A group of veterans recovering from injuries sustained in military service spent Wednesday, May 6, in the water at Georgia Aquarium, sharing the space with manta rays, giant groupers, stingrays and the aquarium's whale shark, Yushan. The visit was part of the Veterans Immersion Program and brought together members of the Wounded Warrior Project, a group that serves veterans who were hurt or wounded in service, as well as their families.
Jason Bush manages the aquarium's Military Salute program, which invites members of the armed forces to swim or dive among the marine animals at the downtown attraction once every week. He framed the experience as a pause from the work of recovery and the pressures of everyday life, a stretch of 30 to 40 minutes when participants can simply relax.
Part of the appeal, Bush explained, is weightlessness. Whether a veteran is swimming or scuba diving, the water supports the body in a way that can ease, at least for a moment, the physical pain they carry on land. He added that first-timers tend to arrive anxious and leave describing it as the best experience of their lives.
The participants either snorkeled or swam alongside Yushan, the stingrays and many other animals in the exhibit. According to aquarium officials, the whale shark was rescued from a fish market in Taiwan several years ago and is now the only whale shark held in captivity anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
For William Mund, a Marine gunnery sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, time in the water helps his circulation. He called his swim with the whale shark a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Army Col. Quentin Collins was also wounded in Iraq, twice: first by a mortar and later when he drove over an improvised explosive device. Collins is paralyzed, and his injuries had kept him out of the water since 2020. He was taken on a ramp before his swim, and his favorite part of the day was what he called "surfing" with the whale shark. Collins said he was moving forward one second and drifting backward the next, pulled along by the animal's wake, before he understood that Yushan was directly underneath him.
His son, Ian Collins, was there to witness it. He said it meant a great deal to see his father enjoying the kind of activity his injuries had taken away from him.
For the Wounded Warrior Project group, the day was a break from recovery and a chance to float, rest and share the water with Yushan.
Original reporting by Associated Press for GPB News.
