My recent adventures have been about a vacation that my family and I took to the island of Guam immediately after I had relinquished my position as the Commander of the 305th Supply and Services Company. My family and I decided to spend some time cooling our jets while catching up on some much needed rest and relaxation. Of course, you may already know that. You may even know how we traveled to Guam using the low-budget method of transportation known as Space-A (space available) transportation. Naturally, it had its own little quirks that we had to deal with such as not being able to catch a direct flight to Guam. Then, there was the minor little issue with the cargo plane seats on the flight from hell. Or how about our temperamental car rental that seemed to decide when and where it needed to take a break. Or about the wild pigs and the coconut crabs, and our fruit picking exercises. Most recently, I talked about a couple of our tourist trips around the island. Including some island luaus or traditional island picnics where my family and I ate free food pretty much the whole time that we were on Guam, courtesy of my First Sergeant from the 305th Supply and Services Company and his relatives that lived on Guam. I still had one or two more tourist (trap) trips on the island but those are another story. This particular day we took a trip to one beach where we thought we were going to have to do some serious snorkel diving to see some fish and some coral and things like that. But as it turned out, we barely had to go into the water and stick our heads down under the water with our goggles on. A few of the locals (read my First Sergeant’s family members) turned us on to this beach that we hadn’t been to before. They said that we find great snorkeling without going very far off of the beach. They also said that the water was pristine and that it was like looking through glass. Personally, I found that kinda hard to believe. But seeing was believing. The beach was everything that it had been billed up to be. Just to be safe, we had rented a full ensemble of snorkeling gear to include the snorkeling mask and fins for every member of the family. But as it turned out, we really only needed the swimming masks. We entered the water and waded in about three or four feet and stuck our heads underwater just to see what we could see. Already, it was as if we had stepped into a major aquarium such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, the New England Aquarium in Massachusetts, or Seattle Aquarium. The only difference was that instead of looking through glass at the fish, we were actually among the fish. Right in front of us, there were fish of many different colors and shapes and sizes. As we snorkeled a little further out, we could even explore the coral reef. We had never before experienced anything like that. Every so often we felt a little nibbling at our ankles and legs. It wasn’t ferocious biting or anything like that. Nothing like the water churning biting of the piranhas in the Amazon that would churn up blood and flesh as the piranhas fed on their next feast. Yeah. It was nothing like that. Even if my kids later told their friends bullshit stories like that. It was nothing like that. It was just a little nibbling from the little fishes to remind us that they were there. They didn’t draw any blood or anything like that. It was more like how a fish would nibble at bait without taking the hook (if you’ve ever been fishing). If you don’t have any experience with fishing, well, I guess I just can’t help you. It kinda tickled more than anything. As I said, it wasn’t painful. It certainly wasn’t the bite of a man-eating shark or anything like that. In fact, we didn’t even see any sharks. To give you a good example of what the fish looked like, picture the movie “Finding Nemo.” The only difference is that we visited Guam a good twelve years before that movie was released. The whole snorkeling experience was something that my family and I truly enjoyed. If you ever get the chance to swim among the fish in a tropical paradise, you should take the opportunity. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you will not forget. We certainly enjoyed our snorkeling adventure with no exercises in futility in sight.
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