Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hi everyone, this is Dawn Klem, and you are on my podcast, Milkweed and Monarchs.
[00:00:08] If you've been following me along, then you know that I was in the Navy in the early part of my life.
[00:00:16] I know most of you have heard me talk about being stationed overseas in Iceland, which was absolutely fantastic.
[00:00:27] But one thing you may not know about me is that I also lived on Guam, the island of Guam.
[00:00:37] So I was discharged from the Navy at the end of 1982, and at that point I was married to my first husband, Mike.
[00:00:49] He, when I got stationed to other Iceland, he got stationed to Guam, which is so ridiculous. I mean, that kind of sums up our marriage anyway. We were always halfway around the world from each other in, in what we believed in, how we represented ourselves in lives. We, we were just at opposite ends. And so it made perfect sense to me that we would be so far apart.
[00:01:20] But when I got out of the Navy, he was still stationed on Guam.
[00:01:25] And so I was going to join him over on Guam while he finished up the remainder of his four year stint in the Navy.
[00:01:37] So I got discharged from Keflavic.
[00:01:40] They sent me to New York City for final processing and to get all my paperwork and everything wrapped up.
[00:01:49] And then from New York City I flew into Los Angeles.
[00:01:54] From Los Angeles I flew to Hawaii, and from Hawaii I flew to Guam. From Hawaii to Guam, it was still another six hour flight.
[00:02:09] So I think I was flying for over a day and a half to make my way from, from Iceland to Guam.
[00:02:18] Quite the trek, I would say.
[00:02:22] But I get to the airport in Guam and my husband was there waiting for me. He had bought a car for us to be able to travel around in while we were both stationed there. Well, he was stationed there, I should say, and I was living there with him.
[00:02:41] The very first thing he wanted to do was drive me around the island. He wanted me to see the spectacular beauty of the island.
[00:02:52] It only took two hours to drive around the whole entire island.
[00:03:00] So if that tells you anything, I mean it, it's like two and a half hours from where I'm living right now to drive down to my hometown of Hillsdale.
[00:03:11] So it was less of a trip around the island than it is for me to actually drive home to Hillsdale.
[00:03:21] And I think that says quite a bit right there, but every road. And it was all rural too, very rural.
[00:03:31] It was like living in a small town that was an island.
[00:03:38] So we would stop along the way while he was driving me around to show me the beauty of the island and the Water was unbelievable. This Pacific Ocean, I mean it was just a spectacular.
[00:03:53] The island itself was so lush. Almost like you're living in a jungle, really.
[00:03:59] Just trees everywhere and just beautiful. I. Absolutely beautiful. One of the most beautiful places I've ever lived. And it was kind of great for me because I didn't really have to work while I was there.
[00:04:16] So I was going to be there for six months with him and I got to really explore the island by myself.
[00:04:25] I would get up every single morning and walk down the hill to the beach and.
[00:04:31] And I would walk up and down the beach for like two hours. I was just mesmerized on that beach. I would be like the only one on the beach, if you can even imagine that.
[00:04:44] No one was even out there with me. And I collected tons of shells while I was there. I still have a big glass jar filled with all the shells that I found while we were living there.
[00:04:58] I also, while we were there, Mike had been able to pick up a big huge piece of brain coral that was just in a shallow water. It was unbelievable. It was purple when we found it and we took it home and I put it in bleach and. And I still have that piece of coral with me today.
[00:05:24] So every time I look at them, the jar of shells and the big piece of brain coral, I just go back to a time that was so peaceful and serene and Guam living there was just a perfect way for me to transition back into being a civilian after being in the Navy for four years.
[00:05:51] So I would go to the beach every day and then I would go from the beach to the library.
[00:05:58] I mean, it just sounds so crazy, but I went to the library every day and I read for six months straight while I was there. It was fantastic. I caught up on all of my reading.
[00:06:12] I. I really, really loved it a lot.
[00:06:16] I did get a little bored. I know that's so hard to believe, but I'm definitely somebody that doesn't sit well for long periods of time.
[00:06:26] So I actually ended up getting a part time job in the commissary, which is nothing more than our grocery store for military personnel.
[00:06:38] So I worked as a checkout in the grocery store.
[00:06:42] I absolutely love that too. It was a lot of fun. It was a good social job for me. I think the best part of working in the commissary was at lunch. We had a hot dog truck outside of the commissary and I ate two hot dogs with sauerkraut on them every day for lunch without fail.
[00:07:04] That should tell you the kind of person I am, I mean, very regular.
[00:07:09] I don't like a lot of change in there. And here's the person that's, you know, the world traveler, but I'm eating my two hot dogs every day, right?
[00:07:20] So overall, though, when I look back, I have pictures and I think about my time there. I have so many great memories of being on that island.
[00:07:33] It was just a fantastic time.
[00:07:36] Me.
[00:07:38] Well, the one thing about Mike, which I know I've talked about before, is he was an athlete. He liked to do all the things sports related.
[00:07:51] He started scuba diving there. So he went scuba diving with his friends all the time.
[00:07:57] Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Couldn't keep him out of the water.
[00:08:01] And the other thing he did is he learned how to sail.
[00:08:07] So I'm not an in the water person, but I can be an on top of the water person.
[00:08:14] And so he was gonna bound and determined that I was gonna learn how to help him sail a sailboat.
[00:08:23] I did prepare to come about.
[00:08:27] I knew all of the terminology.
[00:08:31] I knew how to, you know, swing the ropes, move the boom. I was pretty adept at being on that sailboat with him.
[00:08:43] The Navy had sailboats that we could rent, and we always rented like a 21 foot Santana, it was called. I don't even know if that's a type of boat or if that was just the name of the company that made the boat. But at the time, that's what we were sailing.
[00:09:02] My cad made some very good friends down there since he had been there.
[00:09:08] And so a couple of his guy friends would always go sailing with us, and we had a great time. We absolutely loved it.
[00:09:17] So he had talked with his one good friend John, and he's like, this Sunday, I think we should go sailing. And of course, John and I were both in on it. We're like, yeah, let's go. You know, I think I was in my bathing suit more than I was in regular clothes when I lived there, when we were excited about going.
[00:09:38] So he had invited another friend, and his name was Chris.
[00:09:42] Chris was a native Guamanian, so he was born and raised in Guam, and he was also in the navy and he was stationed on Guam.
[00:09:54] So Mike wanted to take him sailing with us because we were going to take the boat over to the other side of the island, opposite from where we had always gone sailing. They had a harbor over there. Every place had a harbor because it was a small little island. So there were harbors all over the place that you could sail in and out of.
[00:10:18] Mike's thinking Was that if we had Chris with us and we went to a new part of the island to go sailing, since he was from there, he would be able to help us navigate the waters out there and go to different places that we hadn't been able to go to.
[00:10:40] All of that sounded great to both John and I, and we both really liked Chris. He was just a great guy.
[00:10:48] So, you know, by now we're all 24 years old. 24, 25 years old. We're still pretty young.
[00:10:56] We're on the sailboat.
[00:10:59] The weather is beautiful.
[00:11:01] I think I can count on my one hand the amount of times that the weather got tough there. I did live through a couple of hurricane warnings that was kind of shaky. I was a little petrified. But I figured, hey, I lived in. I grew up in Michigan. I lived through many tornadoes.
[00:11:24] So if I can live through a tornado, I can probably make it through a hurricane. That was my thinking.
[00:11:30] Now here I am much later in my life and I see the devastation of hurricanes and I think. I don't know, I was so naive. I had no real understanding what a hurricane was and thankfully, I never had to live through one.
[00:11:49] So we. I'm like, should I pack a picnic lunch? Should. Do you guys want me to bring sandwiches? Do you want to have snacks? What would you like to have in there? Everybody's like, oh, we're not going to be out there that long. Dawn, why don't you just bring some cheese whiz?
[00:12:07] The squirt on Cheese Whiz, if you know what I'm talking about.
[00:12:12] Some crackers and maybe some dry salami. That's what I brought. Okay.
[00:12:18] They didn't want to eat. They didn't think we were going to be out that long.
[00:12:22] And they were like, you know, we can all go out to dinner after we get back from sailing. I'm like, okay, yeah, that sounds great.
[00:12:31] So we get out there, another perfect, beautiful day.
[00:12:35] We're all on the boat together. Everybody's in their swimsuit.
[00:12:40] We're, you know, sailing around the harbor. It's a new harbor. It's at the other end of the island.
[00:12:47] And everybody's feeling confident, maybe too confident, you know, like, oh, we've been doing this for a long time. Yeah, sure, sure we have. For me, it's only been a couple months, right?
[00:13:04] But we think we're brave enough and Chris is with us.
[00:13:08] Lets try to sail outside of the harbor and see what we think about it.
[00:13:15] You know, I was so naive at that time. I didn't even really Understand what it would mean to go out in open water in the ocean in our little 21 foot sailboat.
[00:13:30] But I was about to find out.
[00:13:34] So we get outside of the harbor, and all you can see, literally, was just water.
[00:13:41] And I'm thinking to myself, oh, my God, I think I might actually have an anxiety attack. You know, it was beautiful, but it was overwhelming to me.
[00:13:52] And in the meantime, the guys were all like, oh, this is great. There's nothing to it. What were we so worried about?
[00:14:02] Boom.
[00:14:03] Just as they were getting cocky, we hit a squall.
[00:14:09] And it was like, it just came up on us so fast.
[00:14:14] It was a storm. The wind kicked up, the rain came down. And the rain. The wind was. Was going so fast that the rain was raining sideways right into us.
[00:14:30] And I'm like, oh, my God, are we gonna be okay? The boat was rocking up and down almost like you were on seahorse in the waves. That's how it was.
[00:14:44] And then I started freaking out because the waves were literally so high up, I couldn't even see over the top of the wave.
[00:14:58] Later on, after we had gotten back, Mike and John told me that the waves were 12ft high. I had no idea.
[00:15:09] But they all knew that they were gonna have to work really hard to be able to get out of the squall and not capsize that boat. And they also knew that I was a detriment to them at that time.
[00:15:27] So they go, dawn, go down below right now. I go, why do I have to go down? Just get down below. And it was kind of good because the wind was blowing so hard, we could hardly even hear each other. Our face was just being pummel, pummeled with rain.
[00:15:45] So I went down below, and I'm like, oh, my God. I'm, like, praying now because I'm definitely a nervous wreck.
[00:15:55] And Mike is yelling down to me, eat some of the cheese and crackers. Eat some of the dry salami. I'm thinking, what the heck is he talking about? But I thought, well, maybe I should eat, because maybe it'll calm my nerves a little bit.
[00:16:13] So there I am down below deck, squeezing on the cheese whiz onto my crackers and eating dry salami. And the boat is just rocking back and forth like nothing I've ever seen or felt before.
[00:16:34] And I remember a couple times, I would start to come back up the stairs, and Mike's hand would be right there. You get down under, lady. You are not coming up here.
[00:16:48] So we were in that squall. I bet you we were in it for a good 15 to 20 minutes. That's how long it lasted.
[00:16:58] And we had Chris with us, which was so good because he was able to help them keep the ship righted and not to go into that squall. So he's trying to turn the boat so that we're actually going back towards the harbor away from the squall.
[00:17:20] But it took. Definitely took skill and hard work.
[00:17:26] All of those guys had their raincoats on by now. That was one of the things we brought on board. We always brought raincoats with us in case something came up.
[00:17:35] So they had their raincoats on them. They were soaking wet, and they would not let me come out from underneath the bottom of the boat.
[00:17:48] I was definitely a nervous wreck.
[00:17:52] But then the next thing happened, I started to get seasick. Oh, my God. I don't think I've ever been that sick before in my entire life.
[00:18:02] First I started with the dry heaves.
[00:18:06] It wouldn't have been so bad if it just stayed the dry heaves. But they had talked me into eating that damn cheese whiz and dried salami and crackers.
[00:18:18] So I was heaving all over the place. The boat was heaving, and I was heaving.
[00:18:27] It was a complete and total disaster.
[00:18:32] A complete and total disaster.
[00:18:36] Finally, I was over being sick, and I just laid down on the floor of that basement, and I just didn't move.
[00:18:46] And I could hear them rushing around upstairs, and I could hear. Feel the boat still swaying, but it was getting less and less.
[00:18:56] And finally I heard the three of them, like, give each other the big high five because we had made it back into the harbor, and things were starting to calm back down again.
[00:19:10] So I was basically trying to recover. It felt like I was hung over.
[00:19:20] I'm not kidding you. Like, I was completely hungover after being out the night before.
[00:19:29] I could barely lift my head up off the. The floor of that boat.
[00:19:36] Finally, I walk up the steps. I basically crawled up them to the top. My head just barely popped out. And the three of them are like, yeah, everything's great now. Nothing to worry about. Come on up if you want to come up. I'm like, what?
[00:19:54] So I get out on back on the boat, and we are beelining back to our little harbor, to our parking lot so we can get off this boat, get in our car, and go home. I mean, they were, like, going full speed ahead.
[00:20:16] Let's get out of here.
[00:20:18] And it really wasn't until a lot later in the afternoon that day that all four of us sat in our apartment and went over the events of that day. I had no understanding at all of the danger that we were really in.
[00:20:40] And according to Mike and John and Crisp, we came so close to capsizing that boat so many times and they really didn't know if we were going to be able to get out of there or not. Chris said, and he had lived there all his life. He had never ever seen waves that high before in his life.
[00:21:06] And all three of us said to him, thank God you are experienced sailor and you were on the boat.
[00:21:17] I really don't know. You know, it's just such a classic thing where the guys always want to push the limit, right? They always want to take the adventure just a little bit further. Just a little bit further, right?
[00:21:33] And this was just another one of those examples where, let's go out of the harbor. Well, how hard can it be? Let's see the open seas.
[00:21:44] If that would have ever happened to me today, I think I seriously, I would have had a heart attack in the bottom of that boat and they would have had to medevac me off the boat to the hospital. If I didn't die, that is, that's how scary that whole entire event was.
[00:22:05] I don't know how I made it through. I think about it all the times because I am kind of, you know, I can be anxiety ridden, I'm scared to death of the water and just to be. I'm claustrophobic. I mean, I have all these little idiosyncrasies. So just to imagine me even going out on an adventure like that is really remarkable for me.
[00:22:34] And the fact that I live to tell the story is the second remarkable part about it.
[00:22:43] It's so funny.
[00:22:44] It's so funny. I hadn't talked to my ex husband in years.
[00:22:51] And for whatever reason, we had both gone back to San Diego, our own, at our own times and gone back to the place where we had lived together.
[00:23:06] And both of us actually sent each other a picture of us ourselves in front of the place where we had lived was so crazy. We both moved on in our lives. We're both remarried. I mean, it's just a crazy thing.
[00:23:25] But then I, I actually talked to him on the phone. He. I think he was feeling sentimental.
[00:23:33] You know, it is.
[00:23:35] Things like that do happen.
[00:23:37] You go back in time and you, you're reflecting on what you've done in your life or where you've been in your life. And so I went back in time and thought about him and some of the adventures we had had together and that that day was definitely a standout for me and for him.
[00:24:00] When he called me, I said, oh, you know, I think I might. I might do this. The podcast on the day we decided to go outside of the harbor.
[00:24:09] What would you think about that? And he goes, God, I thought we were gonna die that day.
[00:24:15] All this time had gone on, you know, 40 years, we haven't really kept in touch or anything. And what is he saying? To me? That's the first time he ever told me that he thought we were gonna die.
[00:24:32] I never knew. I mean, I thought we were gonna die, but I'm so dramatic.
[00:24:37] It makes perfect sense that I would have thought we were gonna die, you know, but him, he was always so calm. He was the athlete, he was the adventurer. He had done everything.
[00:24:49] So to me, I just had all my faith in him and the other two that we were going to be fine. And so to hear it so many years later that he thought we were going to die that day, I was like, well, thank you for finally telling me that. You know, I had been feeling that way, too, but I thought it was just me being dramatic. And he's like, oh, no. I'll never forget that day for as long as I live.
[00:25:20] And now you can remember this story for as long as you live.
[00:25:29] I hope you enjoyed my podcast until the next time.
