A couple of articles on the diver ...
St. Paul man, just back from Iraq, dies in diving accident
He returned to his unit's base from Iraq on Mother's Day and was planning to come home to St. Paul next week.
Just a week after finishing a tour of duty in Iraq, Army Lt. Col. John H. died while scuba diving off the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
H, 46, had planned to return home to his wife and family in St. Paul a week from today.
Instead, on Thursday, his wife will fly to Honolulu to retrieve his body and attend a memorial service with his military comrades.
H's body was identified by the Honolulu medical examiner's office Monday, but the cause of death has not yet been released.
He had gone diving with a group of eight others and a dive master. The other divers saw him rise to the surface; he was unconscious when they pulled him onto the boat about 9 a.m. Sunday.
The area is known to be dangerous and at the time ocean conditions were rough and the weather was windy, authorities said.
"We're having a pretty rough time," H's wife said Monday night.
H left for Iraq last June with the 322nd Civil Affairs Brigade, based at Fort Shafter on Oahu. He served with a multinational unit at Camp Victory in Baghdad.
Mrs. H. said she spoke to her husband about once or twice a week on the phone and every day via e-mail while he was in Iraq.
"It was a very hard year," she said. "[But] not as hard as it's going to be."
H also had served in Bosnia, South Korea, Peru and Guatemala. He spoke fluent Spanish.
Mrs. H. said her husband enjoyed helping countries recover from war.
"He was extremely proud to be in the military," she said. "The military was his real career."
H grew up in Danbury, Conn., and studied at West Point. After 11 years of active duty in the service, he moved to Minnesota where his first wife lived.
H and Mrs. H , an emergency room physician at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, have been married for six years.
She said H's love for scuba diving started in Costa Rica, where they own a home. H was always active, often continuing to play sports he loved as a youngster while he was in the service.
He played hockey in high school and joined a men's adult league while serving in South Korea. He also competed in the Marine Corps and Twin Cities marathons after taking on competitive running because his wife was a runner.
"John was an easygoing, optimistic guy," she said. "He was unassuming. He took things as they came."
H has two children Aidan, 15, and Patrick, 10, from his first marriage and two stepchildren, Andrew, 20, and Beth, 18.
He also is survived by his mother, Mary B. of Massachusetts, and father, Edward, of Connecticut; six sisters and two brothers.
Funeral services will be June 1 at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 512 S. Albert St., St. Paul. A visitation will be held May 31 at the O'Halloran & Murphy Funeral Home, 575 Snelling Av. S., St. Paul.
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/449137.html
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St. Paul man dies while scuba diving
A man who died while on a scuba diving tour was identified Monday by the city medical examiner's office as John B. H, 46, of St. Paul.
H went diving off Portlock near Spitting Caves on Sunday morning and was found by another diver, said fire Capt. Terry Seelig.
Paramedics and other emergency personnel couldn't revive H, and he was pronounced dead aboard the dive boat that carried him and about a dozen other people on the tour, officials said.
Tour officials told authorities they saw Hennessey was having trouble, but they couldn't reach him in time.
Ocean conditions were rough and weather conditions were windy Sunday, bringing in choppy 4-foot waves.
The area is known to be dangerous, and it is even more hazardous when ocean current runs strongly, Seelig said.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/14647621.htm?source=rss&channel=twincities_local
Marc
Removed divers name
...lol
