by Southoftheborder

The participants of this story are all Recon Marines with 8-10 months in the Corps (17-20 years of age). While we had all graduated RIP, we were still in a RIP/Training platoon-type status. So basically, we had no experience of the real world at all.

We were doing IBS (Inflatable Boat Small/Itty Bitty Ships) entries on the beach right off the main town of Tinian, on the island of Tinian, and I had been selected along with Jimmy H. to be a scout swimmer. After paddling our IBS out to sea, we turn towards shore (and if you guys remember or are familiar with the IBS, it had no type of "keel" or other directional assistance – a key point later in the story) and begin to work the oars to bring the boat to scout swimmer launching distance.

We are paddling along when I heard the coxain (Amos D.) say to one of the others "do you see that.....over there.....in the water?" This is Tinian, it is night (emphasis on VERY dark), and we had all seen the cross at the northern end of the island (the cross represented the lives of some multi-dozen school kids supposedly lost to sharks when their ferry capsized between Tinian and Saipan). So EVERYONE looks to see what "that" is.

I am not exaggerating when I say it was this huge-ass fin (so identified by the coxain and quickly verified by the rest of the IBS' occupants), moving parallel to our IBS (yet slightly to our starboard rear), and about 50-75 yards away. Well, shit, first thing that happens is everyone makes sure their feet/legs are in the boat. Of course our paddling speed goes to shit as well, since no one is focused on keeping in-stroke with the rest of the boatcrew. And now it seems that the fin is headed on a more direct course to us. And, of course, the speed of the fin closing on us is picking up.

Being Marine Recon, we are more than capable of getting a little forward speed out of an IBS, right? Whatever we might have been, we weren't increasing the distance between us, in-fact the distance is still closing (this is probably due to only a half of the boat participating with the oars, a quarter of the boat preparing to do battle, and the other quarter wondering if they could still quit Recon and get transferred to Camp Hansen when we returned to Okinawa).

The fin is now only about 1-2 meters away and the guy behind me decides he isn't waiting any longer. He uses his oar as a spear and drives it with all the strength he can muster into the "body" in front of the fin. I should mention that he also gave his best war cry.

And...

The oar's blade shatters and he falls completely out of the IBS, onto the fin, and we can even hear him impacting as he lands. But no splash.

The "fin" was a part of the coral reef that had protruded from the sea as the tide was pulling out. We had been fighting the tides and currents the whole time and our imagination had filled in the blanks when we saw the "fin" in the darkness.

Lessons learned:

*Things aren't always what they first appear to be.

*Knowing something about the tides and currents of your work area is a "good" thing before venturing into the water.

*If everyone works as a team, maybe you can get out of bad situations before they get worse.

*In an attack, be careful of over-committing yourself.

*Rumors are BAD things.

*Liberty in the PI (Phillipine Islands -- specifically Olongapo) immediately after a bad incident can erase all memories of your fear and stupidity under stress. In fact, it can actually make you feel MUCH braver and intelligent.

I still had to enter the water after this incident and perform my scout-swimmer duties. I won't lie and say I wanted to. On this same evening, I also found out what it means to low-crawl/drag your nuts across live coral....