Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Kimberly Hill | Soldiers of the 86th Engineer Dive Team conduct salvage dive operations from the deck...... read more read more
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KUWAITI NAVAL BASE, Kuwait - The diver’s bright yellow helmet is visible beneath the clear waters of the Persian Gulf as he swims up to the ramp where his team members wait.
His hands break the surface of the water first, as he hoists his body on the ramp and his team circles around him to help pull him out of the water and unto the vessel.
They help him remove his helmet and take his air tank off his back as he begins unzipping his wet suit.
The Army diver collapses into a fold-out chair provided for him while his fellow divers remove his shoes and peel his wet suit off his legs, congratulating him on a job well done and asking him questions about his dive.
Although the diver is exhausted from hours spent below the surface patching equipment, he answers the questions with a slight smile on his face, knowing he has just passed his salvage diving qualification.
Soldiers with the 86th Engineer Dive Team and the crew of the Churubusco, Landing Craft Utility 2013 with the Army Watercraft Company, 371st Sustainment Brigade, conducted salvage dive operations in the Persian Gulf near Kuwait Naval Base, Kuwait on Sept. 24, 2013.
“For us in the dive field, engineers, you need to have the salvage level qualification within a year of being promoted to sergeant, it’s something they need in order to progress in the dive field,” said Capt. Matthew Schiller, a Germantown, N.Y. native and the commanding officer for the 86th Engineer Dive Team.
The divers who participated dove approximately 30 feet and after assessing the situation, they were supplied with the equipment needed and patched a vessel at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, he said.
“We put the diver in the water, they assess what they need, we make the patch on deck and then they repair it,” said Schiller.
To earn their qualifications, the divers must successfully assess and repair the equipment without any aid and complete their task in only a couple of hours, said Staff Sgt. David Craig, a diving supervisor with the 86th Engineer Dive Team and a Honolulu, Hawaii native.
“I assessed the hole, to see if it could actually have a patch put on, it couldn’t so I had to actually cut the metal first in order to put the patch on,” said Spc. Thomas P. Hunnicutt, an Army diver with the 86th Engineer Dive Team and a Macon, Ga., Native.
The exercise granted some of the newest members of the team an important qualification, which ensures that all members of the team are certified to appropriate level in the dive field, said Craig.
“Rank goes with rate in our field, the salvage diver level is a diver where I’m fully confident that they can go down by themselves, map out the scene and do all the work I need accomplished without direction from me,” said Craig.
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 10.01.2013 04:21 |
| Story ID: | 114524 |
| Location: | KUWAIT NAVAL BASE, KW |
| Web Views: | 770 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, 86th Engineer Dive Team conducts salvage dive in the Persian Gulf, by SFC Kimberly Hill, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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