Photos:

• Hauck Family: Harry Jr. Harry, Tim, Carol, Jason, Krista c.1973

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I am the youngest of the Hauck kids. If you swam for my dad between 1958 and 1968, you might remember my brothers and sister, Harry Jr., Timothy and, Krista. I was not around yet. I am 28 years old (1997), married, and have two children of my own, both girls, 10y/o and 8 y/o. I am a Staff Sergeant in the army. (5/97)

It was probably about 1984 when my dad first came up with the idea of doing an English Channel crossing as a family. You see to qualify as a relay team you have to have six members. Luckily we did, it was: Harry Sr. (dad -57 or 58 Y.O.), Caroll (mom - 49 or 50 Y.O.), Harry Jr. (oldest son - 29 Y.O.), Timothy (second oldest son - 27 Y.O.), Krista (daughter - 25 Y.O.), and myself (Jason - 17 Y.O.) I have a feeling that if we had been short a member for the relay, the family dog Argo (who was like a son and faithful companion to my dad) would have made up the missing member. My dad had his heart set on this swim. He wanted to do something that his children and grandchildren would be proud of, and they are. On 31 August 1986 were the first family to ever cross the English Channel (swimming). It took us 11 hours and 13 minutes to swim from the pebble beaches of Dover, England to the mountainous shores of Calais, France. Once we finished the family relay the plan was for my dad and I to turn around and swim back to Dover. This would have made us the first father and son team, and the first, caribbean native born, to cross the channel. Sadly, I had been playing squash about two weeks prior to the swim and dislocated my knee. The day before the family swim my dad took me to a local doctor who took off the cast and wrapped my knee up in a bandage. We were not able to swim back as planned. (5/97)

Reflections:

I had the pleasure of being raised in my father's world. He is a prime factor in what I am today. His actions always spoke louder than words and his actions were always geared towards good in some shape or form. At times when I was younger I did not realize this (possibly when my dad and I were training for the "English Channel" and he would wake me up at 4 am to go swim for four hours straight with the end goal of waking up at midnight so that we could get eight hours in prior to me going to school or maybe it was when he would drive us to the VA hospital where a friend of his was the director and had given permission to utilize one of their large refrigerators to store a 100 gallon steel wash basin which he had filled with ice cubes. I felt like a canine who just knows he is on the way to the vet. You see, this wash basin was where he and I would sit for periods of time in order to acclimatize our bodies to the cold waters of the "English Channel" in England).

As I reflect back on those times, Harry Hauck has a way of showing everyone whom he meets that you can overcome anything in life, and he does this by introducing you to the worst so that everything else looks easy. He always told me that in life we learn more from our mistakes than we do from all the good things that happen, for we take the good things for granted, but the mistakes are what make next time right. He also taught me that there is no such thing as "making the same mistake twice" due to the fact that once you make a mistake, you know it was the wrong choice and if there is a next time, you knew the difference. I have used these and numerous other teachings of my father to get me this far in life. I am certain that with the application of these "rules" I will accomplish every goal I set for myself. (5/97)

Revised 05/22/97