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Adventurous life has learning opportunities

As a young man at 17, I joined the Navy to see the world. I was someone who enjoyed pain and always looked for more by doing what some people will never understand, yet most would consider suicidal.

I was someone who jumped out of airplanes above 30,000 feet, jumped off ships into the oceans from heights above 100 feet, dove to depths more than 50 fathoms (300 feet plus), free dove to depths more than 100 feet to play with hammerheads and tiger sharks longer than 18 feet, extreme skied backcountry mountains of Washington and Alaska, enjoyed winter survival in Alaska with temperatures below minus 40, climbed and rapelled the mountains in California and Colorado, surfed the North Shore (Banzai Pipeline and Backdoor) of Oahu, Hawaii, when the waves were more than 25 feet high, played with snakes in the jungles of Panama and Columbia, learned to make explosives and watching them go off closer than one actually should be in the Persian Gulf and, most of all, learned that a weapon in the right hands can perform surgery over a mile away.

The “left” despises what I did – until we are needed to do their dirty work and never to talk about it again in our lifetime, yet hear the screams of dying in our dreams every night. Some think we are heroes, yet we only think of honor, courage and commitment to our community and country. I am someone who has been shot three different times and broke several bones, yet never complained, for it was training and learning. I’m someone who has lost several shipmates during the wars, which is the most painful of all, yet I still carry on.

I don’t care for Democrats or Republicans and hate being labeled either one because of my views. I live life to its fullest yet and am now looking for peace by chasing the most majestic animal in North America, the Rocky Mountain elk, whose freedom and strength is inspiring, unlike a donkey or elephant. I believe that you actually need to work to learn something, not be entitled: freedom, not embarrassment.

Christopher M. Jones

Bayfield



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