I am saddened by the death of a fellow sailor.

I was bumped by a hammerhead in the 70's while diving in Okinawa, Japan. My friend and I were diving an old WWII submarine tending station built into the shoreline and partially carved into the hillside. Pretty cool place and a fun dive except there were always sharks and barracudas in there. Usually barracudas make me uneasy because they are the schizophrenics of the fish world. Anyway I felt a push from behind thinking it was my friend messing around I turned and was face to face with the hammerhead. We carried bang sticks that held a 45 cal round. I gave it to him right between the eyes. Pretty hard to miss that shot on a hammerhead. I cut his jaws out with my Marine’s K-Bar that I always carried. The water was bloody and it was getting pretty crazy in the little cove like area and no way we were going to chance getting back to the gate doors to get out to the sea. We scaled the wall got cut up some doing that so we stayed out of the water went overland to get back. I still have the jaws. It was a big hammerhead they have a small mouth and these jaws fit over my head. I did some crazy **** in the service as a young SeaBee.

I had a couple of other adventures diving over there. In the early days my dive club partner was a Colonel he was bitten in the hand while cave diving when he placed his hand on the cave wall to adjust his flipper just when a Moray Eel was poking his head out of a hole. Their teeth curve and interlock so he wasn't going to pull his hand free and if the eel swam back into the hole, tough toe nails. I pulled out my K-Bar and cut the eel’s head off before the colonel or eel knew what was going on. Later after he return from his injury I found out he flew the SR-71. Just in case you meet me these days I don’t carry a military fighting knife anymore so it is OK.