2 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

SUPSALV SENDS

In This Issue

FACEPLATE is published by the Supervisorof Salvage and Diving to make the latest andmost informative news available to the Navydiving and salvage community. Discussionsor illustrations of commercial products do notimply endorsement by the Supervisor ofSalvage and Diving or the U.S. Navy.

Articles, letters, queries and comments shouldbe directed to the Commander, Naval SeaSystems Command, NAVSEA 00C, 1333Isaac Hull Ave. SE Stop 1070, WashingtonNavy Yard, DC 20376-1070. (Attn:FACEPLATE). Visit our website at http://www.supsalv.org. To view an electronicversion of Faceplate in PDF format go to ourwebsite and click on the word “Faceplate”located in the left hand column. This link willdirect you to our list of Faceplate issues.

Captain Jim Wilkins, USNDirector of Ocean Engineering

Supervisor of Salvage and DivingNAVSEA 00C

wilkinsjr@navsea.navy.mil

Captain Mark Helmkamp, USNSupervisor of Diving

Editor In Chiefhelmkampmt@navsea.navy.mil

LCDR Jim Bladh, USN (Ret.)Managing Editor

jimbladhsr@aol.com

BMCM (MDV) Steve Smith, USNBMCM(SW/MDV) Fred K. Orns, USN

Fleet Liaison Editorssmithss@navsea.navy.milornsfk@navsea.navy.mil

Zoya GorbunovaProduction Editor

zgorbunova@roh-inc.com

Otto C. AdamsGraphic Designer

oadams@roh-inc.com

(SUPSALV SENDS continued on page 6)

First – CONGRATULATIONS to ourSEALAB community on the celebra-

tion of their 40th anniversary! As shouldquickly be evident, we’ve dedicated muchof this FACEPLATE issue to heralding theaccomplishments of the early “Man-In-The-Sea” Program.

months and received strong endorsement.The last few months focused on develop-ing the right E7/E8/E9 force structure forthe new ratings recognizing the uniquerequirement of a senior enlisted force tobring mature, operational expertise andhigh levels of leadership skills to bear onour high risk operations. Healthy advance-ment opportunities through E9 mustbe included. Staffing standards arebeing developed for both communitiesand will be applied throughout theforce by the end of this fiscal year todetermine the proper structure. Whencompleted, the proposed force structurewill be briefed through the USN chain ofcommand for approval and implementa-tion as soon as possible.

But as anyone currently in uniformcan tell you, the pace of change in theNavy today seems staggering…so Ithought I’d use this “SUPSALV SENDS”as an update on important initiatives in theNavy Diving and Salvage Program –

ARS 50 Class – Since my last“SUPSALV SENDS”, the CNO did, infact, approve the conversion of the fourARS 50 Class vessels to become T-ARSsoperated by the Military Sealift Com-mand, beginning in FY06. The principalreason was to reduce overall cost to theNavy. The current plan (subject to change)is for the two East Coast ships (USSGRASP and USS GRAPPLE) to beconverted in FY06, followed byPACFLEET’s USS SALVOR and USSSAFEGUARD in FY07. All of the divingbillets on each of the 4 ships are beingretained and converted to become fivenew MDSU ONE and TWO divingdetachments to support deployment on theT-ARSs much the same as currentlyoccurs on the T-ATFs. MSC is developinga robust Salvage Training Program tointegrate their professionals with theMDSUs to ensure that USN salvage capa-bility is not just retained but improved.

Navy Diver Rating - The Center forEOD & Diving (CENEODD) continues toblaze the trail for our new Navy DiverRating (as well as an EOD Rating). Thesetwo ratings will replace the current 19Diver and 22 EOD source ratings. Thisinitiative has been briefed to a number offlag officers and MCPON over the past 12

Saturation Diving System – FY06 pro-curement of the Navy’s CNO-approvedair transportable saturation diving system(to be known as SAT FADS for SaturationFly-Away Dive System) is being planned!The system will be operated by MDSUTWO Deep Diving Detachment, aug-mented by a cadre of NEDU saturationDivers who also maintain it in ready-service at Panama City both for trainingmissions (NDSTC) and operationalmissions. Start thinking about whethersaturation diving is part of your future!

Diving Warrant Candidate Recommen-dations – The 2003 MDV/CWO Confer-ence recommended that candidates forDiving Warrant (1) be qualified at thehighest level of Diving Supervisor at theircurrent command, and (2) have success-fully passed the written MDV coursepre-test administered by NDSTC. A recentSalvage Executive Steering Committeeapproved and forwarded the recom-mendation to BUPERS. Forewarned isforearmed for you aspiring DWOs.

SUPSALV Sends ........................................... 2Next Generation Dive System Update ........... 3Tom Salmon’s Retirement .............................. 4Mark V Monument at the WNY ...................... 4Divers Alert Network New President .............. 5From the Managing Editor ............................. 5Daughter of Former NEDU CO and SUPSALV

Brings Home The Bronze .............................. 6The Non-Technical Causes of Accidents ....... 7“Papa Topside”, Captain George F. Bond ...... 8Historical Diving Society USA ........................ 9One Navy Diver’s “Excellent” Adventure ..... 10U.S. Navy SEALAB II ................................... 12Deep Kim Chi ............................................... 15

Navy Divers Find a New Dive Buddy ........... 16Diving Systems Certification Notes ............. 18Rapture of the Deep .................................... 19Hard Hat History .......................................... 20Command in the Spotlight ........................... 21The Old Master....(Jake’s Corner) ............... 22Topside; Red Diver...From SUPDIVE .......... 23

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 3

In October of 2004, Guam’sCOMNAVMAR dive locker

with Divers from NEDU,NAVSEA, and area commands,field-tested the Oxygen Regu-lating Console Assembly (ORCA).In addition, some hardware for theNext Generation Dive System(NGDS) was tested, such astransducers, digital depth gages,and a computer system. TheORCA enables Divers to de-compress in the water usingoxygen delivered at the 30 and 20foot stops. In order to use oxygenin the water, NEDU modifiedthe V-VAL 18 decompressionalgorithm to be adaptable for surfacesupplied dives capable of receiving O

2 in

the water. The ORCA is a transportable console

designed to be compatible with all currentUSN Diver air systems. All the Diver’s air,with the exception of the pneumo, is passedthrough the ORCA. For decompression,HP oxygen is reduced at the ORCA, or anLP port is available to allow use of aTRCS O

2 rack, and passed to the Diver.

Additional deck space was required for theORCA and the oxygen K bottles, but it wasnot a serious impingement on the available

workspace. A total of 84 surface supplieddives were completed using the ORCA,ranging from 87 to 188 feet. Bottom timesranged from 14 to 43 minutes. Seventy-eight of the dives were decompressiondives, some requiring as much as 24minutes of decompression. Six oxygen Kbottles were used during the entireevolution, which was less than anticipated.

The ORCA console worked ex-tremely well and Divers had no troubleoperating it. There were some minordesign change recommendations which wewill most likely incorporate. The OPs weresimple, easy to follow, and the Divers werenever aware of any shifting of gases takingplace topside.

The hardware did not fare as well,particularly the transducer. It failed tooperate successfully for the fullday because of its fragile electricalconnections. NEDU is looking for a“Diver friendly” model that can take theconstant punishment that our equipmentgoes through.

One additional bit of data thatwe gathered was comparing the de-compression required from the V-VAL 18square dive table and schedules to thedecompression obligation computed bythe V-VAL 18 Dive Planner which usedthe Diver’s actual depth and bottom time.The use of the Dive Planner resulted in asignificant saving. For example, a dive that

Part of the ORCA dive team.

is 115/26 must be decompressedusing 120/30 table and scheduleresulting in a decompressionobligation of 15 minutes on O

2

at 20 feet. When we put thisinformation into the DivePlanner, the decompressionobligation was shortened to just6 minutes on O

2 at 20 feet - a

60% reduction in decompressiontime for this particular dive. Useof the Dive Planner for the entiremission would have cut the totaldecompression time by 38.6%!

On another note, MDV JimCarolan from NEDU made hislast Navy dive before retiring

after 30 years of service and MDVDavidson made his last dive beforeconverting to the wardroom. In addition,MDV Stogdale, MDV Shank, MDVPratschner, MDV Neely, and I dove onthis protocol.

HooYah MDVs!!!

MDV Carolan’s last Navy dive.

So why do you want to be a Warrant?(Because we need good #1 tenders, Sir!)

By: MDV Steve Smith

Bottom line is that we, old farts, onlyget into the water when it is warm and clear.Beware if you are planning a dive job inBermuda, because we will see you there.The flip side is, you cold-dark-water guyscan relax, we won’t be there looking overyour shoulder. Brrrrrr, it’s too cold!

MDV Smith is currently Fleet Master Diverat NAVSEA 00C.

4 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

Mark V Monument at the

Mr. Tom Salmon, Director of Salvage(NAVSEA 00C2), is retiring after

34 years of U.S. Navy salvage work. Fromearly on, Tom felt the call to duty from hiscountry and was commissioned as a NavalOfficer in 1968. He graduated from U.S. NavyDive School in 1969 and was assigned to USSGRAPPLE (ARS 7) as the Diving Officer,completing a WESTPAC tour in Vietnam.

After his initial ship tour, he transferredto Naval Support Facility (NSF) Da Nang for a12-month tour as the Diving and SalvageOfficer. His time in Vietnam was spentrecovering capsized and sunken boats, barges,dredges and forklifts, downed helicopters andplanes, performing underwater ship husbandry,and even recovery of a Naval Academy classring. He spent 3 years in the Navy and thenjoined the Reserves as the Executive Officer ofthe Reserve Harbor Clearance Unit in LongBeach, California.

He continued his work in Navy salvageby becoming part of NAVSEA 00C, Office ofSupervisor of Salvage and Diving, in 1975.Mr. Salmon has provided superior service tothe Navy and the U.S. government over hisentire civilian career spanning 29 years. Hiscontributions and continuity of 34 years of U.S.Navy salvage experience provided the basis forthe U.S. Navy to have the rapid responsecapability for safe search and recovery ofanything that fell into the water. He was directlyresponsible for providing the Navy, Federal,and other agencies with the necessary expertiseand national response capability to perform anysalvage or oil recovery operation anywhere,anyplace, anytime.

He was primarily responsible for thesuccessful search for and recovery of numerousitems from the oceans that were of significantimportance to the Navy and the nation. Hestarted as one of 00C’s salvage experts andworked his way to become the Head of 00C’sSalvage Division. During his illustrious career,he was responsible for literally hundreds ofsuccessful salvage operations, many of whichhad significant impact on the entire nation. Mr.Salmon is NAVSEA’s and the nation’s primaryauthority on deep sea salvage. He has done itall.

Mr. Salmon participated in, and in manycases, led the efforts for recovery of com-ponents from crashed commercial aircraftincluding Korean Airlines Flight 007, Air IndiaFlight 182, South African Airways Flight 295,United Airlines Flight 811 cargo door, AlaskaAirlines Flight 301, TWA Flight 800, AeroPeruFlight 603, Swiss Air Flight 111, and AlaskaAir Flight 261. These recoveries have led toincreased flight safety for the general public.

He was a key participant in the recoveryof oil spilled from T/V EXXON VALDEZ aswell as the recovery of victims from F/VEHIME MARU. He supported the recovery ofdebris and victims from Space ShuttlesCHALLENGER and COLUMBIA. Over theyears, he was responsible for the recovery fromdeep ocean depths of material from dozens ofcrashed military aircraft and lost weaponsleading to the increased safety of our militaryaircraft. During his tenure as NAVSEA 00C2,one of the recoveries included a Marine Corpshelicopter, which was recovered from a recordsetting depth of over 17,200 feet.

When Tom retires, his expertise andcontinuity will not only be sorely missed, butwill be a gap hard to fill for many years to come.

Tom Salmon.

An Experimental DivingOrganization was establishedat the New York Naval Ship-yard in 1913 and formallydesignated as the NavyExperimental Diving Unit(NEDU) in 1927 whenit was relocated to theWashington Navy Yardto centralize all NavyDiving research.

The Navy Diving School wasestablished in 1926 in Building 146 at theWNY and was renamed Deep Sea DivingSchool (DSDS) in 1928. The Navy SalvageSchool was moved to the WNY fromBayonne, NJ in 1957.

NEDU relocated to Panama City, FLin 1975 and the Diving School followedin 1980. There is currently nothing at theWashington Navy Yard that tells thishistory. The Mark V Monument we planto erect there will change this.

Donation Request

This monument is dedicated to Diversfrom around the world who gave their life’swork to underwater construction and thesalvage of ships lost at sea. Their methodof training and development of equipmentset standards adopted by the internationaldiving community. Their traditions will lastforever.

Please accept this opportunity tosupport this project in remembrance ofthe unsung heroes who labored in themurky depths to save lives and improveknowledge of the world underwater.

Please send your tax-deductiblecontribution to:

Mark V Monument17314 Panama City Beach PkwyPanama City Beach, FL 32413

A certificate of appreciation will bemailed to each donor. Please makecheck payable to “Mark V Monument.”

C o n t a c t B o b B a r t h a tbob.barth@mchsi.com or Doug Hough at(850) 235-4101 or momits@bellsouth.netif you have any questions.

Your support is greatly appreciated byeveryone in the Navy Diving community!

Washington Navy Yard

Managing Editor’s Note

LCDR Brian D. Lawrence is Assistant Supervisorof Salvage at NAVSEA 00C.

I personally worked with and for Tomduring his entire tenure at the Office of theSupervisor of Salvage. I have had manysupervisors during my 58 years with the Navy,40 of these years were within the salvage anddiving community. I rate Tom as one of the bestthat it has been my privilege to work for.

A Brief History

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 5

After a year-long executive search,Divers Alert Network has named

career Navy officer and researchpsychologist Michael D. Curley, Ph.D., asits President and Chief Executive Officer.The appointment became effective March1, 2004. In announcing the appointment,Acting DAN CEO and President, Dan Orr,echoed the Selection Committee’s choice.“Dr. Curley brings a wealth of experienceand expertise to DAN America,” Orr said.“We are confident that he will lead DANinto a new era of growth and developmentin diving medical research. Dr. Curley willhelp DAN continue to promote its missionin diving safety and foster the dissemina-tion of critical information as a partner inthe global diving community. On behalf ofthe DAN staff, we welcome Dr. Curleyand his wife, Elaine, to the DAN family.”

From 1999 to 2002, Dr. Curleyserved as medical adviser for Chief ofNaval Operations Submarine Escape andRescue Working Group, Navy MedicalResearch Scientific Advisory Board, andPressurized Submarine Escape TrainingGroup. During that time, he served asCEO of a multifaceted biomedicalresearch, development, training, andeducation facility, directing submarinesurvival, escape, and rescue initiatives.

From 1997 to 1999, he was the firstNaval Biomedical Program manager fordiving safety and performance, submarineescape, and rescue.

From 1992 to 1996, Dr. Curley wastechnical director for all aspects of theNaval Submarine Medical ResearchLaboratory on the Submarine Base in NewLondon, CT, where his duties includedresource generation, personnel manage-ment, budget execution, program plan-ning, product delivery, and more.

From 1992 to 1994, he was executiveofficer of the laboratory. Technicalprograms undertaken included thefollowing: 1) the effects of low-frequencysound on Divers; 2) submarine-relateddecompression problems; and 3) sub-marine escape and rescue.

From 1992 to 1996, he served as theU.S. Department of Defense medicaladviser on the effects of low-frequencysonar on recreational and militaryDivers. He led the medical team, whichcoordinated all human research andexposure policy. He was the senior personand the only medical representative on theExecutive Steering Group, which includedengineers, lawyers, and environmentalexperts.

From 1977 to 2002, Dr. Curley wasan active duty Naval Officer. He workedas research psychologist in the DivingMedical Department, Naval MedicalResearch Institute, Bethesda, MD;research psychologist, human factorsengineer, Navy Experimental Diving Unit,Panama City, FL; research psychologist inthe Diving Medical Department, NavalMedical Research Institute; and as headof Performance Physiology Division,Behavioral Sciences Department.

In 1978, Dr. Curley graduatedfrom the U.S. Navy Diving MedicalOfficer Course, and in 1983 he earneddesignation as saturation Diving Officer.He supervised 11 research saturation dives(depths to 1,106 fsw) and more than 700experimental, non-saturation dives usingmixed gas or 100 percent oxygen forbreathing. As an experimental Diveronsaturation, oxygen exposure, decom-pression table development, andequipment test dives, Dr. Curley himselfaccomplished more than 400 dives.

He also operated the 1-AtmosphericDiving System JIM, and was a lecturerat the U.S. Navy Diving School andNaval Undersea Medical Institute.Dr. Curley will lecture at several eventsthis year.

He co-wrote more than 100presentations and penned 20 technicalpapers for NEDU. PADI and YMCAcertified in 1976, Dr. Curley has ac-cumulated more than 200 recreationaldives and is looking forward to morediving during his tenure at DAN.

From the Managing Editor

This edition of Faceplate isparticularly close to me. It bringsback many fond memories of my pastassociation with the Diving Navy. Ifirst met Bob Barth and the SEALABDivers during my tour at the thenMine Defense Laboratory in PanamaCity. As the MDL Diving Officer, Iwas involved in safety and trainingfor the SEALAB crew. I had someexceptionally good Divers in myDiving Locker. They were so goodthat Dr. Bond, Walt Mazzonne, andBob Barth recognized their value andincorporated them into the SEALABcrew, namely, Wilber Eaton, PaulWells, and Don Risk. These Diversalong with Bob Sheets, made themission impossible to be anything butsuccessful.

The Mark V Monument for theWashington Navy Yard is certainlyworthwhile (see Lee Wolford’s “HardHat History” article in the August2004 issue of FACEPLATE and page4 in this issue). I encourage all of youto contribute to the effort. Themonument is of particular interest tome since I graduated from First ClassDive School in October 1954.

The article on Susan Bartho-lomew-Williams (see page 6) ismeaningful to many of us. I knewSusan as a small child, from my visitsto Black Bart (Captain Bartolomew).It is no surprise that Susan hasachieved success at the Olympics. Iremember when Susan’s mother,Donna, ran marathons. It is obviousthat Susan inherited her competitivespirit from her parents. A close friendof the Bartholomew family said: “It’stoo bad Bart wasn’t here to see Susanwin the Bronze medal.” My replywas: “Bart saw it.”

I wish to thank all of you whohave contributed to FACEPLATE.Your input is what makes this aninformative account of Navy Divers.

Jim BladhManaging Editor

6 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

2004 Women’s triathlon bronze medalistSusan Bartholomew-Williams.

Panama City, FL – Every child has adream, whether it is to play pro ball,

grow up to be the President of the UnitedStates, join the military, or be a teacher,but for Susan Bartholomew-Williams thatdream was fulfilled when she walked outto compete with the United States Olym-pic Team in Athens, Greece last August.

Williams, who started swimming atthe Bay County YMCA, always dreamedof being an Olympic swimmer. She madethe team, just not for swimming.

“When I was 15, I wanted to be aswimmer on the U.S. Team. I swam morn-ing, noon, and night but after a while I re-alized that was not going to happen,” Wil-liams said. “I gave up on my dream andwent to school. I got my degree and wentto work like everyone else, but the bugwas still there. I still wanted to be anOlympian.”

Williams was introduced to a newsport – the triathlon – in the mid ‘90s andfell in love with it. She began to train inhopes of making the 2000 triathlon teamthat went to Sydney, Australia, but shecould not compete as she became pregnantand had to withdraw.

After her daughter was born, shewent back into training in hopes of mak-ing the 2004 Team, a goal she finally ac-complished, winning a bronze medal atthe 2004 summer games.

Susan Bartholomew-Williams speaks at thePanama City Beach Aquatics Center groundbreaking ceremony held on September 21,2004. Susan’s father was Commanding OfficerNEDU from 1977 to 1980 and Supervisor ofSalvage and Diving from 1985 to 1990.

Williams had to start somewhere andthat place was right here in Panama City,FL. Her father, Captain Charles Bartho-lomew, was Commanding Officer of theNavy Experimental Diving Unit from1977 to 1980. The Panama City area, shesays, is where she discovered and fell inlove with swimming but only had the poolon the base to swim in. That’s why she re-turned to Panama City Beach on Septem-ber 23, 2004, for the ground-breaking of anew Aquatic Center at Frank Brown Park.

“Every time I come here, somethingis different. It’s amazing how thecommunity has been built up since the late‘70s and early ‘80s. I am little sad to seethe small hotels gone and it is strange tolook up in the skyline and see the bigbuildings but it is nice that the communityis involved and wants to help the kids,”she said. “This Aquatic Center will givethem an advantage that I never had as achild and who knows, maybe some daydown the road, Panama City will seeanother Olympian standing at the podiumreceiving their medal.”

“I am still on cloud nine. I have stillnot realized that I won a medal, that I wasable to compete for my country and thatmy dream has been accomplished,” shesaid. Susan now is going to concentrate oncoaching and her next goal is to help herhusband compete in the triathlon on a

SUPSALV SENDS(continued from page 2.)

CWO & MDV Salvage Training – An-other Salvage Executive Steering Commit-tee initiative is to send Diving Warrants andMDVs through formal salvage training atNDSTC enroute to either MDSUs or (forthe short term) ARS 50 Class. This trainingis particularly targeted at Warrants and Mas-ter Divers who never received formalsalvage training during the several yearswhen the First Class Diver curriculum didnot include salvage training. Though thecurriculum is now revised, the formal train-ing is still required. This recommendationhas been sent to the Fleet for endorsement.

Journalist Third Class (SW) Michael Misfeldt,NSA-PC Public Affairs.

USN Diving Manual (Revision 5) – After2 years of labor, the next revision to theUSN Diving Manual is soon to be issued.I’ve run out of room to summarize the mainchanges, except for saying that it focusesagain on providing the Diving Supervisorincreased operational options (and responsi-bility) through appropriate use of Opera-tional Risk Management. Rev 5 wasreviewed and endorsed during the inauguralmeeting of the Senior Enlisted AdvisoryTeam (SEAT). BMCM (MDV/SW) FredOrns is POC. Stay tuned!

Contaminated Water Diving Manual –Finally issued! We plan to add to andimprove this manual over time, as it stillleaves a lot unanswered…that’s becausethere aren’t many solid answers whichexist for the toughest challenges of“contaminated water.” Feedback appre-ciated…particularly from those of youactually working the dirty water side of thebusiness.

Working Divers Conference 2005 – To beheld in Keyport WA, during the last week ofMarch 05. Like last year, we’ve added anumber of practical training workshops tobookend the week. Every USN dive lockershould attempt to send at least one seniorand one junior Diver to make sure as muchtraining gets exported back to the entirelocker as possible. See you there!

In closing… CONGRATULATIONSto Project GENESIS and SEALAB I, II, &III pioneer and aquanaut CWO4 (ret) BobBarth, who’s retired after decades of USN,government, and commercial divingservice. Hoo-yah Deep Sea, Bob! We’llnever forget. Up and over, Red Diver!

SUPSALV SENDS

professional level.

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 7

In Washington, DC, Air Florida Flight 90plunged into the ice-covered Potomac

River killing 81 people on 13 January1982. The causes of this accident includedthe flight crew’s failure to use engine anti-ice during ground operation, the decisionto take off with snow/ice on the airfoilsurfaces of the aircraft, and the captain’sfailure to reject the takeoff during the earlystage when the co-pilot had called hisattention to anomalous engine instrumentreadings.

During the early morning of 26 April1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plantin the former USSR (now Ukraine), a chainreaction in one of the reactors went out ofcontrol and created explosions and afireball. The accident immediately killedmore than 30 people, and the resulting highradiation levels forced 135,000 people toevacuate. This accident was attributed to apoor safety culture, inadequate training,poor communications, and violation ofsafety procedures.

culture, poor leadership, bad decisionmaking, inadequate risk assessment,inexperience, and fatigue.

These accidents illustrate the risks offailing to understand the human andorganizational dimensions of accidentcausation and prevention. Significantfailures in human factors, or non-technicalskills such as communications, decisionmaking, situation awareness, andleadership, are not confined to thoseaccidents described previously. Researchhas shown that approximately 80% of allaccidents are caused by human error.High-risk industries such as aviation,medicine, nuclear power generation, andoffshore oil production have acted toimprove their ability to identify and headoff potential non-technical causes of suchaccidents. Can the Navy learn from thesetechniques for identifying and mitigatinghuman causes of diving accidents?

Although Navy diving is remarkablysafe, accidents and mishaps do occurbecause of the high-risk environment inwhich the Divers work. The U.S. Navydiving community is adept at identifyingand mitigating technical problems.However, as in other industries, the Navyis not as adept in dealing with the non-technical causes of accidents.

NAVSEA Deep SubmergenceBiomedical Development has fundedNEDU to provide a better understandingof the non-technical skills required for safeand effective diving operations and learnhow to use this knowledge to improve bothsafety and productivity. Borrowed fromother industries, the techniques to be usedare specifically tailored for military diving.Currently we are one year into the three-year project and have been examiningdiving mishap reports, interviewingDivers, and collecting questionnaireresponses. Although these data are stillbeing collected, it is possible to drawconclusions from the information gatheredto date.

Our analysis of dive mishap reportsshows that the causes of the majority(70%) of the mishaps were classified as

unknown; human factors accounted for23% of the mishaps. Five reports of fataldiving mishaps were also examined.The most common causes identifiedfrom the reports include poor leader-ship, poor situation awareness (par-ticularly environmental awareness andanticipation), poor risk and time assess-ment, and lack of personal resources(coping with stress and fatigue).

When we interview Divers aboutaccidents or near misses in which they havebeen involved, our preliminary resultsshow that they identify failures in situationawareness, communications, decisionmaking, and leadership as causal.

Responses to our attitude question-naire show that 1st Class Divers are morelikely to deny that personal limitationsaffect their performance than 2nd ClassDivers. Furthermore, 1st Class Divers havea significantly higher belief in the authorityof senior team members than 2nd ClassDivers and Diving Officers. We also askedrespondents to list what they believe to bethe three main causes of diving accidents.“Complacency” was the most commonlyidentified cause, followed by “fatigue” and“training.”

Although data collection is notcomplete, it seems to indicate that thetraining of 1st Class Divers or DivingSupervisors as well as of Diving Officerscould benefit from incorporatinginstruction in diving-specific leadership,developing and maintaining situationalawareness, and assessing how risk, time,and personal limitations affect per-formance.

Air Florida Flight 90.

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

LT Paul O’Connor is a Research Psychologistat NEDU.

Divers on a U.S. Navy salvage shipwere approaching the completion of therecovery of an aircraft. During the earlyhours of 5 May 2001, on the 14th day ofoperations, two Divers descended 41 feetto the sea floor. In the poor bottomconditions they became disoriented and,instead of making their way to the debrisfield, became entangled in the anchor chainof the salvage ship. While attempting torecover the Divers, one of them wasapparently struck by the anchor chain anddisappeared from the rescuers’ view. Hisbody was recovered a month later. Thisaccident can be attributed to a poor safety

8 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

Dr. George Bond, “Papa Topside”, ashe was affectionately known to the

aquanauts of the SEALAB program, wasthe Senior Medical Officer and principalinvestigator for SEALAB I, II, and III.His work on behalf of deep saturationdiving and undersea medicine earned himrecognition as the “Father of SaturationDiving.” In the mid-1950’s, then CDRGeorge Bond, Director of the SubmarineMedical Center (SMC) at the NavalSubmarine Base, New London, CT, wascredited with the key insight upon whichsaturation diving is based. As authorSylvia Earle recounts, “Bond pointed outthat once a Diver’s body was saturatedwith compressed gas – when tissues hadabsorbed all they could and equilibriumwas reached – the decompression timewould be the same whether the Diverstayed underwater for a matter of hours,days, weeks, or even months. The amountof time necessary for decompressiondepends on the depth of the dive and onthe gases breathed.”

At the SMC, or the SubmarineMedical Research Laboratory as it wouldlater be called, Dr. Bond was responsiblefor research on submarine escape. On theside, he began work on Project GENESIS.“GENESIS” was the code name given tothe first studies of the effects of saturationdiving on man. The project consisted ofphases, with the initial A and B phasesduring 1957 and 1958, concerned withexposing laboratory animals to saturationin various breathing gases. With theanimal work completed, Dr. Bondproposed to extend the study to man and

“offer the opportunity fordevelopment of ecologicalsystems which would permitman, as a free agent, to live andperform useful work to depths at600 feet, and for periods inexcess of 30 days.” His proposalwas rejected.

After first failing to obtainfunding for human experi-ments, the space program’sinterest in helium-oxygenatmosphere for manned spaceflights finally broke the moneyloose for human saturationdiving experiments. Phase C,in late 1962, exposed threesubjects to a 79% helium - 21%oxygen atmosphere at oneatmosphere for six days. Theeffect of helium on speech wasnoted, but the men experiencedno ill effects. Naturally, thenChief Quartermaster Robert A.Barth was one of the Divers.Phase D took place at the Navy Experi-mental Diving Unit (NEDU) in 1963.Barth was again an experimental subject.The saturation dive in the NEDU chamberwas in a 62% helium, 32% nitrogen, 6%oxygen atmosphere with the complexpressurized to 100 feet of sea water(fsw). The Divers were able to make“excursions” into the attached “wet” roomand simulate work on the bottom. Thefinal GENESIS experiment, Phase E, tookplace later in 1963 at the Naval SubmarineMedical Laboratory in the Climate –Altitude Chamber. The depth was 200 fswand the dive lasted 12 days. The breathingmixture was 79.5% helium, 16% nitrogen,and 3.5% oxygen. Once more, Barthvolunteered. The successful conclusion toPhase E of Project GENESIS completedthe laboratory work for the U.S. Navy’sMan in the Sea program. SEALAB I was the Navy’s first opensea, manned underwater experiment. Thefour aquanauts, including (you guessed it!)Bob Barth, would live in the cigar-shapedchamber, 40 feet long and 10 feet in

diameter, with two portholes on each sideand two manholes in the bottom. Waterdid not enter because pressure in thechamber was the same as the surroundingwater. The aquanauts wore the Navy’sstandard Mark VI semi-closed breathingapparatus while outside working orexploring. They could also breathe off ahookah system via an umbilical.

The initial test was carried out in theGulf of Mexico near Panama City, Floridaat a depth of 193 fsw. A SubmersibleDecompression Chamber (SDC) served asthe elevator from the surface downto SEALAB I, which was supportedon the surface by a support ship, the largelighter, YFNB-12. Cables carried electri-city, compressed gas, fresh water, commu-nications, and atmosphere sampling linesbetween the underwater habitat and thesurface. Dr. Bond and Captain WalterMazzone gave the habitat a finalinspection, and on July 20, 1964, theaquanauts entered the habitat and theexperiment began. The early start tohurricane season caused the dive to be

Captain Bond, 1915-1983.

SEALAB I being placed in the water offPanama City, FL.

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 9

Ocean Simulation Facility plaque.

SEALAB III towed alongside USS ELK RIVERprior to submerging to 610 feet off SanClemente Island.

ended after eleven days, but SEALAB Iwas a major success. Many lessonslearned would be applied to subsequentsaturation dives such as better engineeredsolutions for raising and lowering thehabitat, lower humidity, helium speechunscrambling and better communications,improved umbilicals, swimmer navigationequipment, and reducing the gear theswimmer had to wear, don, doff, and storein the habitat. Through it all “PapaTopside” was topside!

SEALAB II moved the operation to asite off La Jolla, California. The new andimproved SEALAB II was 57 feet longand 12 feet in diameter, with a small“conning tower”, that made it resemble arailroad tank car, without the wheels.Many improvements had been made. Amore adequate support ship was alsoadded, a staging vessel used in thePOLARIS missile testing program. Therefitted support ship, renamed theBERKONE, had a Deck Decompression

intact and was one of the 28 aquanauts.The cold water off the coast of Californiawas a real test. Visibility was poor. Highhumidity continued to make livingconditions uncomfortable. But theaquanauts handle adversity and conducteda multitude of physiological experimentsand tasks. Dr. Bond presided over thehighly successful experiment.

SEALAB III was conducted off SanClemente Island, California in 1969. ELKRIVER (IX 501), a World War II landingship, was converted to provide supportfor the diving operations. SEALAB IIIwas the same habitat used in SEALAB IIbut modified with the addition of tworooms to the bottom of the habitat. Oneroom would serve as a diving station andthe other for storage. The habitat wasplaced on the bottom in 610 fsw. Five orsix teams of eight Navy and civilianaquanauts were planned. The atmospherewas 95% helium, 3.5% nitrogen, and 1.5%oxygen. The experiment was planned tolast 60 days. Now Chief Warrant OfficerBob Barth was chosen to be a team leader.Before the first team entered the habitat, ahelium leak occurred. A four man team,including Bob Barth, went down in the bellto fix the leak, and one of the four, BarryCannon, suffered a malfunction of hisdiving gear and died. This ended SEALABIII, which was raised and the projectshelved. The Navy’s interest in saturation

Chamber (DDC) installed, and a Pres-surized Transfer Capsule (PTC), whichtransported the aquanauts from the surfaceto the habitat, and could be mated to theDDC for Transfer Under Pressure (TUP)and continuous decompression aboard thesurface support ship.

Three teams of 10 men (a total of 28aquanauts because two men would be ontwo teams) would each spend 15 days onthe bottom in 205 fsw. On August 28,1965, 10 aquanauts swam down to thehabitat. The gas mixture was 77-78%helium, 18% nitrogen, and 3-5% oxygen.Astronaut Scott Carpenter was leader ofTeams 1 and 2. Bob Barth kept his record

diving now shifted to DDCs and PTCsfrom the deck of a ship in support ofsubmarine rescue.

George Bond received his B.A. andM.A. from the University of Florida andhis Medical Degree from McGillUniversity School of Medicine in 1945.Following his internship at MemorialHospital in Charlotte, North Carolina,Dr. Bond established a general practice inrural Bat Cave, North Carolina. He wasthe sole medical provider for 6,000 peoplein a 400 square mile mountainous area. In1953, Dr. Bond entered the Navy, andbecame a qualified Diving Medical Officeand Submarine Medical Officer. He wasassigned to the Submarine Medical Center,and the rest is history! The NavyExperimental Diving Unit dedicated theOcean Simulation Facility, certified man-rated to a depth of 2,250 fsw, in honor ofDr. George Bond in 1974.

Bob Barth was there.

Captain (Dr.) John Murray is the ProgramManager of the Deep Submergence BiomedicalDevelopment Program at NAVSEA 00C.

The Historical Diving SocietyUSA is a non-profit educationalcorporation formed in 1992. It hasmembers in 37 countries andpub l i shes the award -winn ingquarterly magazine HISTORICALDIVER, which covers many aspectsof diving history, including the U.S.Navy.

Among Society Advisory Boardmembers are distinguished Diverssuch as Dr. Christian Lambertsen,Bob Barth, Scott Carpenter, SurgeonVice Admiral Sir John Rawlins, BevMorgan, Phil Nuytten, and AndreasRechnitzer.

For more information on how tojoin the Historical Diving Society,please contact hds@hds.org.

1 0 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

Bob Barth recently retired from theNavy Experimental Diving Unit.

Many of you are familiar with Bob’spreviously documented diving exploits.Captain Mark Helmkamp, SUPDIVE,having heard many sea stories from Bobregarding his life in and around diving,felt that readers of FACEPLATE would beinterested in the story of Bob’s life withsome added stories of his diving career.

The Early Years

On 28 August 1947 Bob was now oldenough to get his own departure visa. Hewent down to the waterfront, lookedfor merchant ships flying the Americanflag, climbed the gangway, asked to seethe Captain, and then asked if there wassomething he could do to work his wayhome. A Lykes Line C2 called the“Wesward Ho” out of New Orleans was inport and needed an Ordinary Seaman. Thenecessary telegrams were sent, theAmerican consulate in Durban wasstroked, all the bases were touched, andfinally Bob was told just before the ship’sdeparture that he could work his way backhome. The only remaining problem was tobreak the news to his family. You don’twant to hear about that night at the dinnertable when Bob told them that he wasleaving. His mother’s dream of Bob goingto college was shattered (he might havewell become a notable engineer and endedup an ED).

Arriving in Baltimore a couple ofmonths later, Bob hopped on a train, wentto Chicago, and joined the U.S. Navy. Hisdream of becoming a Navy Diver wasclose.

In the Navy

Following Navy boot camp and thesubsequent assignments, Bob foundhimself aboard the aircraft carrier USSBOXER (CV 21). It did not look like hehad much chance of becoming a Diver

aboard a bird farm, but his luck changedand at the ripe age of 18 Bob attended 2nd

Class Dive School in Pearl. He was on hisway.

Bob’s first day of Diver trainingcaused him to wonder if this vision ofbeing a Navy Diver was a wise one.Jumping off the fantail of an ASR in a deepsea rig to test his claustic tendenciesshattered the glorious image. But schoolwas soon over and now Bob proudly worea diving helmet on his sleeve that had a“2” in it but he was still a crew member onan aircraft carrier. It would take time beforeBob got into diving full time.

As the years went by, Bob attendedthe Under-water Swimmers School in KeyWest and 2nd Class Dive School again atDSDS Washington. In January 1960 Bobreported for duty at the Escape TrainingTank in Groton for a normal tour of shoreduty. It was the beginning of eleven yearsof working with the some of the finest menBob has ever met.

GENESIS

Bob first met Dr. George Bond inKey West a couple of years earlier whenGeorge Bond and Cyril Tuckfield madetheir record bouyant ascent from thesubmarine Archerfish. Dr. Bond was nowone of the doctors in attendance at the tankduring daily training. Dr. Bond had avision.

1st Class Dive School graduation, 13 May

1966. (Back-L-R) Hedgepeth, Forrest, Barth,

Tuckfield, Bent, Festag. (Front) Koesterman,

Skiba, Blackburn.

Bob Barth during SEALAB III.

Bob was born and raised in thePhilippines. Spending a few years livingin far away places describes his life beforejoining the Navy in 1947. His father was aU.S. Army officer stationed in thePhilippines and China when Bob arrivedin the Barth household in 1930. Bobspent the first 11 years of his life in andaround Manila with a short tour inShanghai. (Bob’s education really did startin Olongapo).

Shortly before 7 December 1941most of the kids in Manila were evacuatedto the mainland to get away from thepending war with Japan. Bob’s parentswere divorced and Bob lived with hismother in Manila. Bob’s mother wasinterned for 3 years in a Japanese prisoncamp, returned to the USA afterwards, gotmarried, and eventually the family foundthemselves in Durban, South Africa.Bob’s mother and stepfather had been inprison camp together.

Life in South Africa for a 16-year-oldboy was far from ideal. Once again Bobfound himself in a distant city that lackedthe companionship of other Americankids. He became obsessed with rejoiningthe American scene, but since he could notleave South Africa by himself until he was17 (which was less than a year away), Bobbegan to plot his departure.

Durban is a big seaport. Bob’s familyhad arrived there by ship and there wereships leaving every week that wouldeventually get back to the USA. Thechances of getting his folks to buy theticket were nil and there was nothing Bobcould do but wait until he turned 17.

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 1 1

(One Navy Diver’s”Excellent Adventure ...continued on page 14.)

Dr. Bond had met Captain Cousteauin 1957 and this meeting turned into a longand productive friendship. Cousteau hada program in the Mediterranean calledConshelf. Conshelf was a series of under-water habitats that were stationed atvarious levels in the sea. Cousteau felt thatBond’s knowledge of diving medicine wasnecessary to answer some physiologicalquestions Cousteau had encountered.Dr. Bond had the ability with his laboratoryin Groton to help solve these unknowns.This is how the collaboration betweenCousteau and Dr. Bond began and was togo on for many years. The early years oftesting the concept were called ProjectGENESIS.

Project GENESIS took place from1957 through 1963. From 1957 untilaround the middle of 1962 most of thestudies were conducted at the SubmarineMedical Center where Dr. Bond wasAssistant Officer in Charge and even-tually Officer in Charge. CDR Bond andhis sidekick CDR Walt Mazzone were twoof the several medical folks who came

down to the tankfor the daily waterwork and were tobecome the twomajor movers andshakers for theSEALAB effort,which followedGENESIS. Earlystudies of theeffects of satur-

ation diving had been limited to laboratoryanimals (goats) but not humans.

In a seldom used room at the tank wasa seldom used chamber. This chamber wasa bit bigger than most of the chambers inthose days. The final GENESIS dive withanimals was conducted in that chamber.Dr. Bond borrowed the goats and as aninterested party Bob was one of the goathandlers. This last dive was to a depth of100 to 200 feet and lasted in theneighborhood of a week or two. With thesuccessful completion of the animal phaseof Project GENESIS, Dr. Bond went to theNavy and convinced them thatGENESIS had proven his theory andrequested permission to shift the testing tohumans.

Dr. George Bond had a convincingmanner. In November 1962 the team founditself at NMRI Bethesda. There was arickety old chamber in the basement of oneof the buildings and they commencedto make it ready for the first plannedsaturation dive for the U.S. Navy. The crewconsisted of two Navy doctors and oneChief Quartermaster. With the unknownsnot clear – what pressure and helium woulddo to a human during long exposures – thedecision was to fill the chamber completelywith helium and the required oxygen, butnot putting any pressure in it. If the Diversencountered some unknown physiologicalproblem brought on by a lengthy stay inhelium, they could just open the door andwalk out with no decompression required.

After a week in the chamber, theDivers walked out smelling like the goatsfrom the previous dive. A noticableincrease was evident in thevocabulary of the twoNavy doctors – Bob hadheld school.

The next of the threedives was scheduled forspring of 1963 at NEDU,then located in the samebuilding as DSDS at theWashington Navy Yard.The three-man crewconsisting of same ChiefQuartermaster and twoChief Hospital Corpsmen.No problems were en-countered and the divewas completed success-fully at 100 feet lastingabout two weeks.

Proud of thesuccess, the last and finalGENESIS dive was planned back at theSubmarine Medical Center in a brandnew chamber that is still there today.Thisfinal dive was scheduled for the length ofa couple of weeks at a depth of 200 feet.The team was chosen to be the Doctor fromthe first dive, a Corpsman fromthe second, and again, the ChiefQuartermaster. As in all previous dives, itwas one test after another. Doctors fromall over were there getting their bit of flesh,body fluids, or red blood, but it was soonover. The men surfaced without anyproblems at all, patted themselves on theback, and set out to figure out how theywere going to get men on the bottom ofthe ocean. The Cousteau concept ofunderwater habitat seemed like a goodidea.

SEALAB

Dr. George Bond.

Bob Barth in interview with Walter Cronkite at San FranciscoNaval Shipyard in 1968. Habitat in background.

Walt Mazzone.

At the completion of the GENESISprogram, Dr. Bond and Walt Mazzone hadproof that the saturation concept was a safeand new style of diving. Now it wasnecessary to prove it at sea. In late1963 there was nothing in the Navyinventory to enable Divers to conductsaturation dives in deep water. TheCousteau group had their equipment inthe Med with their Conshelf program butnothing in the USA. GENESIS had helpedCousteau but the U.S. Navy had noequipment to use.

1 4 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

(One Navy Diver’s “Excellent” Adventure....continued from page 11.)

(L-R): QMC Bob Barth, HMC Glen Iley, SWC HowardBuckner and LT Dan Smith prepare for a dive duringSEALAB II. Courtesy of Museum of Man-in-the-Sea.

SEALAB II prior to christening in 1965at Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

The Cousteau method of a habitat wasaccepted, but where would the group get ahabitat? Some great minds got together anddecided to build the habitat. The smallNavy base in Panama City had some oldfloats that might do the trick. Bob had beentransferred from the tank back to sea dutyin Key West and happened to be homevisiting his folks in a small town just 60miles east of Panama City. Dr. Bond askedBob if he could come over and the two ofthem would decide if they could make ahouse out of what was available.

On 5 December 1963 they showed upat the Navy base, were taken to the junkyard, and shown the two large floats. It wasa tough question since no one in their grouphad ever seen a habitat and surely nevermade one.

The engineers’ enthusiasm to work onthis project was written all over their faces.Little did they know then that the group atthis small base were going to becomemajor contributors to everything the Navydid in deep sea diving for the next 40 years.

After a couple of hours of discussionsas to what these large cylinders would looklike as a house on the seabed, theagreement was made – working together,

Divers and engineers would buildSEALAB I. It would take manypages to give you a gooddescription of what took place inthe building of SEALAB I, butthere is just not time for it in thisarticle. There was a great deal ofcooperation in the making of thisunique habitat among all partiesinvolved.

With the habitat completed,SEALAB I was taken to sea just offPanama City. In an attempt toget her on the bottom, she wasdropped and flooded, and thehabitat was brought back to the basefor refurbishment. Eventually thehabitat ended up in Bermuda andthe habitat was prepared to betowed to its intended bottomlocation. In the final test the habitatwas dropped again and broughtback to Bermuda for cleaning. Itwas finally determined wherelowering mistakes were being made

and the following attempt to put SEALABon the bottom was successful.

The four-man crew was assembledand descended down 193 feet tocommence the 11-day stay. The durationof the SEALAB I dive had been plannedfor longer than that but it was the hurricaneseason of 1964 and sure enough there wasone heading towards Panama City. Theplanned two day decompression wasscheduled to occur by raising SEALAB tothe surface at decompression speed. Withthe storm on its way and the seas too roughto maintain a proper decompression rate,alternate methods of decompressing in anold single lock recompression chamber thatthey had made into what was called aSubmerged Decompression Chamber hadto be utilized. Four men crammed into thesmall chamber for the final day ofdecompression. A day later the groupemerged from the SDC tired, but happybecause the idea worked.

All of a sudden there was en-thusiasm throughout the Navy divingcommunity. Saturation diving seemedto be a viable method that was slowlybeing accepted by those that thoughtit was impossible. Orders were written,

Jim Bladh participated in support of SEALABI and II. He retired after 30 years of activeduty and 28 years of civil service at NAVSEA00C.

transfers started taking place, and forthe first time it all came together as abona fide, card carrying organizationwith sights set on building a new andbigger habitat that was to be calledSEALAB II.

San Francisco’s Hunters Point NavalShipyard was the selected builder ofSEALAB II. An additional contract waslet to build the Navy’s first sat system, areal DDC and PTC were going to servethe users of the new SEALAB.

It took a while to do all the buildingand to get it all together in one location,but on 28 August 1965 everything waslocated about a mile offshore La Jolla,California. The habitat was sitting in 205feet of water and the first crew went downto spend 15 days on the bottom. A total of28 men spent 15 days on the bottom withtwo men doing 30 days. There were threeteams of Divers from all across thecountry. SEALAB II was another successwith one minor bends case.

When it was all over, they had doneit and the skeptic population wasdwindling. SEALAB III was planned tobe in 600 feet of water. But that is anotherchapter and this one is about to close.

Pete Ruden was a Navy Diver for 19 of his22-year Navy career. He was assigned to theMan-in-the-Sea Program and CSDG 1 as aSaturation Diver, Saturation Master Diver,and Saturation Diving Officer for much ofhis career.

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 1 5

The first 15 years of my Navy careerwere devoted to airplanes and

aviation, which amounted to the dream ofmy lifetime. My flying duties involvednearly every type of airplane the Navy hadand even included a Mercury spacecraft.My duty stations took me to nearly all ofthe Navy’s Pacific Island installations,which amounted to the realization ofanother lifelong dream.

The years spent in the Pacific createda fascination for the deep ocean, the coralreef, and undersea life in general. Spearfishing and SCUBA diving, whichcombined the thrill of the hunt and theability to stay for prolonged periods inotherwise forbidden territory, werepowerful incentives for me to learn moreabout this mysterious world. Notableamong other inspirations for me were themany films, books, and exploits by thefamous French oceanographer, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. I was hooked.

In my desire to become a part of thatworld, I realized that my experience inaviation and space flight technologymight have some additional value in itstransfer to manned underwater living. Ispoke with Captain Cousteau aboutworking with him. He agreed that theremight be some value in that transfer oftechnology and suggested I speakwith the U. S. Navy. Enter CaptainGeorge Bond (“Papa Topside”), andanother fabulous adventure for me.

My training started originally withthe four-man SEALAB I crew ofaquanauts and their support Divers withwhom I worked for a number of years.Notable among those vastly experiencedDivers was the now famous Bob Barth,who since has become the dean of allNavy Saturation Divers.

As an outlander, and with very littlediving experience, I became...I must saywith pleasure... the team flunky and gofer.I learned much at the hands of those menduring those times, and was treated gently,for the most part; but I didn’t escape beingthe butt of many tricks and jokes thatoften went over my head.

Throughout all of the education I gotat the hands of that crew, the cool, patient,experienced Chief Quartermaster BobBarth held sway, and I came to have anoverwhelming respect and admiration forthat man. There was nothing I wouldn’thave done for him, and that continues tothis day.

One episode is illustrative and I’llnever forget it. We had a number ofcivilian team members from ScrippsInstitution and other non-militaryorganizations. One was a fine underwaterphotographer named Bill Bunton, whowas at about 215 feet with another Diver(we were using semi-closed circuit,helium supplied MK VI gear). His buddyhad difficulty with his breathing rig andwould probably have to surface withoutdecompression.

Bill dropped his huge $25,000camera on the bottom and helped hisbuddy back up to the surface. They madeit to the chamber ashore and no one gotbent, but there we were... no Divers withenough bottom time left to go get thecamera, and it was getting late in theafternoon. Bob and I got the job.

As a unique and largely unregulatedarm of the Navy Diving capability, andunder the command of the maverickGeorge Bond, we were able to undertakediving tasks, times, and depths denied allother Divers in the Navy. This was whereI wanted to be, especially if I had thecompany of Bob Barth.

We found the descending line theother two Divers had used and went downto find the camera. Wanting to show that Iwas emerging from my neophyte status, Iwent down fast. Bob took his time.Somewhere around 200 feet I spotted thecamera, left the descending line, and tookoff for the camera at high speed. Bob tookhis time and watched. I picked up thecamera and swam rapidly and victoriouslyback with my prize.

During what I remember as a verysedate ascent, we reached what I thinkwas a 30 foot stop, and he signaled thatthere we should wait. I was glad to do thatbecause I was so happy with the successof our recovery operation. In fact I waspretty happy with about everything thatwas going on at that time. I rememberdiscovering that decompressing upsidedown on the line, where I could watch thesurface, was more fun than decom-pressing right-side-up, the way Bob andother Divers did. Again, Bob let me be,and we went back up to the surface.

I think we did some precautionarydecompressing in the chamber afterwardbut I am not certain. Those were busytimes and a long time ago. We haven’tdiscussed the event much, but I remembermore of what I learned from whathappened than of what actually happenedduring those days. One enduring lessonhas been that one can be a wise old man ofthe sea even though he is a young man.

I owe that young man a lot.

Scott Carpenter is the world’s first Astronaut/Aquanaut. He was Team Leader duringSEALAB II in 1965. In 1967 Carpenterreturned to the Navy’s Deep SubmergenceSystems Project as Director of AquanautOperations during SEALAB III. He was alsoone of the original seven astronauts for theMercury project in 1959.

Scott Carpenter and Bob Barth preparing togo outside SEALAB II.

Deep Kim ChiMy experience with “Martini’s Law” By: Scott Carpenter

1 6 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

In the late 1950’s and early1960’s Captain George

Bond used Navy Divers in theGENESIS laboratory experi-ments, which set out to provesaturation diving was possibleand could dramatically im-prove the depth, duration, andproductivity of workingDivers. In order to advancehis research and proveits practicality, the Navyconducted SEALAB I (1964),II (1965), and III (1969).The successes and failuresof these early deep divingpioneers are now part of Navydeep sea history. However, thefoundation was laid for futureprograms whose goals are toenable humans to live and work under thesea.

Over the past four decades, manyunderwater research habitats have comeand gone. The latest and only remainingresearch habitat is the National Ocean-ographic Atmospheric Administration’sAquarius. Aquarius is an 85-ton, doublelock chamber that is secured to a 120-tonbaseplate, 3.5 miles offshore near KeyLargo, Florida.

Aquarius is operated by theUniversity of North Carolina atWilmington’s (UNCW) NOAA Undersea

Divers participate in themonthly saturation divingmissions, which would allowfor a sharing of ideas andinformation between theresearch and military divingcommunities. In other words,it is helping us to get out thereto see how the rest of theworld lives. By its very nature,military diving often tends toinsulate us from the rest of theworld’s working Divers.

What I Did On My SummerVacation

Striking Up APartnership

Research Center (NURC). The primaryfunction of Aquarius is to support under-water research to better understand ouroceans and coastal resources. The base ofoperations is in Key Largo – just a stone’sthrow down the pier from DickRutkowski’s Hyperbaric Medicine School.

From April through December theNURC staff supports 10 saturationmissions lasting 10 days each. Withunlimited bottom time and a well-equippedresearch lab located on the reef, Aquariusmarine biologists are making significantdiscoveries about our planet’s coral reefs

and oceans.

In early 2003, anidea was hatched bySUPDIVE Captain MarkH e l m k a m p , N O A A’sCaptain Craig McLean,NEDU’s Bob Barth(GENESIS, SEALAB I, II,III), and Aquarius’s Oper-a t ions Di rec to r Cra igCooper to form a part-nership that would let Navy

This summer DC1 (DV)J.R. Hott and I went TADfrom NEDU to Key Largo tosupport the August Aquarius

mission. When I received word that I wasgoing, I eagerly logged onto the Aquariuswebsite to educate myself. The websitewas very informative, but what was this?We were going to support a group ofmarine biologists studying “spongeproduction and recycling of new nitrogenin coral reefs.” I am a hairy-knuckleddiving Hull Tech and firmly embrace thebigger hammer more better mentality.What kind of help could I be to thesesponge scientists?

The Aquarius TAD turned out to bemore interesting and educational than Ihad imagined. I was impressed by theNURC staff. They are a small group ofmen and women with quite diverse divingbackgrounds: commercial, recreationalinstructors,Army and Navy officer andenlisted, DOT, and NOAA researchers.But their diversity is their number onestrength. They are a cohesive teamassigned to the awesome task of caretakerfor a valuable national asset. The NURCstaff is responsible for the safety and wellbeing of the visiting teams of scientists aswell as maintenance and repair ofAquarius, its support systems, equipment,and craft. Their crew, facilities,and budgetmay be small, but they do it all.

NOAA’s habitat “Aquarius”, a.k.a. the George F. Bond, located withinthe Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary at Conch Reef. Aquarius isused by scientists to study near shore ecosystems.

NEDU’s DC1(DV) J.R. Hott and Aquarius Operations DirectorCraig Cooper visit the “Kamper” Way Station.

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 1 7

For the first two days of the satur-ation mission, J.R. and I helped with dailyboat runs offshore to resupply theAquanauts. Gear and supplies werepacked into large industrial pressure potsthat painters use, and we humped these upand down to the Aquarius’s wet porch thatsits at 49 fsw.

The trip got interesting when on day3 with Hurricane Charlie 48 hours fromstriking the Florida Keys, the decision toterminate the mission was made. Weimmediately commenced the 16-hoursaturation decompression to bring theAquanauts to safety. Of course, Aquariuswould have to ride out the storm on thebottom, so we set to work battening downthe hatches…arrrrhh!

First, we recoveredt h e 1, 0 0 0 - f o o t l o n gSCUBA charging hosesand charging stations thatspider outward fromAquarius to three Diverway stations. The waystations (diving bells)were flooded to keepthem from travelingin high seas. A fourthway station was hoistedaboard the supportcraft Sabina and broughtashore. Once the Aqua-nauts surfaced, teams ofDivers began securing

and disconnecting habitat’s power, coms,and air supply. Aquarius receives theseutilities via a 4-inch diameter umbilicalfrom the 30-foot diameter discus shapedLife Support Buoy (LSB) moored aboveher.

My first opportunity to tour insidethe habitat came when my dive buddy andI were sent inside to perform shut-down procedures. My first impressionwas: utilitarian, but comfortable. Mostimpressive though was the view of thereef from the two 30-inch diameter viewports – enchanting is the word. The finaltask was to haul the umbilicalaboard the LSB and secure it.

Two days later, after Charlie edgedpast Key West and traveled north, wereturned to Aquarius to inspect fordamage and, luckily, found none. Onceit was clear that the other hurricanesforming in the Atlantic were not a threat,we redeployed some of the gear andservices we had secured days before.

folks care and want to make a differenceand fight on. As a self-described “treehugger”, I can now call myself a “reefhugger”, also.

The Mission

A Reef Hugger Is Born

An Exciting Future

Since the mid 1990’s, Navy Diversattending Saturation Diving School havenot conducted an actual sat dive as part oftheir training. Currently the studentsattend three weeks of classroom training atNDSTC and eventually make a sat dive attheir current or follow-on command.

That is all about to change.Aquarius’s Craig Cooper and SUPDIVECaptain Helmkamp have coordinated aplan that will allow Sat School graduatesto venture down to Aquarius in Decemberfor a four-day sat dive…. ahhhhhhh…72degree water, beautiful coral reefs, 90 footvisibility, dehydrated meals by the viewport and key lime pie for dessert! NavyDivers have never had it this good!

The Aquarius/Navy partnershipholds great promise for fostering acooperative exchange of effort andeducation that will benefit both of us agreat deal. If given the chance, I highlyrecommend that you get down toKey Largo and meet your new divebuddies.

Check out these websites for moreinformation about NOAA’s Aquarius:www.noaa.gov and www.uncw.edu/aquarius.

During the 10 days that I worked andlived with the NURC staff and scientists, Icame away with a profound respect for thework they do. I was amazed by the level ofpassion the more seasoned marinebiologists had for their work and wasequally amazed to meet so many youngcollege kids with the same passion. Weowe a debt of gratitude to them for theirwork. In spite of the overwhelming forcesthat threaten our planet’s oceans, these

HTC (DSW/SW) Glen Rubin is UnmannedTesting and Evaluation Division Officer atNEDU.

Aquanauts make pit stop at gazebo way stationto charge SCUBA.

Aquarius’s Billy Cooksie (HTC (DV) retired) and Ross Heinleaving “Kamper” Way Station.

Aquanaut inspects test set up measuring coralrespiration.

1 8 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

As required by OPNAVINST3150.27A, all diving systems used in

the U.S. Navy must be certified as beingsafe for manned use. In order to complywith the requirement to ensure safe divingsystems are in operation throughout theFleet, all of these systems go through aSystem Certification Survey once everythree years.

At the request of Captain Wilkins, theSupervisor of Salvage and Diving, we inthe System Certification Authority officehave reviewed all of our survey findingsto see if there were common deficienciesfound throughout the Fleet. In the past,these deficiencies have been addressed onan individual basis within a singlecommand during the certification surveys.Addressing these deficiencies at thecommand level does not afford theopportunity for other diving commands togain knowledge from survey findings. Tothis end, our office has compiled thefollowing Top Ten discrepancies encoun-tered during System Certification surveys.From time to time we will update this listso that all of the diving commands canhave the advantage of learning from theexperience of others.

This REC needs to include a scope of workwhich details what work the contractor isto accomplish, the OQE that the contractormust provide to show the work wasproperly accomplished, and the standards/requirements that the contractor must befollow when performing the work.

not automatically cause a Cert Card to begenerated, the deformed panels havecaused cracks in pressure gage housingsand faceplates. New Console fascia panelsare available from the following sources:ESSM Cheatham Annex, Prime Vendor, orCowan.

DIVING SYSTEMS CERTIFICATION NOTESBy: Paul McMurtrie (00C44)

1.) Master Divers not involved in thecertification survey.Certification is delegated to levels that donot support the critical nature of systemcertification. We have visited commandswhere the Master Diver was not presentuntil the final debrief. While this is not anactual finding on a Cert Card, the absenceof MDV involvement often results in CertCard findings in other areas.

2.) Commands are not using the SystemCertification Requirements / GuidelineChecklist.The checklist is posted on the 00C website(www.supsalv.org) for the use bycommands that are about to undergo aCertification Survey. The Checklist andPSOB should always be used whenpreparing for a certification visit.

3.) Commands are sending divingsystems out to contractors withoutinitiating a REC for the work to beaccomplished.

4.) Commands are not cleaningsoftware.There have been a number of instanceswhere the brown O-ring bag is stapled tothe REC (this is not necessary unless thebag is labeled as O

2 clean and is the OQE

for cleanliness) yet the O-rings have notbeen cleaned. There is a simple detailedprocedure in Topside Tech Note VI forcleaning software using NID.

5.) Commands are not suspendingcertification on their systems prior tomajor work or maintenance being per-formed.For example, when Flasks are sent out tobe hydrostatically tested, prior to workcommencing on the system, commandsmust suspend certification either via letteror message to 00C4. Commands cansuspend certification on their systemswhenever necessary. However, only theSCA can reinstate certification.

6.) Commands are not using Test andInspection Reports for documentingPass/Fail and inspection results.Commands must document visualinspection results on DLSS componentssuch as Filters, Moisture Separators,Volume Tanks and HP Flasks bycompleting a Test and Inspection Report.The 00C website has two downloadablestandard Test and Inspection Forms thatare filled out with detailed inspectioncriteria, and only require the results to befilled in by the command.

7.) Commands have been using singleREC packages to conduct maintenanceon multiple systems.The standardized Re-Entry ControlProcedures allow for only one subsystemto be covered under one REC.

8.) The plastic TRCS console fascias arecracking and warping.While a cracked or warped console does

9.) Commands are not opening up theFADS III and LWDS consoles periodi-cally to check for moisture and corro-sion and verify relief valve settings aredocumented.These consoles are not watertight. Whenthe systems are operated and stored for asignificant time out in the weather, theyoften have seawater inside the consolecase.

10.) Commands are still not maintain-ing pressure on the Purification Towersfor HP air compressors.When the pressure is bled off from thesesystems, moisture is allowed into the sys-tem and causes a rapid breakdown of thedesiccant. This results in a highly causticcompound that gets blown into the systemand rapidly corrodes through the thin alu-minum liners of the composite flasks.

Online Re-Entry Control Forms

There are two new Re-Entry ControlForms available for download from the00C4 section of the SUPSALV website.These forms are to be used for document-ing the PMS required visual inspectionson Divers Life Support system compo-nents. (See Top 10 Hit #6)

One form is specifically tailored forconducting visual inspections on the Airand Oxygen HP composite flasks. Theother form has been customized for per-forming the visual inspections on DLSSFilter Housings, Purification Towers,Moisture Separators, and Volume Tanks.

New Online PSOB

The latest standardized PSOB to beposted on the 00C website is the standardPSOB for the FARCC. The online PSOBsare continually being updated so go to thewebsite and save the latest revision whenpreparing the PSOB for certification.

Top 10 Hits

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 1 9

“Service to the Fleet”

This page is designed to give the readers the latest “Buzz” on various topics to USN diving and its systems.Compiled and written by MDV Steve Smith (smithss@navsea.navy.mil)

Kinked Umbilical Casualty M52H (M48H, M49H...M52H), or M01Ito M08I (M01I, M02I...M08I) and is theoriginal hose, then it should get replaced.This affects both SeaQuest and Aqua LungBCs utilizing the Powerline inflator.

MK 21 kinked umbilical.

On 23 September 2004, MobileDiving and Salvage Unit Two (MDSUTWO) Divers were tasked with assistingSIMA Norfolk Dive Locker during theremoval of USS HARRY S. TRUMAN(CVN 75) #1 propeller off the shaft taper.MDSU TWO Divers splashed to apply andinitiate detonating cord (high explosives)to the forward end of #1 propeller hub.MDSU TWO Divers utilized MK 21deployed from Charlie Team dive boat.While at depth on the project, Red Diverreported loss of air and immediatelyinitiated EPs. Diving Supervisor askedGreen Diver how he was breathing andGreen Diver reported he was okay withno air supply problems, Console/Bankpressures were satisfactory. Red Diverreported that his air had been restoredalmost immediately after reporting theloss. The dive was aborted and both Diversreturned safely to the surface. Oncetopside, the Divers were unhatted and itwas immediately determined that RedDiver’s umbilical had kinked at the hatconnection (non-return valve).Root Cause: The root cause of umbilicalfailure at the hat connection was primarilydue to the frequency of removing the MK21 helmet without sufficient support ofumbilical weight in conjunction withsetting the helmet on faceplate.

Corrective Action: Inspect umbilicalshackle points on dive benches to ensurethere is sufficient support to relieve thestrain experienced from umbilical weightand assume the practice of resting the MK21 helmet on the neckdam area vice thefaceplate. Routinely inspect umbilical endfittings during pre-dive setup.Umbilical Information: JDR AqualiteDivers Air Hose HA0106. AMRONInternational, P/N: ADU3-MK21-MH-0-330. In Service Date: August 27, 2003.

Buoyancy Compensator and HoseRecall

Aqua Lung has received reports that someof the ribbed hoses on the PowerlineAirway have been tearing at the top nearthe dual exhaust valve. The problem hasbeen traced to an error in the moldingprocess from their supplier that occurredover a three-month period between 2001and 2002. The best way to confirm whetheror not you have one of the questionablehoses is to look at the serial number on thelower unit of the Powerline. If the serialnumber falls within the range of M48H to

Power Inflator Recall

Another consumer recall is on PelagicPressure Systems, of San Leandro,California, Power Inflators. The buttonscan stick, which can cause uncontrolledinflation of the BC. The recall includesOceanic-brand Reliant BC inflatorsand AERIS-brand AW3 BC inflators.The Oceanic Reliant-type inflatorshave three flow-through holes in thehand grip of the lower inflator mechanism.The AERIS AW3 inflator has one flow-through hole in the hand grip of the lowerinflator mechanism. Authorized Oceanicdealers sold BCs fitted with Reliantinflators nationwide from February 2004through June 2004. Authorized AERISdealers sold BCs fitted with AW3 inflatorsfrom May 2004 through June 2004.For more information go to: http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml04/04210.html.

Compressor Interstage Relief Valves

Surface Force Maintenance Effective-ness Review (SURFMER) has foundthat the relief valves and settingsprovided by the manufacturers ofANU compressors are appropriateand calibration of Interstage ReliefValves is no longer needed or required.PMS MIPs affected are all MIPsthat have relief valve maintenance, thisincludes 5921/H-012 series MIP.

Navy Divers Website

The Navy Divers website is upand running. It can be found at:http://navy.com/navydivers. If youhave any comments or suggestionsfor website, please let us know.

The U.S. Consumer Product SafetyCommission announced the following

recall in voluntary cooperation with thefirm, Halcyon Manufacturing, of HighSprings, Florida. Commands should stopusing the Halcyon SCUBA BuoyancyCompensator (BC) Inflators immediately.The SCUBA BC bladder may have a slowleak because of imperfections within themachining of the stainless air barrel of theirinflators. This can cause unexpectedbuoyancy problems with Divers, possiblyresulting in decompression sickness.Halcyon is recalling all stainless steelPower Inflators. They have a stainless steeloral and power inflate button. Inflatorsmade of plastic are not included in thisrecall. The repaired inflators have a grooveat the base of their retainer nut. The BCssold with these inflators are black and theHalcyon logo is on the front and collar ofthe BCs. For further information go to:http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04209.html.

2 0 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

Captain (Dr.) Ed Thalmann

Ed Thalmann, M.D., Assistant MedicalDirector of Divers Alert Network, died on

July 24, 2004 in Durham, NC. He was 59.Dr. Thalmann, regarded as one of the

world’s foremost authorities on divingdecompression, joined DAN in July 1995 asthe organization’s assistant medical director. Hewas the physician resource for DAN medics,consulting with dive medicine physicians.While at DAN, Dr. Thalmann worked on theDuke University Medical Center medical staff,the Duke Anesthesiology Department, andat the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine andEnvironmental Physiology. There, he parti-cipated in both patient care (dive accidents andclinical hyperbaric oxygen treatments) and inmedical research programs.

Dr. Thalmann retired from the U.S. Navyin 1993 after 22 years. While in the Navy, he

Dr. Ed Thalmann.

Captain Marshall was born on January 10,1918 in Barry, South Wales. He immigrated

to the United States in 1923 aboard the WhiteStar Line’s SS BALTIC with his parents andsister.

In 1941, Walter L. Marshall enlisted in theU.S. Navy and was commissioned as an Ensignin 1942. LT Marshall attended the U.S. NavalTraining School (Salvage), pier 88 in New York,NY in 1944 and qualified as a Salvage Diver.

From 1944 to 1945, LT Marshall servedas Aide to the Commanding Officer andTechnical Advisor, Ship Salvage, Fire Fightingand Rescue Unit, Seventh Fleet and participatedin salvage operations in Manila and Subic Bay

supporting WWII Pacific Operations.Commander Marshall served as Seventh FleetSalvage Officer and Repair and MaintenanceOfficer in Sasebo, Japan from 1954 to 1955.He then served as Fleet Salvage Officer andRepair and Maintenance Officer at Pacific FleetService Force, Pearl Harbor. From 1959 to1961, Commander Marshall served as Head,Technical Branch, Bureau of Ships, andconcurrent SUPSALV.

“Scotty” was highly decorated and retiredfrom the U.S. Navy with the rank of Captainin 1966. Captain Marshall passed awayin January of 2003 in Riverside, CA ofAlzheimer’s disease.

Captain Walter “Scotty” Marshall

helped develop operational procedures fordiving, testing, and evaluation of diving lifesupport equipment and medical researchprograms. Projects included the developmentof new diving decompression tables (surface-supplied and saturation), measuring the

performance of and writing specifications forDiver thermal protective equipment, studyingthe effects of underwater exercise on Diverperformance, and improving underwaterbreathing apparatus design and testing.

While in the service, he spent a year asthe Medical Officer aboard the nuclearsubmarine USS THOMAS JEFFERSON, andthen was assigned to the Navy ExperimentalDiving Unit in Washington, DC and thenPanama City, FL, where he was involved indecompression table development, treatment ofdecompression sickness, and formulating 100percent oxygen exposure limits.

He spearheaded two major revisions to theDiving Medicine chapter of the U.S. NavyDiving Manual in 1985 and 1993.

Dr. Thalmann is survived by BrendaThalmann, former wife, and daughters Amandaand Katherine.

Captain Anthony Esau

Retired U.S. Navy Captain AnthonyChristopher Esau, 65, died on

September 23, 2004, in the HancockMedical Center. Tony graduated from theU.S. Naval Academy in 1961 and had adistinguished 30-year Naval career.

Highlights of his career include:assistant navigator on the USS BONHOMME RICHARD; submariner andpolaris missile officer on the SSBNGEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER;CO of the Submarine Rescue Ships USSSUNBIRD and USS ORTOLAN; CO of

the Naval Safety Center at the Naval Op-erations Base in Norfolk; CO of the NavalSchool of Diving and Salvage; “Father” ofthe new Diving and Salvage Facility atPanama City; and CO of the NavalOceanographic Research and Develop-ment Agency in Bay St. Louis, Miss.where he worked very closely with Dr.Folger Whicker, Ph.D. and Dr. Bill

Moseley, Ph.D. who became his dearestfriends in retirement.

Tony was the Navy’s expert on thedeep submergence rescue vehicle and itsemployment in Inner Space. He was also aleading figure in the development of“mixed gas” SCUBA diving.

Tony is survived by daughter LauraWilson and her husband and threechildren; daughter Catherine Callahan andher husband and two children; and brotherRichard and his wife.

4-4-4... OBITUARIES ...4-4-4

Originally printed in the Virginian-Pilot onSunday, September 26, 2004.

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 2 1

Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit ONE Detachment 7

Divers of Mobile Diving and SalvageUnit (MDSU) ONE Detachment 7,

commanded by CDR “Bette” BolivarBush, were involved in the search andsalvage of two aircraft in the murkywaters of the Columbia River nearArlington, Oregon in August of 2004. TwoUnited States Marine Corps F/A-18fighter jets were involved in a mid-aircollision on July 21 for which only oneaviator of three survived. As the vastmajority of the wreckage plummeted intothe mile-wide Columbia River below,crash investigators requested MDSUONE’s assistance in recovering theaircraft.

On August 1, MDSU ONE Det 7 flewto Whidbey Island, Washington fromHawaii aboard a Naval Air Logistics Office(NALO) DC-9. Det 7’s sixteen personnellater linked up with six Divers from NavalUndersea Warfare Center Keyport, as theytoo would be assisting in the salvage effort.Immediately upon arrival, the Diversloaded their gear and headed out on thesix hour trek to the remote town ofArlington.

MDSU ONE and NUWC Diversemployed a Lightweight Surface SuppliedDiving System, with the MK 21, as wellas SCUBA for their mission. Arriving latein the afternoon of August 3, Det 7 spent afew hours receiving a sobering recoverybriefing from the On-scene Commanderand then unpacked for the mission ahead.Coordinating with other military andcivilian assets in the area, Det 7 underwenta marathon of nearly non-stop diving. Overthe next ten days, Det 7 made 85 dives,coping with limited visibility and rivercurrents, for a staggering total of 6,128minutes or 4 days, 6 hours, and 8 minutesof bottom time.

Due to the expanse of the wreckagefield, Side Scan Sonar and RemotelyOperated Vehicles (ROV) were used todelineate dive-worthy objects of interest.When the Side Scan Sonar noted a viable

target, a ROV was sent down toinspect it. If the object waswreckage, Divers would besplashed to tag it for retrieval.Even with these gadgets on hand,some old-fashioned bottomsearching had to be conducted.“This job was a great opportunityto use our Circle Line and Gridsearching techniques,” notesGM1 (DSW) Chad Larson.“Because most of the searchingwas done on our small boats, weused SCUBA and tied our circlelines to anchors. It takes time todo a good search with SCUBA.Later on in the job though, weused the MK 21 off of a barge, which madethe searches a lot easier.”

Large items, namely the fuselage ofboth aircraft, were marked with GPSand salvaged with a 100-ton crane.Interestingly, most of the aircraft wreckagerecovered during this mission was pulled

up by hand and did not require mechanicalassistance to retrieve. In all, recoveryefforts produced more than 95 percent ofthe total aircraft wreckage. All salvagedmaterials were subsequently reclaimed bythe Marine Corps investigators forexamination, identification, and inventory.

“I was amazed that the wholeoperation went so smoothly,” said GMC(DSW/SW) Joshua Dumke, Det 7 LCPO.“With so many different hands in the pot,Navy Divers, Marine investigators, civiliancontractors and the like, I thought it wouldbe more difficult. We were able to reallykeep focused just on completing our job athand. It was a sweet job.”

Upon completion of diving operationson August 10, the Det 7 Divers loaded uponce more and headed to Seattle fortransport home via NALO.

MDSU ONE Det 7 exhibited themobility and efficiency that is needed inmodern day salvage operations. Aftertraveling over three thousand miles by airand land to a remote dive location inOregon, Det 7 successfully completed theirjob safely, efficiently, and expeditiously.

A fuselage section of one of the destroyed F/A-18.

By: LT Todd Ochsner

LT Ochsner is currently the DMO/PAO atMDSU ONE based out of Pearl Harbor, HI.

2 2 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

If you would have told me 30 yearsago that I would be in the Navy today, I

would have questioned your mentality.As they say, “Time flies when you’re hav-ing fun”, and I have had fun. It doesn’tseem that long ago that I left the cornfields of Iowa for the oceans of the world.My initial enlistment was for two years,yet here it is three decades later that I findmyself nearing the end of my Navycareer. I am proud of my achievementsand consider myself fortunate to haveserved in the diving community. Our com-munity is unique in many ways and thepride I feel is a result of those in it, pastand present. That is the reason I “stayed.”

Our world continually changes, andthe diving community has been noexception. Some of the changes I’vewitnessed within the diving community,such as: our icon, the MK V, has becomedisplay ornamentation; the MK 12 andopen bell came and went; MK 1 bandmask, Jack Browne, and double hoseregulators were replaced with newer, betterequipment; saturation and surface suppliedmixed gas diving all but died and werereborn or are being reborn; and closedcircuit re-breathers went from experi-mental to industry standard with variablePO

2 control. Most of these changes were

equipment changes, a result of advancingtechnology and forward thinking by thosein positions of authority to make changehappen.

Diving Navy is changing more nowthan ever. Big Navy has introduced thefive-vector model that enables Sailors tomanage their personal and professionalgoals. This introduction presented uniqueobstacles for the diving community, sincewe employed various source ratingslimited to a small number of commands.

Experience is another variable thatinfluences change. It cannot be taught orlearned, experience teaches us, and mustbe lived. It is a virtue of time; by merelyexisting you gain experience. Lookingaround the diving community today I seea vast amount of experience. People whohave been there, done that, and have theT-shirt to prove it. Experience has no

substitute, and is often times the differencebetween life and death in our business.Experience has taught us to improveour equipment, our communities, andourselves.

Meeting therequirements fora d v a n c e m e n twithin big Navy’smodel presented aproblem within ourcommunity. So, wedecided to do whatwe’ve talked aboutfor years – makeNavy Diver asource rating. Thischange is withoutdoubt the biggestour community hasever seen because itinfluences our mostvital asset – ourpeople.

Our equipmentcontinues to im-prove with tech-nology, our trainingis second to none,and our people are

A tired ENCM (MDV) Jim Carolan after a hardnight’s work.

JAKE’S CORNER

exceptional. The five-vector model is here,and it’s here to stay. With diving as a sourcerating, our community will take on a wholenew look. Experience will play a vital rolein advancement and achievement. Therewill be experience-based requirementsfor advancement as well as training.Individuals will have access totraining resources, advancement require-ments, and career management tools.

One thing that will not change is thepeople. Those hungry for additionalresponsibility and leadership positions willrise to the top. With Navy Diver as a sourcerating, every Diver should have a commongoal – to be at the top. If you are not surewhere that is, you have obviously chosenthe wrong profession. Do not put yourselfin a position in which you regret missedopportunity. I don’t regret what I’ve beendoing. It has been an honor to serve withthe finest the Navy has to offer.

I wish you all the best of luck andchallenge each of you to look foropportunities in your life’s journey.

ALOHA!

By: CWO4 Rick Armstrong

F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5 2 3

Topside; Red Diver...From the Supervisor of Diving Captain Mark Helmkamp, USN

Saturation Diving

This issue of FACEPLATE is dedicated toboth our history and future in saturation

diving. I hope you enjoy familiarizing yourselfwith where we have been, where we are plan-ning to go, and in particular, some of the storiesof those individuals who dove before us. In-deed, we are members of a special fraternityand you can be very proud to have successfullymet the challenges that are required to be a partof this exclusive team. For me (and I am suremany others) it is the people that are drawn toour diving community that I have met and as-sociated with over the past 25 years that I ap-preciate the most. And while it is said that ifyou find a job you love, you’ll never work an-other day of your life, a prime ingredient tosuccessfully executing that philosophy is hav-ing opportunity to work with folks that main-tain a great attitude. Bob Barth is one such per-son. The following story (of many – this oneprintable), as told by Don Crisk illustrates ex-actly why I love our Navy diving communityand is why I am proud to have a friend like theSOB (Sweet Old Bob) discussed herein:

“Just around the times of SEALAB II,Wilber Eaton was assigned the task of taking anumber of us out for training with the hand-held sonar/receiver (AN/PQS/18). So weloaded our gear aboard the dive boat andheaded out to 50-60 feet of water. I don’t re-member all the other divers aboard, ShortyLyons was one, Mike Meisky was another, andof course, QMC Barth. There were several oth-ers of course. Wilber laid out a rough square ofbuoyed targets, alternating pinger and sonar

them and make a PQS run while he was at it.Barth dove in, and soon we could see bubblesgoing around the course. Soon the [bubbles]were back at the boat, but Bob surfaced with-out any SCUBA on. He told Wilber that hecouldn’t find the bottles that he’d thrown over,but swam the course anyway. Wilber had tofree dive to get the bottles. Good trick byBarth, and really typical.”

Want to learn more about the history ofsaturation diving and underwater habitats?

Most of my work on the system to datehas been administrative and planning in nature,and on 21 December, the Top Level Require-ments Document and Milestone A letter weresigned. Having cleared these two monumentaladministrative hurdles, we are prepared tofocus our energy on a more enjoyable aspect ofthe Saturation System (Sat-FADS): hardware.That is planned for FY 06.

Fly-Away Saturation Diving System (concept).

I presented Bob an engraved MK V knifememento at a recent lucheon in his honor.

• Bob Barth, Sea Dwellers: The Humor, Drama and Tragedy of the U.S. Navy SeaLab Program, Houston: Doyle Publishing, 2000.• Helen Siiteeri, Papa Topside: The SeaLab Chronicles of Capt. George F. Bond, USN, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1993.• Dr. Joe MacInnis, Breathing Underwater, The Quest to Live in the Sea, Toronto: Penguin Group, 2004.• James W. Miller & Ian G. Koblick, Living and Working in the Sea, Plymouth: Five Corners Publications, 1995.

The following book by Dan Lenihan isnot about sat diving, but is a well written bookabout National Park Service divers that revealsearly “tech diving” history:• Daniel Lenihan, Submerged, Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team, New York: New Market Press, 2002.

Fly-Away Sat System...An Update

Work continues on our Primary Objec-tive: the fly-away sat system. This system isintended to be a minimum 600 fsw system,objectively designed for 1000 fsw use. It willbe readily transportable by land or air to anyappropriate Vessel of Opportunity (VOO) seaplatform based on dimensional constraints ofthe ARS 50 Class. The system will consist of adouble-lock deck decompression chamber withsanitary facilities, a diving bell, a bell handlingsystem, and a control van.

The typical mission profile is one ofmobilizing the system from the Navy Experi-mental Diving Unit, Panama City, Florida andpersonnel from Mobile Diving and SalvageUnit Two, Little Creek, Virginia to a VOO atthe mobilization port, transit to the dive site,and take-up station keeping with dynamic posi-tioning or mooring. Diving operations mightconsist of 21 days of diving to a maximumexcursion to 727 fsw followed by 9 days ofdecompression, then transit to the demobiliza-tion port, where the system and personnel willreturn to their respective commands.

[targets]. Each leg was approximately 150yards long. As expected, Bob was givingWilber a hard time since Eaton was a GM1, butall went well for several runs until Barth re-fused to dive. Wilber then picked up what hethought was Bob’s bottles, turned them on, andthrew them over the side. Since those were thedays of the old double hose regulators, theyfree-flowed. Wilber then told Barth to go get

As discussed in the past two issues ofFACEPLATE, development of the NextGeneration Dive System (NGDS) continues –with gusto! NGDS for surface supplied airdiving will enhance deployability, safety, andefficiency of U.S. Navy surface supplied airdiving operations.

The NGDS will enhance the safety andefficiency of surface supplied air divingdecompression procedures by supporting bothair and in-water oxygen decompressions undercontrol of a Topside Decompression Monitor(TDM). The TDM will prescribe Diver decom-pression schedules in real-time according to theactual depth-time profiles experienced by theDivers, not according to costly depth andbottom time roundup conventions requiredwhen such schedules are prescribed usingconventional decompression tables. Theseprescriptions will eventually be obtainedthrough real-time operation of a probabilisticdecompression algorithm, with hardcopydecompression tables available only as backupin the event of TDM failure.

An NGDS component called the OxygenRegulating and Control Assembly (ORCA)will support the decompression prescriptions ofthe TDM by providing air or 100% oxygen, asappropriate, to two working Divers and onestandby Diver in the water. The ORCA hassuccessfully completed unmanned flow testingat Cheatham Annex on 24 June 2004 and anopen-water manned evaluation by U.S. NavyDivers at the Marianas Support Activity inGuam (See MDV Smith’s article on page 3).

Next Generation Dive System...An Update

Here’s a short list of books I recommend:

2 4 F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 5

Topside; Red Diver... (continued)

The next SEALAB Reunion is scheduled to take place in Panama City, Floridaon 10-12 March, 2005. Those interested in attending should contact Bob Barthat (850) 785-6249 or via e-mail at bob.barth@mchsi.com.

WDC/MDV Conference 2005 will be held at Keyport, Washington on March 28- April 01, 2005. March 28 will be the MDV/CWO portion of the conference.Visit www.supsalv.org for more information.

Development of the Topside DecompressionMonitor has progressed to assembly of a proof-of-concept system (TDM-POC) that uses theVVAL-18 Thalmann Algorithm, named inhonor of its original developer, the late CaptainEdward D. Thalmann, to provide one-secondupdates to a topside real-time display of Diver

decompression obligations. The VVAL-18Thalmann Algorithm is the basis for presentMK 16 MOD 0 and MK 16 MOD 1 N

2-O

2decompression tables, and has been exten-sively evaluated for applicability to air diving.It is also the algorithm operating in the NavySpecial Warfare (NSW) Cochran Navy DiveComputer and associated Dive Planner. VVAL-18 Air Decompression Tables for in-water air,in-water air with oxygen, and SURD-O

2decompressions have been developed, alongwith supporting instructions and emergencyprocedures, to backup the real-time operationof the TDM-POC. After the TDM-POC istested for suitability as a source of real-timeassessments and prescriptions of Diver decom-pression obligations, it will be fielded with theORCA for Fleet use as an interim NGDS,pending development of the final probabilisticdecompression algorithm for the final TDM.

Changing of the Guard: Old Copperhead

With the retirement of Old CopperheadENCM (MDV) Jimmy Evans this past August,it is time to recognize our current Old Copper-head: MDV Brick Bradford.

HTCM (MDV/SW) Brick M. Bradfordwas raised in Orange County, CA. He reportedfor Boot Camp in San Diego, California on 4February 1976. After completing FiremanApprenticeship training, he reported to theUSS CONSTELLATION (CV 64) as a non-designated FA. Two years later HT3 Bradfordreported aboard his next command, USSANCHORAGE (LSD 36).

HT2 Bradford then volunteered for FleetDiver training. He graduated as a 2nd ClassDiver in February 1981 and reported aboardUSS DIXIE (AD 14) and then USS CAPECOD (AD 43) in May 1982. Petty OfficerBradford attended 1st Class Dive School inMay 1983 where he graduated as class honorman.

Petty Officer Bradford volunteered forinstructor duty at the Naval Diving & SalvageTraining Center located in Panama City,Florida. He left four years later having putcountless scores of officers, enlisted, andforeign military personnel through the rigors ofDiver training. Petty Officer Bradford trans-ferred in February 1987 having qualified asone of NDSTC’s first unlimited diving supervi-sors and Master Training Specialists. Hereported for duty in Diego Garcia.

Petty Officer Bradford reported aboardUSS BOLSTER (ARS 36) in March 1988,where he served as the Damage ControlAssistant. Two years later, HTC (DV/SW)Bradford volunteered for Master Diver Evalu-ations and was selected Master Diver on8-31-1990… his birthday. HTC (MDV/SW)

Bradford accepted orders to Subase, Pearl Har-bor, Hawaii where he managed the SubaseDiving Locker. HTCS (MDV/SW) Bradfordtransferred to Combat Support Squadron Eightlocated in Little Creek, VA in October 1993

where he served as squadron MasterDiver. During this tour he completedpart of a Mediterranean cruiseaboard the USS GRASP (ARS 51)and participated in one of theNavy’s largest salvage operations in20 years, the recovery of an inland freightersunk in Eritrea, Africa. The squadron was

disestablished a year later and Master DiverBradford took orders to Explosive OrdnanceDisposal Unit Two, also located in LittleCreek, Virginia.

He reported aboard the USSBRUNSWICK (ATS 3) in April 1994. Duringhis tour he served as the Senior EnlistedAdvisor and command Master Diver. He alsosupervised a joint taskforce operation inCambodia to recover the remains of U.S. Ma-rines killed during the Vietnam War and iscredited with bringing eight U.S. Marineshome.

In April 1996 HTCM (MDV/SW)Bradford reported back to NDSTC for dutyand worked with the Marine and EOD trainingteams until his transfer to Consolidated DiversUnit in October 2000. HTCM (MDV/SW)Bradford completed perhaps his most reward-ing tour of duty as the Command MasterChief of CDU. He credits his satisfyingexperience to the pride he took in the achieve-ments of his shipmates and the leadership ofhis Commanding Officer, CDR Eley.

HTCM (MDV/SW) Bradford transferredto NAVSCOLEOD in June 2003, where heserves today as the command Diving Officerand Master Diver.

NOT the NGDS! Not even close…

CAPT Helmkamp and MDV Jimmy Evans athis Master Diver Retirement Ceremony inAugust 2004.

Copperhead MDV Brick Bradford rigged inthe venerable MK V.