After spending a couple of hours at the pottery shop and visiting with the owners we headed back to the hotel which was about eight to ten miles from the plant.

We had to pack and get things in order for the trip back home the next day and I promise you we were all ready to get home and see our families we had been there for about two and a half months and it was time to go.

When I got back to the hotel I needed to wash some clothes so I went down stairs to the laundry and started two washers of clothes then went back to the room and sat down at the desk to check e-mails on my computer when I heard it.

Japan has a lot of earthquakes because it sits on top of four major tectonic plates, the North American Plate, the Pacific Plate, the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The 8.9 earthquake that happened on 3/11 was caused by the Pacific Plate thrusting under the North American Plate.

What I mean by I heard it, when an quake hits you hear the earth rumbling and as it gets closer to you the rumbling sound  is escalates and when it's at your location there is a lot of shaking and rattling of windows and doors.

Every now and then things would be move around in the room but mainly just shaking for 10 to 20 seconds and it's over. Well as I said I heard it coming and I thought to myself okay a little shake - rattle - roll and it would be over.

Wrong again, when it reached the hotel it sounded like an eighteen wheeler going about a 100 miles an hour just crashed into the building and the force was so great it threw me and the chair I was sitting in to the floor and across the room.

I tried several times to get to my feet but was put down each time. When I did get to my feet I could feel the building swaying it seemed to be about two feet side to side.

I got to the window and looked out and so how wrong I was the building was swaying four to five feet side to side. Then I stepped back from the window afraid it might implode on me and when I did another jolt hit and threw me against the wall and on the floor again.

At this time I heard loud cracking noises and look at the walls and they were shifting up and down at least a foot or two with large cracks going out from the corners.

Then cracks started going out through the ceiling and I stood up and thought okay Lord, do I run and try to get out or do I stand my ground and ride it out.

I got to the doorway and held on, this earthquake lasted nearly four minute by my calculations and it totally destroyed my room, furniture, walls, ceiling and everything else.

As soon as it stopped I ran downstairs and outside because I knew there would be aftershocks and I didn't want to be in the room or what was left of it when they hit.

Everyone else had made it outside by now and we were talking and then Tsunami, we figured there would be a tsunami as large as that quake was and we weren't that far from the coast so we started getting into our vehicles to get to higher ground.

There was another hotel five mile up in the mountains and that's where we headed. By the time we got there the tsunami had hit but we had no idea of the magnitude of damage it had done.

We were safe for the moment even though aftershocks were occurring every hour some weak and some very strong. Communications were out also and I felt like I was back in Viet-Nam again and survival mode kicked in, do whatever you got to do to make it home.

Several of us wanted to take off and try and make it to Tokyo to get out of there but our management wanted all of us to stay together and let the company tell us what to do.

Said they were talking to the US State Department about getting us out and if that didn't work GE would fly us out as soon as we got to Japan, 175 miles to the south. So we stayed that night (3/11).

We slept in our cars and vans that night because the aftershocks were so severe no one would go into the hotel plus the temperature dropped below freezing and it snowed all night.

One bright moment to the night though was a Japanese family had come to the hotel and set up a little gas stove and cooked noodles for us all so we would have something to eat. (40 of us in our team)

They were more concerned for us having something to eat than they were of losing their home or the danger they were putting themselves in by staying and helping us.

Finally morning arrived with a beautiful sunny sky plus some got their cell phones back on line and we were able to call home. My wife had been scared to death all night because she knew I was in the middle of it all.

Management was still talking to the people in the states about getting us out but we were all getting different stories from them and we were getting pretty frustrated.

They were talking about sending a helicopter in and picking us up but didn't know how long that would take, a couple of days a week they didn't know.

Then one of the Japanese we worked with at the plant showed up and told us that they had found a crack in the vessel of unit 1 reactor and they were evacuating a 12 mile radius in case of radiation leakage.

That settled it we were leaving because we knew what that meant plus we were only ten miles away. So we got in the cars and vans and headed out to Tokyo via the mountain roads because we had heard the coastal roads had been wiped out by the tsunami.

As we traveled that 175 miles or more to Tokyo we saw the devastation from the earthquake that had happened the day before, Buildings collapsed entire sections of the road caved in or cracks seven inches to a foot wide and this was in the mountains.

Our journey took us, I can't remember for sure but 14 to 17 hours and the last stretch was on the coast and now we started getting a picture of just how much damage the tsunami had done.

It was unbelievable entire coastal communities were no longer there, gone as if they never existed and all that remained was the murky slimy remnant of what the tsunami had left behind.

 Two days of total chaos, a bowl of noodles, a few bottles of water and we were finally in Tokyo safe and sound. My thoughts of going home the next day sent shivers up my spine. Finally I was going home to see my wonderful wife and family. Thank you Lord...

When we arrived at the hotel they had reserved for us we were greeted by nuclear officials that scanned us to see if any of us had been contaminated on the journey and we were all cleared.

Then they gave us all a medium sized pizza and a soft drink. You know that was the best food I could remember having in a long time.

I took my food and went to my room which was on the 21^st floor (2107) which I wasn't too happy about because we were still having aftershocks from the earthquake even in Tokyo.

I was so tired I just ate and fell on the bed and went to sleep because tomorrow I would be HOME!

Woke up the next morning ready to go and to my SHOCK I was told that neither the company nor the US State Department were going to get us out.

I was told I was on my own, to get home the best way I could. I already had a plane ticket because I was scheduled to leave the 12^th originally but it was up to me to get it changed and get to the airport on my own.

Needless to say I was pretty ticked off there were thousands of people trying to leave Japan and getting a new ticket on my own would take days and it did.

But remember what I said earlier I was in survival mode, get home safe, do whatever it takes to overcome whatever obstacle you face. Well, it took three days before I finally got everything squared away so I could get home.

During those last three days I was approached by ABC News and was asked if I would give them an interview on my ordeal during the earthquake and if you want to see it just click here.

If you just looked at the interview you saw unit 1 at Fukushima blowing up and as you should know later on unit 3 and 4 blew up. Unit 4 was where I had just finished working (3/10) when the earthquake hit.

Now a little about nuclear plants please understand they are really very safe. There are so many fail safes and backups that for one to explode much less three like at Fukushima there must be a Perfect Storm if you would.

What I mean is all fail safes and backups have to go down at the same time and  there are plenty of them and for that to happen is one in a million because of the way it is setup.

On the other hand as we have witnessed Mother Nature (earthquake and tsunami) is capable of anything and should not be taken lightly. Man's traditions and technology is still no match when it comes to the power of Mother Nature.

Finally the day had arrived and the plane was touching down in Columbia, SC and my Heart was pounding so hard I thought it would explode when I saw my wife running towards me.

I started running towards her and when we met or better yet collided I laid one of the most passionate kisses I have ever laid on her. She was crying and continued to cry then I started to cry so we stood there crying with joy to be together again.

That was a day I truly will never forget...

Jeremiah 1:5 I chose you before I formed you in the womb;I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

Hi Greg,

Hope all is going well with you now. Read your article and reviewed the news video again. WOW !!!

Interesting and revealing to say the least. Bottom line - you are home and safe with your loved ones.

The words we did not hear coming home from Vietnam - Welcome home.

Your friend,
Pete