By FRANK STEPHENSON
When Carl Enis was growing up in Coral Gables, he impressed his family and friends with twin passions — a love of all things outdoors and a love for country. When his life was tragically cut short in 2018, hundreds of friends and relatives gathered for a memorial service in Tallahassee as a testimony to Enis’ remarkable achievements in pursuing those childhood passions.
Enis, who moved to Tallahassee in 2004 to enroll at Florida State, was killed, along with six of his fellow airmen, while serving as a specialist in parachute rescue for the U.S. Air Force supporting combat operations in Anbar Province, Iraq. On a routine mission on March 15, 2018, the team’s Pave Hawk helicopter crashed near the town of Qa’im.
Enis, who had distinguished himself in multiple aspects of air rescue operations and had attained the rank of staff sergeant, was 31. His name appears on a monument beside his grave at Arlington National Cemetery. And now, another monument just built off the shores of Dog Island in Franklin County will serve to commemorate Enis’ life in perpetuity.
Adding to Carl Enis Memorial Reef
On Aug. 13, the Tallahassee-based Organization for Artificial Reefs orchestrated a deployment of seven custom-made, multi-ton, pyramid-shaped concrete units to a designated site in 68 feet of water. Begun in 2023 as the Carl Enis Memorial Reef, the new additions nearly double the size of the project located roughly 18 miles southeast of Dog Island’s easternmost shore.
Alan Richardson, head of OAR’s board of directors, said the project was staged out of Orange Beach, Alabama, home to marine contractor Walter Marine. The company has for years been recognized as the largest reef-building operation in the country with reportedly more than 70,000 reef projects already under its belt.
The Enis reef features seven so-called “super” reefs which stand 15 feet tall and weigh upwards of 30,000 pounds each. Walter Marine’s technology employs a GPS-guided crane system that is capable of lowering units into precise positions on the seafloor, Richardson said.
“We’ve enjoyed many years working with Walter Marine,” Richardson said. “These people are reef-building pros without peer.”
The marine tribute to Enis was inspired by his passion for saltwater fishing and particularly his skill as a spearfishing enthusiast and SCUBA diver. The multi-talented Enis held two degrees from FSU — the most recent being a masters in business administration earned in 2017 — and served as an Air Force Reserve airman and pararescueman with the 308th Rescue Squadron based at Patrick Air Force Base. While in Tallahassee, he also worked as a commercial real estate salesman for TLG Realty Services.
Another Tallahassee resident’s life also was celebrated the same day with a brand-new reef created in his name just a quarter mile from the Enis reef.
New site for Bill Mickler
This new site, in 73 feet, commemorates William “Bill” Mickler (1947-2024), a longstanding and dedicated volunteer for OAR projects. Mickler, also an FSU alum, was a retired officer with the Florida Department of Transportation and a serious saltwater angler and conservationist who spent many years serving in various volunteer capacities with OAR and the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), Richardson said.
“I can’t think of a more apt tribute to Bill’s marine advocacy for anglers through CCA and OAR than the creation of a massive artificial reef in his memory. Bill would have been very proud of this.”
The long day of work by Walter Marine and its crew included a major expansion of the Buddy Ward Memorial Reef off Apalachicola. Located roughly nine miles south of the Bob Sikes Cut on St. George Island, the Ward reef lies in 40 feet of water.
Olan “Buddy” Ward (1953-2006) was a major figure in Apalachicola’s seafood industry for decades and was considered the “patriarch” of the area’s shrimping industry by friends and associates, said Capt. Grayson Shepard of Apalachicola. Shepard, who heads the Apalachicola Artificial Reef Association (AARA), oversaw the permitting and the construction of the Ward reef. He said that 33 eight-foot-tall, 6,000-pound reef units were added to the site, making this one of most impressive memorial reefs off the county’s coast.
OAR and AARA, both nonprofit entities that rely exclusively on volunteer help, teamed up to obtain all the permitting and fundraising required for the project. All told, Richardson said this latest mission cost $202,000 and included funding from the Florida Wildlife and Conservation Commission, CCA, OAR, AARA and a variety of private sources, including friends and families of those being memorialized. Tax money raised through the sale of fishing licenses and equipment make up the bulk of state funding for public artificial reef construction in Florida.
“We have now created at least 31 reefs that permanently memorialize individuals whose lives were enriched by their association with our coastal waters,” Richardson said. “Anyone interested in establishing a lasting tribute to a loved one might want to consider this option at sea.”
New fishing hot spots
The newest additions to Franklin County’s constellation of public artificial reefs include three memorial reefs within easy striking distance of Apalachicola and Carrabelle. Here are the GPS coordinates for the geographical centers of reefs built on Aug. 12. (For a complete listing of coordinates and more detailed information about OAR’s memorial reef program, visit OAR’s website at oarreefs.org.)
Carl Enis Memorial Reef: 29° 35.426’ 84° 25.383’
Bill Mickler Memorial Reef: 29° 35.340’ 84° 25.679’
Buddy Ward Memorial Reef: 29° 29.136’ 84° 56.032’
Frank Stephenson of Carrabelle is a founding member of The Organization for Artificial Reefs. This article originally appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat and was shared by the author for publication in the Florida Specifier.
