Monday afternoon I scheduled some "pre-deployment" counseling with Captain Mark (don't call me Mark) Rendon, the 505th Quartermaster Battalion Chaplain, who was just scuba certified two or so weeks ago. I also asked Staff Sergeant Rob Stewart, an award winning photographer in the battalion and avid diver to join us to document the counseling session. I recently purchased a few (three to be exact) of his pictures. You can take a look at his work here.
We met up at the Torii Beach Scuba Locker, received a brief and then drove the five or so minutes to Toyama Port. After a five minute boat ride we were all geared up and ready to dive with Whale Sharks. They have two specimens of the world's largest fish in a large rope cage a mile or two off the coast of Okinawa's Yomitan peninsula in the South China Sea as part of the study and conservation effort that is spear headed by the Whale Shark Research Institute at the Churaume Aquarium here on the island. Currently there are two 17 foot males in the cage. They just recently released the 28 footer that was in there, he was getting too big. As a side note it is believed that these sharks can get up to 40 feet in length and live 100 years.
Anyway, here I am fiddling with my camera.
It seems to be working now.
Me posing with the shark in the background.
Wait for me!
Jackson and Rendon, racquetball partners, softball teammates, fellow pipeliners and dive buddies.
Best pre-deployment counseling ever, and a stroke of genius if i do say so myself!
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