Came home from Afghanistan to a green swamp of a pool

[PoolDoc]

The milky blue indicates that the algae is mostly dead, but that the algae 'corpses' are now floating around in your pool. Filtration will remove it, in time. Be sure to run your pump 24/7, and, if there is ANY way to do so, slow the flow down.

I'm assuming your have a sand filter, filled with Zeobrite, instead of sand? The problem here -- typically -- is that your pump is over sized relative to your filter. This is common, that we almost never see exceptions to this pattern. ALL of the manufacturer filter & pump combos for above ground pools exhibit this problem.

Over sized pumps are not good with any filter, but are especially bad with sand filters, causing at least 3 problems:
1. Dirt, and especially algae, is pushed THROUGH the media, and back into the pool.
2. Excess flow causes you to lose filter media each time you backwash.
3. And, it wastes electricity!

You may also want to open your filter and make sure that you haven't lost so much media that your filter is pretty much not a filter.

And, be careful with the clarifier: a little can help, but too much will actually work in reverse of what you expect, and cause the algae to remain suspended!

Finally, don't let the chlorine drop. You may have all the algae in the water, but until you see the pool, you can't be sure you have all the algae in the cracks and crannies . . . and if you let the chlorine drop, it may 're-bloom'.

PS. Thanks for your service. Are you a corpsman, a SEAL, or something else? I wouldn't have thought too many Navy chiefs were on the ground there. My first cousin was there, fairly often, up till two years ago, when he retired as commander of MARSOC. He's the same age as I am, give or take a couple of months . . . and blew out his knee for the final time, after deciding he should try to keep up with some of his guys during a training exercise that involved going over a wall. He's got a stainless steel knee, now. Of course, that's a lot better than coming back with no knees, like a lot of guys have done.