ATLANTA — A dozen injured U.S. military veterans slipped into a 6.3‑million‑gallon tank at the Georgia Aquarium on Wednesday and floated in the presence of a 20‑foot whale shark named Yushan, an encounter that many described as a reprieve from the constant weight of their recoveries.
The swim, organized through the Wounded Warrior Project and the aquarium’s Military Salute program, gave veterans a half‑hour of buoyancy that stripped away land‑bound aches. “Whether it’s swimming in the water or scuba diving in particular, you’re weightless,” said Jason Bush, the program manager. “So physically, it takes away even for a moment physical pain that you feel when you’re on land.”
William Mund, a Marine gunnery sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, felt the difference immediately. “The water helps with my blood flow,” he said. “This was a once‑in‑a‑lifetime thing.”
For U.S. Army Col. Quentin Collins — who was first struck by a mortar and later, on a separate deployment, drove over an improvised explosive device, leaving him paralyzed — the swim was his first time in the water since 2020. As he finned forward, the whale shark’s passage pulled him backward. “Actually, its wake pulled me with it,” Collins said. “So I was swimming forward and the next thing I know, I’m going backwards and I realized the whale shark is right below me.” His son, Ian Collins, watched from the pool deck: “It’s a wonderful thing to see my dad being able to enjoy things he couldn’t anymore. It’s a great thing to see.”
Yushan — who was rescued from a Taiwanese fish market — is the only whale shark in captivity in the Western Hemisphere, aquarium officials said. The encounter, Bush said, frequently leaves participants transformed: “They go in nervous and they come out saying it’s the best experience they’ve had in their life.”