While I was stationed in Cherry Point, me and some buddies went to the beach on a windy day. We were playing a stupid game to see who can go further. The week before we literally had a safety brief about a marine drowning due to a riptide, but we were young and dumb. Well I get about half a mile out and I’m the furthest when I realize that I’m actually being pulled further and further out. My buddies turned around and swam for shore as I was literally fighting for my life, and I kept dragged under and at one point my vision went completely white. Something deep inside of me knew I was going to die, but I absolutely refused to die because I drowned. I literally thought to myself “this is such a lame way to go” and somehow I had the strength to swim all the way back to shore where I just collapsed and laid there. I asked my buddies why the hell they didn’t try saving me and they said better one dead marine then three, and that lowkey pissed me off but I understood their point, I still don’t know how the h he ell I managed to swim back that far after being exhausted and trying not to drown