anyone ever had swim call in the Mariana Trenches? I remember back in'59 while on the USS James E. Kyes DD 787 our Skipper told the OOD to pass the word "swim call...swim call".The skipper got on the 1mc and told us to dive as deep as we wanted without worrying about "bumping into anything...the bottom is seven miles down" we had the gunners mates patrolling in the motor whaleboat looking for sharks with M1 Garands.
You need to be a member of Navy Veterans to add comments!
Replies
I never did get used to the heat and humidity there. That's why I went snorkeling nearly every day!
I don't think I could scuba out there in the reefs like you did,and look down knowing there's nothing between me and forever,except a few thousand monster hungry sharks.I'm sure I would panic...I have to give you a pat on the back for just having the courage to do that.My brief swim call seemed like just another swimming exercize,only just seven miles above the bottom;couldn't look down and see the bottom,so it didn't seem all that scary at the time.
In Guam, I swam out to the edge of the reef and looked down. It went down forever! I swam back into the lagoon and enjoyed the shallows. I knew about the Challenger Deep from reading about it in Juniuor High. Didn't need to visit it. I fighure I got close enough while in Guam!