As the Brandon resident relaxed Dec. 26 on Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand, with his wife and son, the ocean retreated nearly a half-mile from what used to be the shoreline.

Beachgoers flocked to gather the fish that flopped on the suddenly exposed sand and to see what was happening. Pena looked out to sea and saw a distant wave rolling in.

Within minutes, Pena, 68, and his family were caught in the furious grip of the wave, tossed about with beach chairs, straw huts, trees and cabanas.

``When I lay down at night, I dream about those waves,'' Pena said. ``I see them coming, and I can feel myself being caught up in them. I can't stop seeing them. I don't know if I ever will. I've lived through hurricanes, seen a tornado and been in war zones, but I have never seen anything as devastating as that tsunami. It's unbelievable.''

The waves that struck Indian Ocean shorelines that day killed at least 157,000 people. But Pena, his wife, Chutima ``Al'' Pena, 60, and son Supamongkol Pena, 19, survived with scrapes and bumps.

It was the second time in a week that Mike Pena had escaped death. As a field construction engineer for a California-based contractor, he was working near Mosul, Iraq, but left just days before a mess hall bombing left 22 dead.

Now, he says, he has a new appreciation for life.

A Fateful Flight

Mike Pena had spent six months in Iraq and ate almost daily at the mess hall that was bombed Dec. 21. The suicide attack killed 14 U.S. military personnel and eight other people. Three days earlier, he had left the country, his assignment finished.

The day of the bombing, he was on a plane headed to Thailand for a family celebration.

He and his wife, a Thai native, were engaged on Patong Beach 20 years ago and frequently return to visit family and friends.

Their son is in the Army and had just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. Al Pena had promised that if her son made it home safely, she would make a pilgrimage to a temple in Phuket to say prayers and light candles.

The family spent the morning before the waves struck at the temple and then headed to the beach.

Just after arriving, as Supamongkol Pena walked toward the water to swim, his father saw the receding surf and, farther out, a wave rolling in.

``But from that distance it looked really small,'' he said.

A lifeguard started yelling, urging people to get out of the water. Mike Pena knew he was witnessing a tsunami.

He yelled for his son, and the two grabbed his wife, who suffers from heart problems and chronic rheumatoid arthritis. Then they ran for their lives.

Mike looked behind him and saw a wave at least 12 feet high bearing down on him. Al fell, and the first thundering wave crashed over the family.

Mike was hit in the back with a beach chair and tossed about in the water. He had become separated from his family and thought he was about to die. He prayed to God to save him and worried how his wife would survive if he died.

Suddenly, he said, he felt a strong hand pulling him up. Gasping for air, he looked around but didn't see anyone.

``You hear people talk about things like that, but I swear to God, it happened,'' he said. ``Something was there pulling me up.''

Wave After Wave

He spotted a pickup floating by and pulled himself onto it. That's when he saw his wife and son clinging to the back of the same truck.

The family found refuge in a hotel near the beach. As they surveyed the gashes, scratches and bruises covering their arms, legs, backs and abdomens, Supamongkol said he wanted to go back to find his mother's purse.

The purse had her passport, airline tickets, credit cards, cash and a diamond ring. Believing the disaster was over, Mike didn't protest.

As his son walked toward the beach, Mike saw another wave coming and watched as Supamongkol crouched behind a sign just as the wave thundered onto shore.

Mike saw his son pull a girl to safety, but then he disappeared in the swirling, muddy water.

Mike and his wife scrambled to a rooftop and watched as the truck they had been clinging to just moments before was picked up by a wave and slammed into a hotel staircase where they had been sitting.

All around him, Mike saw unimaginable horror.

People who had been frolicking on the sand moments before were sucked out to sea. Children were ripped from their mothers' grasps. People struggling to keep their heads above water lost the fight.

Finally, emergency officials arrived and took Al to a hospital. Her husband stayed behind and began frantically searching for his son.

He saw Supamongkol on another rooftop, and the two scrambled down and started walking toward each other when they saw another wave coming. They ran back up to safety before finally being reunited.

``I have never been so happy in my life to have both my wife and son OK,'' he said.

The Journey Home

Father and son made it to their hotel in Phuket City and got word that Al Pena was doing well in a nearby hospital.

Mike Pena and his son, who is stationed at an Army base in Germany, returned to Brandon on Dec. 31. Al Pena stayed behind to see friends and family but was recently admitted to a Bangkok hospital to be treated for respiratory problems believed to stem from swallowing tainted water.

She is doing well and plans to return to Florida on Wednesday. Supamongkol Pena has returned to Germany.

Mike Pena is trying to make sense of the disaster and regain a feeling of normalcy. He said there are positive signs everywhere, including the call he got this week from Thai officials reporting that his wife's purse had been found, with only the cash and ring missing.

He says he's grateful his family survived one of the worst natural disasters ever.

``Even when I look at the news and see the pictures of what happened over there, it's hard to believe that I was there, in the middle of it, and I escaped with just a few Band- Aids,'' he said. ``I have never been so grateful in my life.''

Reporter Jill King Greenwood can be reached at (813) 657-4534.

Keyword: Tsunami, for the latest news, photo galleries and an explainer on tsunamis.