It was a normal sunny Saturday morning when I approached my dad and asked, "Sir, can you teach us how to swim?" I figured I was asking the perfect person because my dad was a Search and Rescue Swimmer.
Dad dropped his feet off the table and turned towards me, he then leaned a little and responded, "You want to learn the easy way or the hard way?" I was caught off guard because I didn't think there was an easy way or hard way so I answered, "The easy way sir."
Dad then popped up out of his chair, grabbed the car keys, and said in a clear firm voice, "Boys, get your trunks on and meet me in the car." After hearing this I ran to the room to grab my brother and our trunks and ran back out to the car. We changed into the trunks in the car.
I remember being so excited to learn how to swim, but the excitement soon progressed into curiosity. While dad was driving, I noticed that we were not going towards the swimming pool or the beach. He was taking us to his work.
As the car came to a stop I had a very confused look on my face, dad turned around and said, "When we get out I want the two of you to follow in an orderly fashion. Do you understand?" I looked at the surroundings then we both answered, "Yes sir."
We walked behind my dad into the hanger and once we made it about halfway in dad holds his fist up to signal us to hold. He then approached a fellow Marine in uniform and they had a discussion that we could not hear. The Marine looked at me and my brother and a weird smile appeared on his face.
Dad then waved his arm for us to go to him so we ran over and he said something that added more confusion to my mind, "Ok boys, we're gonna get on the bird. Make sure you sit and don't touch anything." This was the first time I had ever got into a CH-47 (Chinook Helicopter).
Back in the 90s, the U.S. Military wasn't as strict as the Military now. There were limitations to things then that are still in play today, the only difference was that back then there were loopholes. We boarded the bird and it was ushered out to a reasonable area for lift.
By this time I was done trying to figure it out. We flew out over the ocean and the pilot had the bird hovering at 10ft. Dad then opened the end of the bird and waved us to come to his. We were scared out of our minds, dad faced us and yelled over the engine sound, "JUMP!"
There were so many things rushing through my head and the only thing my mind came up with was a response that counted as the first time I back talked, "No!" Dad's eyes widened in shock and anger, then his arm somehow made it behind me and my brother. He fricken pushed us.
We hit the water, I was submerged and once I popped up I was in tears and panic. As I panicked as a drift I looked up at the CH-47 as it rotated 180 degrees and flew away. We continued to cry, we figured we are going to die, but then something came to my mind.
I looked at my brother and realized that both he and I were above the water and I remembered something dad told us, "If you could float then you could swim." We were floating. Being two years older than my brother, I told him, "Kenny, don't cry. It's going to be okay. Hold my shoulders and do flutter kicks like dad's exercise."
My brother was kicking away and I was powering through the doggy paddle. I decided that we will head in the direction of where the Ch-47 went. I was getting tired and also remembered another thing I heard dad say, "If tired, just float but don't lose sight of direction." We took turns resting and continued on the path.
Now back on shore dad had his Marine buddies in boats and he had also calculated the current to estimate our location to wash up on the beach. I could see the boats passing us and the Marine's were cheering us on saying, "You got it Gillis boys. You're almost there!"
I could see the beach and I was finally able to touch the bottom. I dragged my brother in as I was wading through the water. The shoreline was feet away, my body was burning and pounding in pain, then we made it. We just laid on the sand panting and we could hear the Marines in the distance cheering and screaming.
I rolled over and saw my dad standing over me looking down at me. I had a beer in his hand and said, "So, what did you learn?"
I continued to stare at him and replied, "How to swim." As I was working my way up to my knees I asked, "Sir, if that was the easy way, what was the hard way?"
Dad took a sip of his beer and lifted his sunglasses and said in a clear firm voice, "The hard way was me having to teach you."