Marine Combat Vet Who’s Found Peace in Diving

[Hotbrass]

I’m a former Marine infantryman with two tours in Afghanistan and the documentary filmmaker behind Once a Marine, a film about coming home from war available on Amazon Prime.

How can you tell if someone is a Marine in less than two seconds of meeting them? They’ll tell you lol.

I’m a new scuba diver who’s just discovered the hobby/sport/way of life in the last year. My girlfriend convinced me to try scuba diving despite the ocean and the ocean depths being on the short list of my biggest fears. After the millions of years of evolution as a land mammal stopped screaming in my ear that I couldn’t breathe underwater and had no business there I found something I’d been looking for for a decade…peace.

This may sound weird to some of y’all but there’s something about the parallels between scuba diving and going on patrol in Afghanistan that really drew me in. Checking and triple-checking your gear. Making a plan and sticking to it. Adapting if something chsnges. Staying calm and focused when things go wrong. The inherent risk and danger. I learned in country that life felt the most vibrant when the opposite was so close.

After years of trying to find some sort of outlet after the war and discovering mostly the unhealthy ones I stumbled into diving. It’s changed my life.

So far I’ve only done my PADI open water course and 25 dives over three trips to Cozumel, the Blue Hole at Santa Rosa New Mexico, and Rainbow River in Florida.

I’m here to learn from you pioneers, veteran divers, dive masters, and anyone with anyone to teach me, even if it’s just where to eat at on an island or what mistakes to avoid.

Since I’ve become interested in diving I’ve noticed time and time again that ScubaBoard has survived the Facebookifivation, Redditifixation, and search engine optimization, that plagues the rest of the internet. I’m here to learn from the best resource on the internet about diving.

Glad to be here.

Stephen

My Film- Once a Marine

 

[OrcasC205]

Hey Stephen, welcome to ScubaBoard and thank you for your service. That is an interesting comparison between combat patrols and diving. I often you my past experience as a pilot as a comparison, but I think yours is even better.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Welcome Stephen!

A good friend of mine is a Marine combat veteran for m Desert Storm. Unfortunately he has equalization issues but he'd really like to dive. From the buts if stories he's shared over the years, it would do him a lot of good.

 

[Hotbrass]

Hey Stephen, welcome to ScubaBoard and thank you for your service. That is an interesting comparison between combat patrols and diving. I often you my past experience as a pilot as a comparison, but I think yours is even better.

Both my old man and my brother were/are pilots. My dad flew fixed wing for the Coast Guard for 11 years and everything from C-130s to Falcon Jets and then spent 30+ years as a commercial pilot and my brother went from being a Marine Corps infantryman to an Army Apache pilot. I’ve tried to get them both in the water but no luck so far. I think the similarity between flight plans and emergency procedures and the procedures for diving would be easy for them.

 

[Hotbrass]

Welcome Stephen!

A good friend of mine is a Marine combat veteran for m Desert Storm. Unfortunately he has equalization issues but he'd really like to dive. From the buts if stories he's shared over the years, it would do him a lot of good.

I read somewhere that diving can be good for both TBIs and PTSD but the science is still new. I’ve tried both the VAs approach, meditation, and even newfangled solutions like injections in the neck (I can’t remember exactly what was in the shot but the doctor was convinced I’d be reborn afterwards) and diving is the only thing that’s made me sleep easier, be happier, and even (albeit rarely) get up early in a good mood if diving is involved.

It’s not just me either. A bunch of guys from my company found diving around the same time and all say it’s been working wonders for them.

 

[azstinger11]

I’m a former Marine infantryman with two tours in Afghanistan and the documentary filmmaker behind Once a Marine, a film about coming home from war available on Amazon Prime.

How can you tell if someone is a Marine in less than two seconds of meeting them? They’ll tell you lol.

I’m a new scuba diver who’s just discovered the hobby/sport/way of life in the last year. My girlfriend convinced me to try scuba diving despite the ocean and the ocean depths being on the short list of my biggest fears. After the millions of years of evolution as a land mammal stopped screaming in my ear that I couldn’t breathe underwater and had no business there I found something I’d been looking for for a decade…peace.

This may sound weird to some of y’all but there’s something about the parallels between scuba diving and going on patrol in Afghanistan that really drew me in. Checking and triple-checking your gear. Making a plan and sticking to it. Adapting if something chsnges. Staying calm and focused when things go wrong. The inherent risk and danger. I learned in country that life felt the most vibrant when the opposite was so close.

After years of trying to find some sort of outlet after the war and discovering mostly the unhealthy ones I stumbled into diving. It’s changed my life.

So far I’ve only done my PADI open water course and 25 dives over three trips to Cozumel, the Blue Hole at Santa Rosa New Mexico, and Rainbow River in Florida.

I’m here to learn from you pioneers, veteran divers, dive masters, and anyone with anyone to teach me, even if it’s just where to eat at on an island or what mistakes to avoid.

Since I’ve become interested in diving I’ve noticed time and time again that ScubaBoard has survived the Facebookifivation, Redditifixation, and search engine optimization, that plagues the rest of the internet. I’m here to learn from the best resource on the internet about diving.

Glad to be here.

Stephen

My Film- Once a Marine

Welcome! While primarily I was an Air Force flyboy, did a 3 year joint tour with I MEF (embedded In the G4 MDDOC) including a year with MEF-A/FWD helping setup DZ and LZs all over the country at FOPs/COPs and all sorts of other ******** lol.

As to your interest in how SB survives, having just done an online marketing class for grad school, I think it’s relatively age based.
If you look at the recent poll about age SB is primarily 50+, the same poll had far more engagement and a much much younger trend shift to the 20-30 demographic. So SB continues to do its thing since for a large, but older, demographic it’s how they choose to interact with other divers online.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Welcome to scubaboard @Hotbrass!
I love the order that diving brings to my life. You’re right, It’s an activity that requires a level of mental responsibility, fitness, and gear checks/proper maintenance etc, to be able to do safely and effectively. It keeps me in mental and physical shape and keeps this 60 yo young.

@azstinger11, that other poll with the younger turnout was done on Reddit correct?

 

[azstinger11]

Welcome to scubaboard @Hotbrass!
I love the order that diving brings to my life. You’re right, It’s an activity that requires a level of mental responsibility, fitness, and gear checks/proper maintenance etc, to be able to do safely and effectively. It keeps me in mental and physical shape and keeps this 60 yo young.

@azstinger11, that other poll with the younger turnout was done on Reddit correct?

Correct, Reddit’s user base is considerably age shifted (just opposite, Scubabaord). U.S. Reddit reach by age group 2021 | Statista

 

[pauldw]

So far I’ve only done my PADI open water course and 25 dives over three trips to Cozumel, the Blue Hole at Santa Rosa New Mexico, and Rainbow River in Florida.

That's a good start. A variety of dives and places. That's what to do, alright! Maybe nitrox and the rescue diver class someday, but mostly diving to become a good diver. 25 is good for a someone who is a new diver. Lots of old divers probably don't have even 25.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

Fellow (Army) vet here.tthere is a calming presence being underwater that I don’t get when I’m topside. I just feel in my element and comfortable. I don’t think of anything else besides the dive I’m doing. It’s wonderful.