http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=19678
Couple articles on what the guys have been up to so far... A few pictures also...
Jeff Lane
TIKRIT, Iraq When a forklift fell off a floating bridge and plunged into the Tigris River last week, an elite team of Army divers went to Saddam Husseins hometown to help.
Muddy lakes and dirty rivers are no trouble for the 74th Engineer Detachment, a dive team from Fort Eustis, Va., which has spent much of the war plunging into turbulent waters to work where few soldiers can.
These guys are truly amazing, said Col. Gregg Martin, commander of the 130th Engineer Brigade, the teams higher headquarters in Iraq.
The 22-man crew, which goes by the call sign Poseidon, is one of five dive teams out of Fort Eustis. A sixth team is based in Hawaii.
During peacetime, Army divers clear harbors and conduct underwater surveys. But in Iraq, they set demolitions, search for weapons of mass destruction and recover dead soldiers.
Were jacks-of-all-trades, said Sgt. Jeremiah Tyler, 26, of Panama City Beach, Fla.
While preparing to dive, Tyler said he and others look to their comrades remaining above the surface to keep them safe.
If you worry on the surface, you screw up your job on the bottom, Tyler said. Youve got to have a clear mind because a slipup can be deadly.
Every aspect of their job is dangerous.
During dives, the soldiers must put their private lives behind them to focus on their mission.
My wedding ring is in my bag, said Tyler, prior to diving. If something happens, give it to my wife.
Equipped with scuba gear, divers descend to the river bottom. Fellow divers on the surface hold a tending line, which relays signals and also keeps divers from floating downstream with the current. Sometimes the team uses sonar to capture an ultrasound picture below the waterline.
Once in the murky Tigris, divers cannot see their hands in front of their faces. Jabbing a knife into the river bottom, they feel their way about, crawling through the muck, at times fighting strong currents. They flatten their bodies and make fanning motion with their arms, sort of like making snow angels, only on their bellies.
Theyve become experts at finding their way in the dark and identifying unknown objects with their hands, said Sgt. Matt Gooch, of Tulsa, Okla.
Imagine going in a dark closet, then covering your eyes, Gooch said. You could put anyone on the team in a dark room, throw things to them, and they could tell what it was.
After about an hour, divers return to the surface exhausted.
In April, team members fought strong currents to clear underwater obstacles at a Tikrit bridge site and conducted underwater surveys. In early May, the team detonated explosives on an Iraqi bridge near Tikrit that was half-destroyed during air attacks. Once sections were blown, bridge-building engineers repaired the roadway with a temporary span.
When land-based combat engineers see the divers in action, they are often in awe. The underwater specialists are revered among fellow engineers.
Its hard to believe they do the things I do, except underwater, said Spc. Mike Chase, 23, a combat engineer from Portland, Maine. Its pretty amazing.
When a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Samarra, team members helped recover equipment, weapons and personal effects belonging to the crewmembers who died in the crash.
Working from Army intelligence tips, the team also searched several lakes in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.
One extensive search took place in a large lake northeast of Baghdad, where a civilian reported seeing something dumped in the water. At one point, sonar detected something divers were sure were the tops of missiles.
It turned out to be a peculiar rock formation, Tyler said. You want to be the team that comes through and find what everyones been looking for. Obviously, we didnt find any.
Divers joke with each other like brothers. Like any tight team, their varying backgrounds add to the mix.
Leading the team, 1st Lt. P.J. Inskeep, a West Point graduate from Harrisburg, Pa., is qualified to dive, but he spends much of his time gathering information for the team, finding rides and running interference with the regular units they support.
Growing up in Colombia, Spc. Salim Awad, 26, endured hardships. His mother was killed by guerrillas in 1999. In 2001, he moved to San Diego, hoping to join the military and learn skills that someday might help him return to his homeland and fight against the people who killed his mother.
Hes the Casanova of the team, disappearing during free time to chat with girls on base.
At the sunken forklift, Staff Sgt. Bobbie Irvin, 27, a quiet professional from Galveston, Texas, tossed a plastic bottle upstream to access the currents speed, while Gooch timed how long it took to pass by the length of a floating bridge block. Through mathematical calculations, Gooch figured the water to be traveling at 6.15 feet per second, faster than their regulations allow divers to work safely.
Theres no way you could hold onto anything, let alone do any work, Inskeep said.
The team agreed that in six months, when the Tigris subsides, the forklift could easily be recovered. But it was not worth risking lives to save equipment that would not endanger the nearby bridge.
For certain jobs, Tyler said, if there was a body down there, we could do it.
Couple articles on what the guys have been up to so far... A few pictures also...
Jeff Lane
TIKRIT, Iraq When a forklift fell off a floating bridge and plunged into the Tigris River last week, an elite team of Army divers went to Saddam Husseins hometown to help.
Muddy lakes and dirty rivers are no trouble for the 74th Engineer Detachment, a dive team from Fort Eustis, Va., which has spent much of the war plunging into turbulent waters to work where few soldiers can.
These guys are truly amazing, said Col. Gregg Martin, commander of the 130th Engineer Brigade, the teams higher headquarters in Iraq.
The 22-man crew, which goes by the call sign Poseidon, is one of five dive teams out of Fort Eustis. A sixth team is based in Hawaii.
During peacetime, Army divers clear harbors and conduct underwater surveys. But in Iraq, they set demolitions, search for weapons of mass destruction and recover dead soldiers.
Were jacks-of-all-trades, said Sgt. Jeremiah Tyler, 26, of Panama City Beach, Fla.
While preparing to dive, Tyler said he and others look to their comrades remaining above the surface to keep them safe.
If you worry on the surface, you screw up your job on the bottom, Tyler said. Youve got to have a clear mind because a slipup can be deadly.
Every aspect of their job is dangerous.
During dives, the soldiers must put their private lives behind them to focus on their mission.
My wedding ring is in my bag, said Tyler, prior to diving. If something happens, give it to my wife.
Equipped with scuba gear, divers descend to the river bottom. Fellow divers on the surface hold a tending line, which relays signals and also keeps divers from floating downstream with the current. Sometimes the team uses sonar to capture an ultrasound picture below the waterline.
Once in the murky Tigris, divers cannot see their hands in front of their faces. Jabbing a knife into the river bottom, they feel their way about, crawling through the muck, at times fighting strong currents. They flatten their bodies and make fanning motion with their arms, sort of like making snow angels, only on their bellies.
Theyve become experts at finding their way in the dark and identifying unknown objects with their hands, said Sgt. Matt Gooch, of Tulsa, Okla.
Imagine going in a dark closet, then covering your eyes, Gooch said. You could put anyone on the team in a dark room, throw things to them, and they could tell what it was.
After about an hour, divers return to the surface exhausted.
In April, team members fought strong currents to clear underwater obstacles at a Tikrit bridge site and conducted underwater surveys. In early May, the team detonated explosives on an Iraqi bridge near Tikrit that was half-destroyed during air attacks. Once sections were blown, bridge-building engineers repaired the roadway with a temporary span.
When land-based combat engineers see the divers in action, they are often in awe. The underwater specialists are revered among fellow engineers.
Its hard to believe they do the things I do, except underwater, said Spc. Mike Chase, 23, a combat engineer from Portland, Maine. Its pretty amazing.
When a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Samarra, team members helped recover equipment, weapons and personal effects belonging to the crewmembers who died in the crash.
Working from Army intelligence tips, the team also searched several lakes in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.
One extensive search took place in a large lake northeast of Baghdad, where a civilian reported seeing something dumped in the water. At one point, sonar detected something divers were sure were the tops of missiles.
It turned out to be a peculiar rock formation, Tyler said. You want to be the team that comes through and find what everyones been looking for. Obviously, we didnt find any.
Divers joke with each other like brothers. Like any tight team, their varying backgrounds add to the mix.
Leading the team, 1st Lt. P.J. Inskeep, a West Point graduate from Harrisburg, Pa., is qualified to dive, but he spends much of his time gathering information for the team, finding rides and running interference with the regular units they support.
Growing up in Colombia, Spc. Salim Awad, 26, endured hardships. His mother was killed by guerrillas in 1999. In 2001, he moved to San Diego, hoping to join the military and learn skills that someday might help him return to his homeland and fight against the people who killed his mother.
Hes the Casanova of the team, disappearing during free time to chat with girls on base.
At the sunken forklift, Staff Sgt. Bobbie Irvin, 27, a quiet professional from Galveston, Texas, tossed a plastic bottle upstream to access the currents speed, while Gooch timed how long it took to pass by the length of a floating bridge block. Through mathematical calculations, Gooch figured the water to be traveling at 6.15 feet per second, faster than their regulations allow divers to work safely.
Theres no way you could hold onto anything, let alone do any work, Inskeep said.
The team agreed that in six months, when the Tigris subsides, the forklift could easily be recovered. But it was not worth risking lives to save equipment that would not endanger the nearby bridge.
For certain jobs, Tyler said, if there was a body down there, we could do it.
