Learn to swim now, people

THE EDITOR: Recently an individual drowned at an estate pond. A loss of life is tragic and sad regardless of the circumstances. My sympathies to his family.

Water is nothing to play around in. Sea water offers a certain amount of buoyancy, not so with pond water.

For the Christmas vacation, instead of children spending time at the malls or with their phones, I am suggesting that all parents let their children learn to swim competently. The life they save will be their own.

Every four years I must endure helicopter underwater egress training. It is one of the most arduous tests US marines undergo at 18. Research it on the web.

Once when I passed a guy the instructor told him, “Look, your daddy is passing you.” I corrected him – granddaddy.

The instructor said the water was over 30 feet deep and if I could not extricate myself from the sunken inverted chopper I would perish.

I replied in front of my team, “You cannot frighten me. I am a married man. After marriage nothing scares me.”

I went down and swam out.

We live on an island. Learn to swim people. The sea is made for ships and fish. The sea and ponds do not have branches.

AV RAMPERSAD

Princes Town