[Mitch]

When I first heard about Bo's death back in 07, it was already too late to attend the funeral - not too many folks I would travel half way acorss the country for, living or dead, but Bo was one. I also never posted on t his thread - didn't actually know it existed, until today.

Bo and I were on the Scuba Team together at Devens (ODA 234), back in the 70s. For those of you that knew Bo, you knew he was several things at once. Strong and athletic, a little bit bow legged. He was odd at times too. Being a Japanese Pollock probably didn’t help. He would get excited about simple things all the time too; things that the rest of us would not even notice. And because he spoke with an accent, it tended to lead you to believe that he didn't understand – but he did.

He was on the Scuba Team, but he really didn't take to it naturally - I often thought he became a diver just so he could get more opportunities be near the fish - which he loved - he loved to catch em, cook em, and eat em.

Back in 78, our team went down to Key West, from Devens in January, to do a Requll - we spent a month down there. Bo took with him, two 50 pound sacks of rice, two big gallon cans of Kikkoman teriyaki sauce, and an electric fish griller. After our first weekend rec-dives, we caught enough hog-nosed snappers to keep us all fed for a month - and we were. I mentioned once on a previous post, that most teams have someone that gets the name of Mother. Well that was Bo - he didn't drink that much, usually, but some times... Usually he was interested in keeping everybody straight and making sure that everybody got the word, and that everybody had plenty to eat.

Bo and I both got hit with a man-o-war once (we were doing a beach recon and we were a two man dive team), Bo being thin and hard, like he was just seemed to feel the pain much worse than I did - it knocked the wind out him and we had to get him in the boat - that really pissed him off.

Later that same year, we did an Ice Dive at Mirror Lake at Devens. Bo was my swim buddy - the smallest dry suit we had was still huge compared to him - he was barely 5 foot tall - and probably had a 28" waist. So it was hard for him to get all the air out of that suit, and when he did, the suit would get so many wrinkles in it that he could barely move. That was the only Ice dive either one of us ever made - we both agreed that once was enough.

Bo would usually take a trip back to Okinawa once a year to visit his Family - in 77, he came back with a new machine that he paid a $1,000 for - it was a Sony Bemata. Now there is another trait about Bo that you need to know - he was never very "Technical, especially with electronics” So he asked me to come over to his apartment in Ayer to help him set up his new VCR - I had never seen one before either, so anyway we spent an evening together, drinking beer and figuring that thing out together - by the way. When Bo bought that, he didn't even have a TV - he preferred to read. Anyway, he bought a TV that same day and we hooked it up to find out he needed an antenna - I went across the street, there on Main in Ayer to the Radio Shack and bought one for him and set it out on his balcony - reception was great after that.

Bo was a good skier too and was tough to keep up with on cross country treks. Because he was so small, he could never find ski outfits - until one day when we were skiing out at the local mountain - he showed up in the good looking one piece outfit - complete with hood. We asked him where he got it and he told us for the "Boy's department at Filene's in Boston.

When he retired, he surprised us all by going to work immediately for Fidelity Investments - from that day on, every time we saw him, he was in a three piece suit - he looked sharp.

I could go on and say more, but just leave it as this - Bo enjoyed everything he did, he enjoyed everybody he met, he was a tough guy that did not act tough - I still miss him too.