular updates at least twice a day until this is over.”
“You are in no position…” Hitachi began, but I cut her off.
“I’m in exactly the correct position. This is my mission, and nothing is going to happen concerning its success without me. I’m not missing any of what I’m feeling from everyone here, so let’s not pretend this right now isn’t for all the chips.”
Hitachi gave me another one of her frowns, but then surprised me. “It is as you say, and so it will be done, however, your control officer will make the necessary calls.”
“He’s not here,” I replied in frustration.
“He’s at the bachelor’s officer’s quarters at Pearl Harbor Sub Base as we speak, waiting for the update which I will give him.”
“He’s here?” I asked, more shocked than surprised. “Why isn’t he present?
“Not authorized and not my department or call,” Hitachi replied before walking out through the open door.
I lay atop my bunk, preparing myself mentally for what lay ahead.
“What are your thoughts?” I asked into the air, not being specific as to which one of my friends I was speaking.
“It would appear that you will be the only prime diver,” Kingsley replied, “with others only available to support you much higher up. This is a bit common, I know, in SCUBA, and especially not with work diving.”
“True,” Nguyen added, in his usual laconic style.
I thought about the oddity of that, but got nowhere with the thinking as Hitachi and the UDT guys were back at the door to get me ready for the next dive.
The day went fast, and the repeat exercises did not seem to add any elements of unusual wear and tear on me, and the next day was the same until mid-afternoon. I was used to the liquid, to the entry part, the moving and swimming part, and also the withdrawal from it. Being prepared for the coughing and spewing the stuff out upside down would never be something I got used to, but I could handle it. If liquid breathing ever reached the public as part of SCUBA sport diving, it would be interesting to discover the kind of divers who came to accept and enjoy its usage. Due to the large amount of liquid it seemed to take to sustain me in a dive, I presumed that it would never be available with anything but an attached umbilical.
I received frequent reports about Herbert’s contacts with Mary, and I believed she was doing fine. I also wished that I had never forced the Agency’s hand in making her an even as distant part of the mission. If I could talk to her, I’d tell her to get off the islands immediately, but that would have its repercussions, inside her as well as within whatever elements of power were organized to run the mission inside the Agency. I
I went to bed on the last night, and the next day lay out in front of me. The mission dive would take place just after dawn, and three ROV robotic undersea vehicles would accompany me to the site. Everything would be automatic. There were no external controls or indications of arming on the outside of the weapon. My proximity to the weapon was why I was there, as no signals were responded to that had been sent through the ROV machines. I would have no codes or be involved in any of that or any of the remainder of the bomb’s recovery. Whether it was to be recovered or not wasn’t even discussed.
The next morning, in darkness, Nguyen, Kingsley, and I boarded a longboat and headed out toward the tender. When we got out of the harbor, the wind kicked up and the boat plowed head-on into six-foot swells. The trip took less than twenty minutes, which surprised me. The tender was anything but a tender, I realized, as we pulled up next to its hull. I realized that the ship was the Rush, a Hamilton-class ship and one of the first powered by both diesels and gas turbines. It had a top speed of over 33 knots, faster than most U.S. Navy ships.
Dawn was breaking as we boarded, using a staircase lowered over and hugging the starboard side of the ship, which was the side not facing nearby Honolulu, which had to be only a few miles off the port side.
Everything went like clockwork, and I was prepared and ready to get in the water just as the sun came up over the north-south facing Koolau mountain range the divided the windward from the leeward sides of the island.
There was no ceremony. Hitachi had filled me in the night before about how I had to approach the tube-shaped device and then, using my hands and body, feel my way along its entire surface while hoping to connect to sensors that should have been approachable from a good distance from it.
“Don’t let them give up on me,” were my last words to Nguyen, although I knew I was saying them for my comfort. If anything went truly wrong at the bottom, then it would be terminal, and I knew it. Just the look on everyone’s faces and in all communications with them told me just how seriously the mission was being taken.
Once in the water, the other divers retreated as my attachment to the umbilical had been made immediately before I entered the water. I was on my own and going down as the liquid pumped through me without giving me much in the way of evidence that it was there and keeping me very much alive.
The descent took half an hour, although it became totally dark before I was fully down. I turned on the lights, and the ocean floor lit up, although there was nothing on it except the object I’d been sent to visit. The tender crew had gotten my landing perfectly with only a few feet separating me from the bomb.
I looked at the depth gauge strapped and then double-taped to my left forearm. The white needle was just a tiny bit past 800. I was on the bottom. Not a mud flat, not a roll of continuing sand, but a hard bottom lit by attached fixtures on the sides of my head. I inhaled the water, easily and slowly, yet still with fear. What if there were the tiniest of foreign objects in whatever the supposed water was? I closed my eyes and tried to relax my body.
Moving slightly forward, very tentatively, I touched the giant great cigar before me with both hands. My gloves were not the gloves of a Jim or heavy, thick, wet suit. I was wearing only common rubber gloves that any mechanic or surgeon might choose. At 54 degrees, the water pressing so invisibly and unfeelingly hard on all of me felt like a film of rather thin Jello, covering but not protecting, distancing, but not without allowing a sense of attaching touch to come through.
The bomb was damaged by a seeming impact. Dented but not with an auto collision, sharp-edged certainty. I’d been sent to the bottom to feel. To engage the weapon, which was not in any condition to transmit what the receivers might have wanted to receive. The words ‘danger close’ reverberated through my brain, bouncing here and there. My intellectual capability wasn’t being challenged. My value was my close physical presence encountering the bomb’s close physical presence. I hugged the bomb and waited, watching the small screen on the outside of my right wrist. The receiver. I had no face mask. The pressure was too great to allow for any air to be held between my eye’s lenses and any object ahead of them. Everything was a disturbing but expected blur, although all I needed was that blurring. I moved up and over the bomb, hugging, patting, and feeling my way along its length, turning and then returning. There were no fins and no traditional nose cone to denote front from back, stem from stern, but it didn’t matter.
Suddenly, a few feet from one end, as I crawled and cruised over the surface of the metal object, my wrist exploded with light. Lights. Many of them. I stopped all movement and waited, inhaling the water into my lungs and then back out, wondering how anything I was doing was possible and starting to think about whether the Agency might have sent me on a one-way mission.
‘Your mission is complete,’ came through the special earphones I wore. “You will be retrieved to the surface over the next few minutes. Prepare yourself.”
I gently disengaged from my full-body hug of the bomb, only floating a few inches away, no longer looking at my wrist because I could not make out the letters or numbers it had to be showing, and then transmitting at the speed of light up to the Coast Guard tender so high above.
I waited.
Tom Thorkelson and Chuck Bartok from Massachusetts Mutual flew through my mind. Perfect. I had to say nothing because I had no means of saying anything. There was no way to screw up the sale. I smiled but could not laugh, as I realized I was occupying my thoughts with nonsense in case nothing really did happen.
Jim,
In a reply on the last chapter, you mentioned my writing style is more of an “Arc” vs “Circular”. I’ve always thought of it more along the lines of an Obtuse Scalene Triangle due to my brill… I have no f_____g idea what you’re talking about. Now I’m going to have to do more research. Thanks.
All I know is that I copy the Chapter in ‘Word’ and begin reading. When I come across a line/section I want to make a comment on, I put “” around it, highlight it in yellow, make some notes, then continue on. The length of my comments is not my fault. You write the Chapter – You write things deserving comments – Ipso Facto … It’s your fault.
Hope your coffee is hot, as this tome begins.
“With my two lifelines at my side,”
What an excellent and truly sincere compliment to Nguyen and Kingsley. I think pretty much everyone dreams of having even one such “lifeline” and hope that they could be considered to be such a lifeline themselves. Unfortunately, I think most folks think themselves too ‘busy’ to fill the role. At the same time, I know there are bunches of folks who do what they can with their time and resources – helping with God’s children and creatures – And that is good. Just sayin’.
“You are training for the mission, not on it yet, and your superiors are very impressed with your ability to understand without having to be furnished unnecessary details.”
“My family is not a detail,” I said back, trying to keep my temper under control.”
“Your family is secure on Kauai in the Princeville Resort with a set of rooms bigger than this pool,” she replied,”
“Thank you,” I replied, softly, mollified but wondering why no one had thought to tell me.”
“I was sent to prepare you mentally for what’s ahead.”
The fact that “your superiors are very impressed with your ability to understand without having to be furnished unnecessary details.” is great, to a degree. But if I’m the one who ‘assumes’ what are “unnecessary details”, then perhaps this can lead to a ‘misunderstanding’ by you, and a mission failure. Now, doing no research, I have zero specific knowledge/documentation of this ever happening in any combat action, SFs action, etc, but I have 100% belief that this has happened on more than one action/mission. I believe it will happen again.
Your comment that “your family is not a detail”, her reply and your “wondering why no one had thought to tell me.” is in stark contrast to her comment that she “was sent to prepare you mentally for what’s ahead.” Now as you well know, I’m not a rocket scientist nor a shrink, but knowing the status of your family, in this specific situation, placed there by you, on this specific mission, just might, maybe, possibly affect you “mentally” and possibly affect the ‘success’ of this mission, might have been a consideration by her and your superiors. Obviously not.
“Your coming adventure is as much about mental control of your physical presence as the physical things that will be applied to you and affect you. Panic can kill a SCUBA diver in minutes. Panic in the use of this equipment can kill you in a few seconds.”
There’s a ‘nice to know’ little tidbit. At least she didn’t sugar coat it.
“I stared into the woman’s opaque black eyes. She was no therapist. She was the one person who understood and operated the entire liquid breathing invention and operation.”
“Has anyone died using this?”
“No human,” Hitachi replied curtly, looking away.
“Other animals?” I continued, having guessed that the answer would be yes.
“What killed them?” I asked, truly curious.
“I could not talk to them or give them what they needed to know,” Hitachi replied, her brow knotting up over her thin, dark eyebrows.”
I wonder, was her “brow knotting up” due to a fleeting thought about the “animals” or her getting slightly annoyed by your questions? Yeah, I really like animals. If you want to make something for people, test it on the desired target customer. And yes, I eat hamburgers.
“But this has to be done, for a whole lot of reasons I have no understanding about, any more than I do about why I have become ‘the one.’”
“Star Trek,” Kingsley said, with a gentle laugh.
“Spock said: “That’s what he does. He makes the impossible possible.”
“That means what?”
“That’s what you do,” Kingsley said, as if coming to a mathematical conclusion that was patently obvious, “It’s why you are here, why they chose you, and why you are doing what you are doing.”
And we’re back to your superiors and the A Shau – “why they chose you” – “why you are doing what you are doing.”
“I was damaged goods, but it appeared that I was the only one who thought that way, or at least so it seemed.”
The “damage” of you, the ‘who, what, when, where, why, and sometimes how’ – the A Shau Valley, your recovery, your actions and results, perhaps including your ‘Life Insurance’ time, keeps popping up. Personally, I think they should just add ‘WTF’ to the list.
“I want someone to call my wife since neither of us is allowed,”
“I will make the call,” Hitachi replied, making a note when she said the words.
“No, not a woman,”
“You are in no position…” Hitachi began, but I cut her off.”
“I’m in exactly the correct position. This is my mission, and nothing is going to happen concerning its success without me. I’m not missing any of what I’m feeling from everyone here, so let’s not pretend this right now isn’t for all the chips.”
“Hitachi gave me another one of her frowns, but then surprised me. “It is as you say, and so it will be done, however, your control officer will make the necessary calls.”
You were correct on all fronts and I believe Hitachi got a little better understanding of you.
“If I could talk to her, I’d tell her to get off the islands immediately, but that would have its repercussions, inside her as well as within whatever elements of power were organized to run the mission inside the Agency.”
A simple example, at least to me, of someone that was not simply an automaton to the Agency, but someone whose ‘off-duty’ time, emotions, feelings – life – flowed instinctively, constantly between the two. It seems to me that when you were prepping for/on the mission itself, 100% of ‘you’ was there. But whenever there was a ‘break’ of any kind, your thoughts would run back to Mary, the kids and the cat. Just sayin’.
“I realized that the ship was the Rush, a Hamilton-class ship”
The Rush certainly had a distinguished 45 year career. So, does everyone in the Marines/Navy know by sight all of the different ‘class’ ships in the Navy and Coast Guard? That would certainly be zany. No need to answer. Much more simple in the Army – During my time, there were: Tanks; APCs; Jeeps; Artillery pieces; M88s; 2 ½ and 5 ton trucks; various Helos; Warthogs; hummm – That’s pretty much all I remember.
“I was on my own and going down as the liquid pumped through me without giving me much in the way of evidence that it was there and keeping me very much alive.”
So, in less than 3 days, you physically and mentally incorporated a system that replaced breathing ‘air’ to file your lungs to breathing a ‘liquid’ – a system that, what % of UDT/Worldwide SFs Scuba teams were certified on? I imagine those that were had training that lasted more than 3 days. But what do I know. Oh yeah, I forgot – Your mission involved getting up close and personal with a Nuclear bomb that could vaporize you, blah, blah, blah, in an instant.
And lastly (Oh thank you Lord! I’ve already missed lunch and my afternoon meditation!!)
“Tom Thorkelson and Chuck Bartok from Massachusetts Mutual flew through my mind.”
Well, I guess that answers one of my previous thoughts, the one dealing with ‘perhaps including your ‘Life Insurance’ time,’ did pop up. Not really surprised by that, as you seem to be able to incorporate all previous ‘learning’ experiences in to your innate abilities and pull them out of the recesses of your mind instantly, regardless as just a passing thought or something that actually aids your mission. In this case, seems a little of both. Just sayin’.
Regards my very good friend,
Doug
Danko. Coffee, maybe laced with a few shots of vodka. The single longest comment ever to appear on this site.You hae outdone yourself in the analysis, partitioning and the point by point questioning and wonder about how it all was put together. i wish I was so analytically capable. I just write on, sometimes corrected by readers when i juxtapose things that are not supposed to be juxtaposed. The comment is also a very lengthy compliment in that the time you have spend in not just reading but rereading and laying it all done, edited of course, is quite stunning. Thank you for putting this up here seems a weak word to use. I do wonder just how many of the readers who access this portal will read thrugh the entire comment, like I have several times.
You have outdone your self and in so doing elevated my writing and your opinion of me to heights I will continue to try to live up to.
Thank you my great distant friend.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim,
My first reaction after reading this chapter was to think “Was this only a test on a dummy weapon that had no danger in exploding? Was this a dry run for the real thing and that is why all the lights lit up? But it appears from your response to others comments that it was the real deal. I hope they paid you well.
Keep ’em coming. God Bless.
Andrew Duke, there was no paying well although the perks were many times akin to compensation and the ability to ‘shave’ bits, pieces and equipment were without parallel in the real world, although applying fully to that real world. Yes, the warhead was real and there were more later on in different places, only those that got immediate public notice ever went reported. Thanks for caring and thanks for the compliment and blessing too.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim ,I absolutely love being there with you while you are doing these amazing things! At my age I cant think of a better way to spend my time than reading about your adventures. Carry On!
Robert. Great compliment and I won’t minimize it with any of my humor! Much appreciate the motivation it gives me to continue. Thank you so very much.
It was some times, indeed…
Semper fi
Jim
Hello James
In the movie, the abyss, the breathing of a liquid was highlighted
I was always fascinated with disability to breathe a liquid instead of air
From everything I have looked up this was strictly science fiction
Until reading this chapter
I never had anything that said it was a reality
I am still fascinated that is possible to perform this
Simper Fi
Duke
The breathing of fluorocarbons dates to the sixties but did not come into real usage until around the I went down using the process. I was never informed about where I was in the number of human experiments using the stuff. Early, I know. That this process remained under the radar until the movie abyss came out speaks of how initially it was not classified. It was medically related to be used on infants and other humans with respiratory problems. Interesting to be revealing this to the readers just as it was to be a participant in something that seemed to impossible. Also, nobody talks about how it makes one seem. like being one with the other undersea animals…and there’s no sound like there’s with the exhausting f air in normal SCUBA diving. More like using a rebreather but without the limits.
Thanks for the great comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
2nd try; I finished this chapter and could almost feel being inside the action! Like visualizing your growth from FNG 2dLT to almost Btn CO in 30 Days! We are starting to move some of us having vague comparable experience to stuff that has been successfully kept behind the curtain for decades! Kind of impressive that there really is stuff that has been stuff secret!
My first comment was more profound but lost in the tremors!
Jim
Colonel, I was never the battalion commander. At one point I was actually commanding two companies at the same time although that’s just half a battalion, or less. Still, second lieutenant and all, should never happen and I’m sure there are those reading my stuff who think it never did…although it does not much matter now as we are all so far down the road of life, those of us who lived. Some of the other stuff I became involved with remains amazing to me this day and I haven’t gone into the UFO stuff much yet. That, dovetailed with the artifact experiences (I was never quite certain that the element wasn’t product of alien origin simply because, in our understanding of the universe back then, the element could not have ever appeared naturally. Now, who knows? Thanks for the deep and penetrating comment, as usual.
Semper fi, my great friend,
Jim
I almost quit reading this chapter as I have a fear of drowning, but returned to it as I’ve come to realize you wind up doing some crazy “stuff” and still walk away to get home to Mary, but this was on another scale of seriously strange!!
Keep ’em coming James,
Semper Fi
Seriously strange, was a living and potentially deadly part of my existence in those days, not that I necessarily saw it that way. The A Shau deadened me. I died there, so to speak, and then was brought back in like a different dimension. I was always waiting for the new me to be ended, like a mid novel chapter in mid paragraph of an unfinished chapter. Thanks for coming back. I always loved the water, the rougher and wilder the better. Still do. Damn near got myself into serious trouble the last time I was in Hawaii in winter and swimming right out to the forty foot breaking waves just to take it all in.
Semper fi, and my thanks and the compliment too.
Jim
While reading this and trying to comprehend what you were going through to accomplish your mission, the thought entered my mind where was the Admiral in all of this ? Anything that could imperil his nuclear navy would have been brought to his attention immediately and I would bet that this didn’t escape his attention. And if he were somehow involved, you may have been chosen for his long memory and your involvement in the investigation into the deaths of the Marines. Had anything gone sideways, too bad just a training accident; you go away and so do a few other things!
Once again, you are amazing in putting some of this seemingly chaotic and free falling world I seemed to be passing through, but there was guidance, the guidande of God, the universe of His creation and then those who moved and played small but huge principals although those of us so designation and operated never to truly know that, instead of, like you here in your prescient capability, to conclude imaginatively that the exitence of those being was not only real and valid but necessary in the secrecy of success. Success for people playing on the beach in Waikiki, only maybe to know now all these years later, some very few of them, that their exposure to death was right there in front of them yet prevented by invisible and truly unbelievable forces.
Thanks for the brilliance and depth of your comment, some of which will be spoken to as this life story progresses.\
Your friend,
and Semper fi,
Jim
What a ride! For all the wonderful suspense and awesome storytelling! We fortunately know how the story ends. Even beyond the adventures yet to come. You somehow out played the fates and get to grow older and heavier like the rest of us and enjoy the grand kids taking over your weekends.
What isn’t obvious is the beginning of the story. Many “Broken Arrow” incidents were widely reported; this one does not seem to have any media record associated.
The type of device sounds like an aeriel bomb but could also be a missile, torpedo or any other delivery vehicle. How did it get there? was it a foreign device? Why has the secrecy remained for over 50 years? There is more to the story! Inquiring minds want to know!
James, I won’t deny you, as the story develops. Like with the artifact there are some things that just stick as we go thrugh time and then come back revealed all over again. Yes, to most of your questions but you must read to find out and enjoy because this is as public forum and I dont want to ruin it for anybody reading. The government has never admitted to the artifact is also noteworthy. Nice comment and nice best wishes to me and my family. I much enjoy the personal and detailed nature of your support and care.
Semper fi, your friend,
Jim
Amazing, Not to be crude but I do believe that I would have filled my knickers when you went from full darkness to light. Great work James. How did your wife take it when she found out about this latest escapade?
Mary was not happy and particularly not happy about the family element of danger.
Read on and you will know more. My great friend of the north up there
Semper fi,
Jim
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1025799596327813?fs=e&fs=e
Old news. But relevant?
Relevant in that the story is about the artifact I possessed. The description is almost identical to my descriptions of it when I had and then through history. I am not surprised that stories about it appear and others want to take credit or expound on the knowledge about it. It does not bother me. The artifact did more than reach others or impress or be analyzed and studied. It changed physics as we know it today and I am truly grateful that I played a role in that.
Semper fi and thanks for that clip.
Jim
That chapter kept be on the edge of my chair. Knowing how it feels to swallow a small bit of water down the windpipe, it would seem very difficult to fill your lungs. Afterwards draining the lungs would seem to require a lot of coughing. I do have a question about your mission with the bomb. It seems you were required to “hug” the bomb from one end to the other, did some signal from the bomb set off the lights on your wrist or was that initiated topside. How did they know when your mission was complete? I appreciate you making your story available to us.
The liquid gave every appearance of being water. Clear but just a little thicker. No taste at all. For some reason my lungs and throat accepted it immediately, only my mental state wanting to deny it. Once I got the mental part under control it was no problem. The ornateness and heavy equipment to make it all work would never do for sport diving though. I knew the mission was over, and should have put that in the chapter, because I’d been told by Hibachi that if my wrist array lit up at all then that was it. All the data went up the cord back to them. I was done.
Semper fi and thanks for the brainy comment and the help with that issue.
Semper fi,
Jim
Missed some Notices so had to catch up and advance from getting the Mercedes put back to normal to deep sea diving in one morning. The more I read the more the current world comes into focus! Just wish our medical community could delve into more of the real technology available instead of being stuck so badly. In one of the comments you alluded to the proximity to potential death at hand. We all avoid the thought but there isn’t anyone here that isn’t in that position daily if not more often. A little EMS reality that nobody wants to admit! So enjoy your retelling history!
Thaks so much for the intelligent comment and the depth of oyour thinking about my presentation.
Much appreciate the compliments too.
Semper fi,
Jim
This chapter reminds me of when I was a young teenager. We had constructed a swimming pool in our backyard with a large tarpaulin and sawhorses then filled it with water. We wanted to be scuba divers. I turned on the water hose and started breathing with a full stream of water flowing through the hose and into my mouth. I stayed underwater and never experienced any problems. I was breathing the water. I’ve never told anyone this and still not sure to this day how that was possible. Great chapter! Dustoff Medic RVN 70-71
Young lungs are amazingly resilient to drowning as has been proved with kids being rivived in cold water after as long as an hour after clinically drowning. I believe you, although the liquid I breathed was anything but water. Clear and a bit thicker so it looked like water in as fish tank, which they had a rat swim in with as glass cover to keep him from surfacing to prove it really physically worked. None of the UDT guys later said that they would have done the mission. Back to breaking the sound barrier stuff again. I wonder if he really thought about the danger when he was approaching MACH I.
Semper fi, and thanks for the great comment and the nice compliment too.
Jim
Jim, I had the feeling I was reading something out if a Science Fiction novel, I kept waiting for you to wake up from some bad dream and tell us that it didn’t really happen.
Really good chapter.
Semper Fi
My life has been so steeped in science fiction which is only fiction until you live it and then it might as well be if you do what I’m doing now and writing about it. I risk losing credibility which is why I am so happy I can remember scads of detail. The truth is in the details and they are hard to deny as we move forward in time. Like the truths in Thirty Days. Not a really believable story but then you dive into the mintue details and very quickly figure out that nobody who hadn’t live it could possibly make all that shit up and then have so much of it provable using today’s vast Internet resources.
Semper fi, and thanks for a great comment.
Jim
I was anxious while reading this account, holding my breath knowing that you had inadvertently put your entire family at risk on this mission. I will breathe a little more easily this next week knowing that your part of that mission has been accomplished. Thank you for everything you have done. Thank you for sharing. I stand in awe!
Great compliment John, and much appreciated. I was required to write an after action report following the mission which was promptly and remains classified. However, a clerk at the archives filing it sent me a short email later on after reading it. She thanked me. I sat there reading it over and over again in shock. It was my only reward. That and readers like you today.
Much appreciate to say the least.
Semper fi,
Jim
Wow!! Thanks for bringing me along on your mission. I should have paid more attention to point out some minor typos- but the narrative kept me moving forward.
With that, along with you this weekend caused me to pause and remember those that gave all in service of our country. I served as Funeral Director of the Marine Corps in Arlington during the early 90s, and always focused my thoughts and actions on those families that grieved the loss of their young Marine(s).
That was tough duty my friend and thanks for that and all the military does to try to cushion the monumental emotional blows on families. I made only one such call at Camp Pendleton when I was duty officer. It was brutal. I had an experienced Gunny with me. “Stand behind me and don’t say a word until I tell you,” he said. “When that door opens neither you nor I can predict where this is gong to go.”
Tough duty.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was trained and certified in scuba. Does the liquid in your lungs compensate for being at depth? Exciting adventure. Damn right scary.
At depth requires no more ‘air’ than being on the surface. Only workload requires more air and the intstrumentation they passed back and forth through the cord down to me must have compensated although I did no real work to speak of. It also takes more air if emotions run high and my emotions did run rather high.
Neat comment and I thank you.
Semper fi,
Jim
WOW!
One word. Meaningful and complimentary, however…and well appreciated in the reception.
Thanks ever so much Steve.
Semper fi,
Jim
As normal, an amazing chapter that leads to the next amazing chapter. Who would have guessed all this started in the jungles of nam. Thank you for sharing all of this.
It actually started in Marine training Gary, when I discovered that a military sending me into way was training me without regard to whom I was or what my background was or what my line of commentary might be. I was educated fairly and that had not been my history thoughout my education to that point. I excelled, physically and mentally and won awards and honors. The combat was a terrorized shock beyond sane comprehension, so i converted my talents to applying the insane with the insane around me. That i lived and was then noticed was as much a surprise as surviving the comba and the loss of so many wonderful boys. After that I became utilized and used and all with my participation as one adventure after another became addictive. I have no real adventures anymore, save one or two that I won’t write about here, and most people know nothing of what readers here certainly do if they believe any or all of it. Thnsk for the great comment and your continued support. Long response but your comment called for that. I hope!
Semper fi,
Jim
Wild.
Laconic comment but certainly one that makes me smile, which I have a feeling was your intent.
Semper fi, Harry,
Jim
Yes it was.
Is that really you, Harry?
Yes
Interesting one word response Harry, and thanks for making it.
Semper fi,
Jim
I’m sure something is going to happen now. This is a very intriguing incident. Can’t wait for what’s next. Hope you had a peaceful memorial Day.
I do not live in peace. I have hoped and sometimes prayed for that but. over time, have come to find that I was neither built, trained nor experienced for or in peace. I am right here now preparing for whast might be the secodn civil way. I pray not but here I am…all over again. Thanks for your long support Pete and commenting on here like you do. Keeps me going.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
I’m not missing any of what I’m feeling from everyone here, so let’s not pretend this right now isn’t for all the chips.”
-Your greatest skill.
It disturbed me then and it even bothers me a bit now and then here in this place in my life. That so many were so dependent upon the results I might provide but when I came through they all went away, like they’d only been there to hustle me along…never knowing me but counting on me substantially. Part of that, of course, kept me at it and going. They needed and I needed to be needed I guess…or know.
Semper fi, Harry, and thanks for the great comment
Jim
And the great compliment, I might add but didn’t as I was carrying on about me!
Thanks a million.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was stationed at the submarine medical research lab submarine base Groton Connecticut in early 70’s. There was a demonstration of what you experienced on animals. Didn’t realize it was tried on humans. You are first . BZ alt!
I was apparently not the first but i will never truly know that. I have watched the movie Abyss and observed how they handled the first revealing of liquid breathing. How they got permission to do that is beyond me as I thought it was very highly classified. They used the liquid inside the helmets of like astronaut suits which would not have worked except marginally, as breathing in and out to gain the needed amounts of nitrogen and oxygen might become sporadic, and then loss of consciousness and then very quick death. I used a photo from teh movie for the art work in the chapter simply because I liked it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Very interesting. However; like the super dense artifact, I have to wonder if it is real. I am anxious to see. Enjoying it either way
Kemp
H Kemp, if you meant by super dense that the specific gravity observed was extremely high, well, not so much I thought and think. The ‘weight’ of the artifact when held in my outstretched palm was about two pounds but the intertia of the thing when moved was of an oject that seemed to weight half a ton and gained more relative weight as it velocity increased. Not possbile, well, not until our defintion of the universe changed but that’s for farther on into the future. Thanks for the very interesing thoughts.
Semper fi,
Jim
Great chapter. Best in a while
Happy that you liked it. Best in a while…made me smile, you clever devil…
Thanks,
Jim
WoW! again! I had thought of the problems with gaseous oxygen/nitrogen, but not a thought of a liquid mix. LOX is extremely cold, however, same for liquid nitrogen. Miracles of modern science?
Amazing how you could control your mind, and the appropriate physical reaction to liquids in the lungs – I know I don’t have the “mind over matter” to survive that.
Now – are you going to have to endure that again to attach some sort of retrieval harness?
Drowning, yet not drowning. Wow yet again! Super glad you are still with us.
Thanks Craig. These days and through the resulting torture of terror suspects by waterboarding, which was really drowning people continuously and then reviving them, reminded me a lot of this undersea excursion, witch was so unbelievable at the time that I think I went through the whole thing more in shock than fear. I still wonder why I trusted most other people so much because I had good reason not to. Your support and comments mean a whole lot to me and the other readers I am certain. Thank you most sincerely.
Semper fi, my great friend,
Jim
LT, what kind of science fiction is this? Unbelievable.
Science fiction, since reading in my childhood days, has been wonderfully and very accurately predictive as well as vitally interesting for coming to understand the unknowns of the universe. Most of the stuff presented as way out there in the future in Star Trek is becoming real, and Star Wars too. Thanks of the short but meaningful question.
Semper fi,
Jim
Incredible.
Nice laconic compliment and well taken here.
Semper fi,
Jim
I had to look up Laconic , which should give you an idea of how difficult it is for me to express my feelings regarding your writing …
Your comment was not indicative of difficulty. It was very complimentary and I knew full well a lot of the words that might cause its derivation. I truly appreciate you and having you as one of my readers and writers on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Tres cool!
A bit French, but what the hell that’s not a bad thing these days…should we ever recover our old relationship with the one country that helped make us a country and then gave us that statue which used to have a real meaning.
Semper fi,
Jim