Former Naval Air Station Key West commanding officer Capt. Michael Currie (ret.) was in the water for four hours Monday and fully expected his close friend to be safely aboard their boat when he was rescued by the Coast Guard after a dive incident, he said Wednesday.
Currie spoke to The Citizen as well as U.S. 1 Radio on Wednesday out of concern that information released by the Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was inaccurate.
Primarily, Currie clarified that he and his friend — former commanding officer of Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 33 (VAQ-33) that was once based out of Boca Chica Field, Capt. Roger Arrowood (ret.) — were spearfishing about three miles south of the Middle Sambo Reef and not in another area as was reported Wednesday, Currie said.
Between them, Currie, 70, and Arrowood, 63, had about 90 years of experience scuba diving, Currie said.
Currie said the Monroe County Medical Examiner told him his friend likely died of heart trauma and did not have any saltwater in his lungs.
Arrowood was an active jogger in very good health.
“It could have happened on the drive down,” Currie said.
He added that “Roger was a Navy aviator and we don’t take chances. We went through our checklist, but there was one item not on the checklist and that was his heart. The world lost a very good man. Roger was a very decent man whose glass was always half full. He always saw the bright side of things, even when things were going very bad.”
The pair were on a roughly 45-foot dive, their second of the day, when they surfaced and began swimming toward their boat, where Arrowood’s 17-year-old nephew was topside, Currie said. Currents had pushed them away from the point where they entered the water.
The men could see the boat, but they were not gaining ground when Currie began to suffer leg cramps, he said. Currie told Arrowood to go ahead of him and pick him up in the boat, Currie said.
“Last time I saw him, I saw his green and black flippers smashing through the water,” Currie said. “He was in good shape. The Medical Examiner told me he had the body of a 30-year-old.”
Time began to tick by and there was no sign of Arrowood. Currie couldn’t see the boat anymore.
“I saw one boat south of me at about 200 yards at one point,” Currie said, adding that despite blowing his emergency whistle and flashing his speargun, he couldn’t get the boat crew’s attention.
As the minutes turned into hours, Currie knew the situation was dire.
“I said, ‘I’m a dead man.’”
He got out his compass and began swimming toward the reef. He ditched his weight belt and later his tank. In all, Currie was in the water about four hours until he made it to within 100 yards of the Eastern Sambo Reef buoy marker. A Coast Guard response boat picked him up shortly thereafter.
His rescue soon soured when he learned Arrowood was not on the boat with his nephew as he had believed.
Confusion then ensued among searchers over the direction to search when Currie clarified their last known location together. After Currie clarified, Arrowood was found about 15 minutes later by a good Samaritan boat that joined the search, he said.
He was unconscious and was later pronounced dead at Lower Keys Medical Center.
The nephew first called for help at 3:15 p.m. as soon as he lost sight of both men.
“He’s a good, sharp kid,” Currie said.
Currie said Arrowood and his wife, also a retired Navy captain, live in Edenton, North Carolina, but recently bought a home on Big Pine Key.
The friends were spearfishing in anticipation of the lobster mini-season that began on Wednesday.
Currie served as commanding officer of NAS Key West from 1991-1993.
