This is our predicament. Over and over again, we lose sight of what is important and what isn’t. Epictetus
I had failed to successfully complete the water survival swim qualifications with my Aviation Officer Cadet Class, 01-69 and was assigned to an after-hours “sub-swim” class. This meant that, when I should have been studying aerodynamics and naval history and preparing my uniform for the next day’s activities, I was breathing the depressing acrid odor of chlorine and stuck in Training Tank #2 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.
The survival swim qualifications were very clear: tread water for 3 minutes while holding both index fingers above the water, then drown proof for 10 minutes, then swim for 1 mile using four different swim strokes. This was all to be completed while wearing a flight suit and tennis shoes. I had never had any formal swimming instruction or engaged in a lot of swimming back in East Tennessee. Now, I was facing the likelihood of being dropped from the aviation cadet program and losing my dream of becoming a Naval Aviator if I did not complete this qualification.
As we began the “sub-swim” session with treading water, I began to sink and the harder I kicked the more I sank so I reached over to grab the side of this Olympic size pool. Just then I felt a rap on my right-hand knuckles, and I looked up to see a “10’ tall” man with a pole in his grasp. He looked down at me and pointed toward Pensacola Bay, just a short distance away and said, “Lad, there ain’t no sides out there.” In about 23 months the reality of those words would enable me to survive an aircraft crash in the Gulf of Thailand and perhaps save the life of a crew member.
Thailand and perhaps save the life of a crew member.
As I continued to hold the side, he said to me, “Lad the water is your friend…why are you fightin’ your friend?” I had no clue what he was talking about and was very surprised that he then got down in the water with me. He kept saying, “the water is your friend”. Then he said in a commanding voice, “look at me”, and he began to carefully show me breath control techniques and how to relax my thinking and my body, after all, the water was my friend. After maybe 20 or 30 minutes of personal instruction I was ready to embrace my new friend, the water, and went on practice what I had just been taught for the rest of the session. The next day I successfully completed water survival training: treading water for 3 minutes, drown proofing for 10 minutes, and then swimming for 1-mile, using four different strokes, and all while wearing tennis shoes and a flight suit. It was March 19, 1969, and I was thrilled to still to be…a Naval Aviation Cadet.
In September of 1970, I reported to Helicopter Attack Squadron Three, having completed navy flight training, SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape) school, more water and land survival training, and finally a helicopter gunship course at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. During this period, I often remembered that day at Training Tank #2, looking up at that “10’ tall” man who has just whacked my knuckles. I could not get out of my mind how he had joined me, uninvited, in my dilemma in the water. That short lesson in servant leadership and discipleship was somehow transformative in my basic attitude toward life and the people in my life. The importance of mastering task and technique while caring for and trusting those around me was somehow set into my core belief system.
My squadron, known as the Navy Seawolves, was the highest decorated navy squadron of the Vietnam War. We were a “quick-reaction-anti-personnel force” flying helicopter gunship missions in support of Navy SEAL teams, riverine patrol boats and other allied units. We were deployed in nine two-gunship-detachments in remote and strategic areas of the Mekong Delta and staffed with 8 pilots and 8 door-gunners, a true band of 16 brothers. Forty-four Seawolves and forty-eight SEALs were killed in action during the Vietnam War, willingly serving in a higher calling.
I was assigned to Det-6 which had operated out of the village of Song Ong Doc until being overrun by a company-sized ground attack on October 20,1970. (See Battle of Song Ong Doc online for details) At the time of the well-planned and executed attack, both gunships were airborne attacking other targets, and the remaining crew suffered no causalities in the “strategic withdrawal”. The Det regrouped and relocated to the USS Hunterdon County (LST 838), anchored about 3 miles offshore.
Five months later, on the morning of February 17, 1971, two heavily armed gunships launched from the deck of USS Hunterdon County. To the north, the “AO” of Det-6 included the triple-canopy U-Minh Forest, or Forest of Darkness, where an entire French battalion was said to have vanished in the Indo-China War. Out to the east and south were the numerous rice paddies and waterways where villages doted the area. In other words, it was a tough neighborhood and often a “target rich environment” for Seawolves and our navy brethren. As we climbed out from the ship and leveled off at 1000 feet, we could begin to see the shoreline and it appeared that it was going to be just another “normal day at the office”.
Our mission was to patrol, engage and neutralize any enemy elements we encountered. Shortly after takeoff and leveling off at 1000’, I heard a very loud explosion and the aircraft was violently shaken. Immediately all became very quiet, and I realized the engine had failed, probably a severe compressor stall. My thoughts: “I am about to do something that I have trained for in concept but have never done” … land on water; and, “I really should have taken that teaching job”, may have shot across my screen. Always remember this maxim, When the moment of truth has arrived, the time for preparation has passed.
There is no time to discuss an action plan because you are 30 seconds away from water impact. So, you simply execute the 3 maxims you have trained for —aviate; navigate; communicate; all while executing critical, specific engine failure procedures. Immediately lower the collective to preserve rotor rpm; adjust your nose to 70 knots airspeed; turn the aircraft into the wind…you can see “wind streaks” on the water; transmit your emergency to your wingman and on the “Guard” channel for all aviators to hear. This is all completed in about 10 seconds, so you are now 20 seconds away from a water landing…again, something you have never done before.
You have communicated with your door gunners and copilot via your headset as you jettison the rocket pods and doors to prepare for ditching. The aircraft has been descending at about 2000’ per minute so as you come through 75’ you flare the nose about 60 degrees up, breaking your descent speed and slowing your air speed. To survive, the goal is to come into a momentary 4’ hover with zero forward speed and zero side drift. You then pull up smartly on the collective which increases the pitch on your rotor blades and cushions the water landing. So far you have completed the procedures that you have memorized and practiced over and over again, but never for real and never over the water! Failing to do any of those procedures at the correct time and in the correct order would likely have been tragic.
Now as the aircraft enters the water there is another set of procedures which must be executed correctly, or death could result. As the aircraft rolls right, I must disconnect my radio cord from my helmet, grab the upper right-hand hold and release my lap belt and shoulder strap. Just before submerging I take the biggest breath of air I have ever taken. I then pull myself up and place my boots on my seat and use my legs to push myself out the door opening that I had jettisoned earlier. When clear of the aircraft I pop my flotation vest CO2 cartridges and follow the bubbles to the surface where the air is. I think it was somewhat calming and encouraging, to know that… the water is my friend.
As I came to the surface, I looked for 3 other heads, saw two, and then a third pops up. Then I noticed that the left door gunner seemed to be having problems and is “fighting the water”. As I swam over to him, I see that his floatation vest-CO2-cartridge seemed to have failed. In the moment of brief panic, he had forgotten about the oral inflation tube that is right there a few inches from his mouth. I grabbed him with one hand and the oral inflation tube with the other hand, quickly blew some air into his survival vest and gave him a “thumbs up”, and the oral inflation tube to finish inflating. I am not certain, but I probably said to him, in so many words, “the water is your friend.” I still remember those brief but very significant moments.
So there the four of us were, bobbing around in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand with our wingman faithfully circling overhead but with no water rescue capability. The Associated Press release read, “An uneventful rescue of a Seawolf gunship crew conducted by a CH-46 helicopter crew from the USS Mars, a supply ship.”
It was almost 56 years ago that I was helplessly “fighting my friend the water” when a very tall stranger joined me in my dilemma…uninvited! I still remember his face but was never able to find out who he was or to even thank him for rescuing my career and changing the course of my life. Of course, his discipleship and servant leadership on March 19, 1969, was instrumental in actually saving my life and the life of my shipmate, the door gunner, 23 months later.
As we walk along the side of the pool of life and witness people hanging onto the side of the pool, we also have the opportunity to render assistance. It could be to assist those you find “fighting the water”…of broken relationships, failed finances, poor health, lack of purpose, etc. So, why not be a bit Jesusesque, be bold, “maybe jump into their dilemma” and show them how to survive and thrive in the waters of life? After all, life is a gift…to be shared!
The more important question now is, what life lessons can we glean and perhaps utilize from this “morning swim” experience so long ago and so very far away? I would like to offer some suggestions to perhaps assist you as you encounter life’s unexpected challenges in 2025:
1. Life is marked by “pop quizzes”. Like in school, they seem to always be unannounced…often the grading criteria is “pass/fail”. You have either been paying attention to important information or you have not. So, prudence would say “pay attention” and like a good Boy Scout—“Be Prepared”
2. When adversity happens, it is best to have “stick to” brothers close by. “A chord of three strands is not easily broken” comes to mind. Who are your brothers who would swim over and keep you from drowning in an unanticipated life crisis? “Two” really are better than one. Ecclesiastes 4:9…Jesus sent them, “two by two”. Mark 6:7. Navy Seawolves were just using wisdom by having a “2 by 2” tactic.
3. Prepared is an essential quality when a critical “moment of truth arrives” for you and those you love and are responsible for. The concept of “I’ll merely rise to the occasion” is…merely fantasy. The reality is that we sink to our level of training, our level of preparation, and respond from that reality. It may be a fun place to visit with the kids, but Fantasy Land is a dangerous place to live your life.
4. Life sometimes seems filled with complexity and uncertainty. The acronym “VUCA” was established (see VUCA online) in the mid-80’s to describe operating in uncertain times/environment: Volatility-Uncertainty-Complexity-Ambiguity. Unknowingly on 2-17-71, and in an uncertain environment, we deployed our own response to VUCA—Vision-Understanding-Courage-Adaptability. This may be useful for you in your 2025 challenges in the VUCA.
5. When your engine explodes in a health or relationship crisis, or you land in the water with personal finances or a career crisis, have a plan, have some brothers, and execute the plan as a team. King Solomon said it like this: “Let you heart keep my commands; For length of days and long life and peace they will be add to you.” Proverbs 3:1-2
6. The author, Jim Rohn said: “We suffer one of two things. Either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. You’ve got to choose discipline, verses regret, because discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs tons.” We can choose the pain of discipline, of making sacrifices to grow and improve our ability to serve, or we can choose the pain of regret, of taking the easy road of self-serving status quo. The writer of Hebrews gave this counsel: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it”. Hebrews 12:11 (NIV)
7. February 17, 1971, it could have ended very differently for me and my brothers. However, like in Genesis 14:14, when the moment of truth came for Abram, he armed his “trained, prepared” men…we also were trained and prepared. Our old pal Peter said this, “Be alert and of sober mind”, 1 Peter 5:8a. Maybe a little inspiration from a favorite poem will assist, “When its ten against one, and hope there is none, buck up little soldier and chortle” —Robert W. Service. We know that our behavior will influence those around us, so “buck up little soldier and chortle.”
Remember this, no matter how adverse the circumstance it probably could always be more adverse. I have often thought “what if the engine had failed a few minutes later?” We would have been over the land and in a very bad neighborhood. Instead of a morning swim it could have been a violent morning fire fight and a separate set of “sink or swim” precepts to diligently follow in order to survive. My brothers, 2 by 2, were armed and prepared to do just that because we knew this to be true: When the moment of truth has arrived the time of preparation has passed.
Barney Barnes, 12-31-2024, Former Promise Keepers National Ambassador for the Military and Prisons