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American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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reconnaissance. When the time came, we all got in our Zodiacs and<br />

headed back out to meet the sub and go home.<br />

Unfortunately, my officer had given the submarine the wrong grid<br />

coordinates for the rendezvous. In fact, they were so far off that there<br />

was an island between us and the sub.<br />

Of course, we didn’t know that at the time. We just circled around,<br />

trying to make radio coms with a vessel that was too far away to hear<br />

us. At some point, either our radio got wet or the battery drained, and<br />

all hope of connection was lost.<br />

We spent just about the entire night out on the water in the Zodiacs.<br />

Finally, as dawn approached, our fuel was nearly gone. My raft<br />

was starting to go flat. We all decided we’d just go back ashore and<br />

wait. At least we would get some sleep.<br />

As we were coming in, a sea lion swam up, all friendly-like. Being<br />

from Texas, I had never really had much of a chance to look at sea<br />

lions, so naturally I was curious and started watching this one. He was<br />

a pretty interesting, if ugly, critter.<br />

All of a sudden—splop—he disappeared below the surface.<br />

The next thing I knew, he—and we—were surrounded by large,<br />

pointy fins. Apparently, a number of sharks had decided to make<br />

breakfast of him.<br />

Sea lions are big, but there were way too many sharks to be satisfied<br />

with just him. They started circling closer and closer to the sides<br />

of my raft, which looked increasingly thin and perilously close to the<br />

water.<br />

I glanced toward shore. It was very far off.<br />

Holy shit, I thought. I’m going to get eaten.

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