Diving icon's ashes spread here today
Inventions touched all uses of scuba, re-breathers
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
[SIZE=+0]The ashes of the man responsible for developing what evolved into the most advanced scuba systems used by today's Special Operations Forces, as well as leading marine researchers and explorers, will be spread this morning in the waters off Key West.
Christian J. Lambertsen was a medical student in 1939 when he invented his Lambertsen Amphibious Respirator Unit (LARU), a forerunner of modern dive re-breathers used today by the Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and deep-sea explorers. Lambertsen died on Feb. 11 at his home in Newtown Square, Pa., at the age of 93.
His family, colleges and Special Operations Forces members will gather this morning at the Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School on Fleming Key to say goodbye to the medical doctor, veteran of the CIA forerunner Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and commander of that clandestine organizations's Marinetime Unit.
The inventor helped coin the phrase "Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus," or scuba, and is considered the father of modern combat swimming, as he trained the Navy's underwater demolition teams, the precursor of the modern SEAL Teams and other Special Operations Forces.
Before Lambertsen, divers wore uncomfortable, heavy metal helmets that pumped air from a boat on the water's surface. His device used pure oxygen and carbon dioxide filters that allowed divers to re-breathe their exhaled air, which created a stealth, bubble-less system.
He continued to improve his system, and in the late 1950s and 1960s helped develop a re-breather system that remained in use by Navy SEALs until the 1980s, according to the OSS Society, a Virginia-based organization made up of former OSS operatives.
"He is at the very top," said Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society. "There's a reason they call him 'the father of combat swimming.' He invented it. His device allowed divers to perform covert operations. There's not many former OSS men that were as influential as Dr. Lambertsen."
When Lambertsen developed his closed-scuba system, the Navy initially was not interested, but the fledgeling OSS spy agency saw potential in the device, and in Lambertsen, who tested his equipment himself. When he graduated from medical school in 1943, the OSS recruited the newly minted doctor into their ranks.
World War II was in full swing. Lambertsen went on to command the OSS Marinetime Unit. His trainees went on to perform feats never before achieved, including one trainee who swam more than a mile underwater undetected.
Lambertsen's breakthroughs are well-known within technical diving circles, in and outside the military, but combat swimmers owe their jobs to him, said Steve Luoma, Key West Fish Check charter captain and former Navy SEAL commander and SEAL Team Six operator.
"His insights into scuba diving during the early parts of WWII were instrumental in the successes of the Allied Forces," Luoma said. "He developed the re-breather, which is still used today when clandestine water infiltration is required. He was a very ingenious man whose legacy will continue on."
Lambertsen's contribution to Special Operations Forces was such that he was awarded the Army Special Forces tag and badge for wartime service and received the OSS Distinguished Service Award, which was presented to him by Adm. Eric Olson, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, according to Maj. Trevor Hill, commander of the Fleming Key dive school.
"Because much of this remained classified for years, it was only in the last 10 years that our people discovered his contributions," Hill said. "And it's not just this device. It's crucial to understand that he was a doctor and every disorder associated with diving and re-breathers, such as oxygen toxicity and carbon dioxide poisoning, he researched. The science of hyperbaric chambers, all these things, he gave us. He made it a science. Everything we do here at the school, he touched all of it."
For all of Lambertsen's contributions to the military and world of espionage, his contribution was as equally important to civilians, said Mike Ange, president and general manager of Seaduction Key West Dive Center, an expert instructor with re-breather technology.
"The biggest thing is that re-breathers made exploration possible," Ange said. "It allows us to explore at depths and in cave systems much farther than with traditional open-circuit (scuba) systems. And it also allows us to approach marine life without scaring them, so the bubbleless system helps marine photographers and researchers. There's all kinds of cave explorers and biologists who use this technology. The list goes on and on." Even so, Lambersten's daring work as an underwater spy -- he was the first man to exit and re-enter a submarine under water and his other escapades in Burma helped him earn the OSS Legion of Merit -- left a lasting impression on the Special Forces and CIA operatives who followed in his footsteps, or wake, as it were.
"As someone recently put it to me, Lambertsen was the perfect OSS candidate -- a man with a Ph.D. who could win a bar fight," Pinck said.
alinhardt@keysnews.com
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Inventions touched all uses of scuba, re-breathers
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
[SIZE=+0]The ashes of the man responsible for developing what evolved into the most advanced scuba systems used by today's Special Operations Forces, as well as leading marine researchers and explorers, will be spread this morning in the waters off Key West.
Christian J. Lambertsen was a medical student in 1939 when he invented his Lambertsen Amphibious Respirator Unit (LARU), a forerunner of modern dive re-breathers used today by the Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and deep-sea explorers. Lambertsen died on Feb. 11 at his home in Newtown Square, Pa., at the age of 93.
His family, colleges and Special Operations Forces members will gather this morning at the Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School on Fleming Key to say goodbye to the medical doctor, veteran of the CIA forerunner Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and commander of that clandestine organizations's Marinetime Unit.
The inventor helped coin the phrase "Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus," or scuba, and is considered the father of modern combat swimming, as he trained the Navy's underwater demolition teams, the precursor of the modern SEAL Teams and other Special Operations Forces.
Before Lambertsen, divers wore uncomfortable, heavy metal helmets that pumped air from a boat on the water's surface. His device used pure oxygen and carbon dioxide filters that allowed divers to re-breathe their exhaled air, which created a stealth, bubble-less system.
He continued to improve his system, and in the late 1950s and 1960s helped develop a re-breather system that remained in use by Navy SEALs until the 1980s, according to the OSS Society, a Virginia-based organization made up of former OSS operatives.
"He is at the very top," said Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society. "There's a reason they call him 'the father of combat swimming.' He invented it. His device allowed divers to perform covert operations. There's not many former OSS men that were as influential as Dr. Lambertsen."
When Lambertsen developed his closed-scuba system, the Navy initially was not interested, but the fledgeling OSS spy agency saw potential in the device, and in Lambertsen, who tested his equipment himself. When he graduated from medical school in 1943, the OSS recruited the newly minted doctor into their ranks.
World War II was in full swing. Lambertsen went on to command the OSS Marinetime Unit. His trainees went on to perform feats never before achieved, including one trainee who swam more than a mile underwater undetected.
Lambertsen's breakthroughs are well-known within technical diving circles, in and outside the military, but combat swimmers owe their jobs to him, said Steve Luoma, Key West Fish Check charter captain and former Navy SEAL commander and SEAL Team Six operator.
"His insights into scuba diving during the early parts of WWII were instrumental in the successes of the Allied Forces," Luoma said. "He developed the re-breather, which is still used today when clandestine water infiltration is required. He was a very ingenious man whose legacy will continue on."
Lambertsen's contribution to Special Operations Forces was such that he was awarded the Army Special Forces tag and badge for wartime service and received the OSS Distinguished Service Award, which was presented to him by Adm. Eric Olson, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, according to Maj. Trevor Hill, commander of the Fleming Key dive school.
"Because much of this remained classified for years, it was only in the last 10 years that our people discovered his contributions," Hill said. "And it's not just this device. It's crucial to understand that he was a doctor and every disorder associated with diving and re-breathers, such as oxygen toxicity and carbon dioxide poisoning, he researched. The science of hyperbaric chambers, all these things, he gave us. He made it a science. Everything we do here at the school, he touched all of it."
For all of Lambertsen's contributions to the military and world of espionage, his contribution was as equally important to civilians, said Mike Ange, president and general manager of Seaduction Key West Dive Center, an expert instructor with re-breather technology.
"The biggest thing is that re-breathers made exploration possible," Ange said. "It allows us to explore at depths and in cave systems much farther than with traditional open-circuit (scuba) systems. And it also allows us to approach marine life without scaring them, so the bubbleless system helps marine photographers and researchers. There's all kinds of cave explorers and biologists who use this technology. The list goes on and on." Even so, Lambersten's daring work as an underwater spy -- he was the first man to exit and re-enter a submarine under water and his other escapades in Burma helped him earn the OSS Legion of Merit -- left a lasting impression on the Special Forces and CIA operatives who followed in his footsteps, or wake, as it were.
"As someone recently put it to me, Lambertsen was the perfect OSS candidate -- a man with a Ph.D. who could win a bar fight," Pinck said.
alinhardt@keysnews.com
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