Question for Military Divers

[Gary D.]

Well, yes of course. It becomes a matter of honor to know more, dive better, have faster project times, etc... Than any other diver.

You gotta want to be the best.

I would read the history first, I have always found the entire section exciting and easy to read.

The most benefit to you would be from the physiology section but skim the rest and see if something strikes your interest...

NDSTC will not leave you hanging, every thing they need a second class diver to know is taught during the course (don't feel like you have to get ahead of the academics...)

Deep Sea!!!

Read what rmediver2002 wrote over and over. When your done read it again.

You need to go into this school with the understanding that you will soak up everything they throw at you. THEY WILL TEACH YOU!!!! Don't go in two smart or THEY WILL make it hader on you if they think you know to much.

DO NOT mouth off on a run, swim or pt. All they will do is swap out instructors and keep going until you drop.

The numbers that graduate will be depending on the need for divers. If they need a lot, a lot will graduate If they need a few, a few will graduate. AND DO NOT get cocky even on the last day. Student's have been washed out just minutes from graduation for being a smartass.

I remember something they pounded into us from day one and I will never forget it until they day I die. Might not forget it then. It went something like this. THE OBJECT OF THIS SCHOOL IS TO MAKE YOU QUIT! IF YOU QUIT YOU WILL DIE AND FAIL TO COMPLETE YOUR MISSION! FAILING TO COMPLETE YOUR MISSION IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Focus deeply on your attitude. Have the will to win and do not lose that will from day one to the end. Go into this venture with the attitude and the drive to beat Lance Armstrong while using a 3 speed fat tire Schwinn.

You might think they are trying to kill you. At first they are but they won't let you die, at least I don't think they will. I never tested them that far.

Be open minded and remember they are trying to make you one of the most comfortable divers in the world.

In years gone by SCUBA divers in the NAVY were tought basicly what a Civilian Master is today. They did it in 4 to 6 weeks of 6 days a week and 12 hour days. Half of that time was PT and the other half soaking in what they wanted you to know. Today SCUBA is not that attractive in the Navy

I AM A WINNER! I WILL WIN AT THEIR GAME! I WILL SURVIVE ANYTHING THEY THROW AT ME! I AM NOT A QUITTER!!!!

Now go to school and enjoy it. I would love to welcome you aboard the club.

Gary D.

 

[junior diver]

I like the sound of this. I like being tested till I drop. I'm wierd. Only seven more years till I'm old enough to enlist!

 

[rna]

I will print what you both said and memorize it. I never did anything extraordinary in my life so I'm really excited about joining up soon and getting away from this hole I'm living in right now. I know it'll be tough but I count on my motivation to keep me in. From what I know, majority of candidates that attend special training schools such as Naval Diving School, BUD/S, or Army SF School, regret quitting within an hour of dropping out on request. It's very possible that I will too at some point during my mental and physical exhaustion think of quitting, and I'm trying very hard to understand it and not forget about it. I guess I am being a little bit of a philosophist, but that's my motivation. What was your motivation to stay in the training? What did you think about when water was cold and muscles were sore and when you got really tired of everything? It takes a lot of will to hang on like you guys did, so I'm interested to hear if you ever thought of quitting the course yourself and why you didn't quit and what kept you in the training? Thank you for your time guys, I feel like your advice is invaluable to my success which I appreciate you doing it for me.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I like the sound of this. I like being tested till I drop. I'm wierd. Only seven more years till I'm old enough to enlist!

Got to school. Get a degree. Then...

 

[rmediver2002]

Sure, I thought about what quitting would be like in every challenging course I ever attended. I think it is a part of an decision making process, to consider all options and then make a decision.

In every course I was afraid of failure, this drove me and made me push myself harder than most others.

Most of the schools I was worried about failing I graduated first in my class, this inspired me to take on different challenges.

It is OK to think about the options (quitting being one of them...) but don't make your decision because something seems difficult or unattainable, if you decide not to do it because you would truely not enjoy it then to me that is a fine decision but you have to be true to yourself above all else.

I know many military divers who were not true to themselves, they never really had the passion for diving but did not want to quit. It goes both ways, be true to yourself...

As a broad generalization, the divers I have worked with are some of the finest individuals I have ever had the pleasure to meet and work with, now a few years out of the military I would still do anything at any time for any of them...

 

[Gary D.]

Motivation? Each one of us has our own. For some It’s Ego, some It’s Desperation, some It’s wanting to do a good job and for some it is to prove a point and do what they said you couldn’t.

I was 15 doing good in history, science, art, metal and wood shops. As far as the rest of school went I couldn’t be bothered.

I had started a school project that involved all my interests. Building a rocket.

Everything was going good with the 3’ metal tower until it came to a test firing one Sunday morning. To make a long story short, I screwed up loading the fuel. Having it’s own O2 it kept burning when the nozzle plugged. Nobody has an idea as to high the pressure got before the plug blew out ripping the rocket from its mount.

It wouldn’t have been a big deal; except for the fact it entered my right leg about 4” above my knee. At that point I became the youngest person on top of a rocket. The flight was two blocks down the street and through a two-car garage door.

I hobbled the two blocks home. When my mom saw this 3’ tube, with equal amounts in front and the rear of my leg, she grabbed it and suffered 3rd degree burns on her hand. Then off to the hospital we went.

I had just eaten a big meal so they did a spinal for the surgery. It took some begging but they removed the tent and let me watch. KOOL.

Over the next week I had seven operations to try and repair the damage. I had got to watch every one of them but I wasn’t looking forward to the future at all.

I was in a room with a 15-year-old girl that was no easy task in those days, who had just lost both legs above the knee in a car accident. We did each other a world of good.

I was prepared for #8 but wasn’t happy about it. The leg was coming off. I wasn’t happy but I would survive. After all I was surviving high school being under 5’ tall and under 90 pounds. I got stuffed into every locker and flushed down every commode the school had. If I could survive that I could survive anything.

Then the day came for #8. I had never been that scared in my life as they wheeled me into surgery.

When I woke up I was on my back with a tent over my lower body. A nurse came in and messed around under it. I asked her what she was doing and she said I’m checking your leg. WHAT? I don’t have a leg. I thought she was screwing with my mind but big as life there were two walking legs down there.

A female MD from New York happened to be in California and did the operation. That woman saved my leg but she really pissed me off in the process. The woman was a genius.

A couple of days later she talks to me. She explained that she was able to save the leg but I wouldn’t be able to walk very well. My response was take the damn thing and I’ll get one I can walk on.

Over the next 6 months it was you won’t be able to do this, Watch me. You won’t be able to do that, keep watching me. And the one that did make me cry as all my friends were going, You will never get into the service. BS watch me.

My leg was still a mess but I was walking good with no limp. So what do I do with a still open wound? You might have guessed it; I went diving in Monterey Bay.

It only took a couple of months of drugs to fight the infection but it was worth it.

Now with all my buddies gone I went into a mild slump so I went to the Marine’s. Let me in. I told them the truth about my leg and they said go away kid. Then to the Army where I got the same story. Forget the Air Force and the Coast Guard so all that was left was the Navy and that was going to need a plan.

So off to the Navy Recruiter with my mom in tow. Walla, I’m in on a deferred enlistment.

Finished school early and off to San Francisco for the go active goodies.

I’m in the physical line with a bazillion other naked guy’s when the doc sees my leg. Now is where it gets tricky. He says, “What happened?” The gods have blessed me, as that was one of the phrases I was hoping and planned for.

He was not specific about the exact spot of the injury so I had an open door.

I was at my Grandmother’s house, not a lie, been there a lot. She has steam heat and I got burnt on the radiator. That wasn’t a lie either because I did that a lot as well.

The doc asks, How’s it healing? I respond with Fine Sir (so so would have been closer to the truth). He signed my fricken papers and I was sworn in about an hour later.

Boot Camp was tough trying to keep the healing process going without telling anyone what was wrong. But it got easier when I got to my first command; a 2100 class Destroyer DD498 the USS Phillip. No hope of being a diver here I thought and was wrong.

I was able to go to ships swimmer school and then to ships rescue swimmer school. Tough cookies.

Not long after I returned to the ship I did my first recovery. We had a nasty accident onboard. The kid I recovered had half his head removed and scared the living crap out of me. I had no idea then what it would lead to.

I put in a request every day to go to dive school for right around a year. My saving grace was we were being assigned TAD to NASA for Gemini and Apollo work and recoveries. So where do I go but SCUBA school. Hey, it was a start. Normal school was 4 weeks but mine was 6 because of the NASA training tacked onto the end.

Back to the ship for another cruse and weeks of capsule recovery training.

But now this snotty nose kid wanted more so back to submitting requests for Second Class school.

When our NASA project was over the skipper gave me orders to Second Class school in San Diego and open orders to a diving command. I ended up on the USS Prairie AD15. She was a destroyer tender and we dove almost around the clock working on Pacific Fleet ships. Even got some decorations for it.

That’s about it as far as the Navy goes. I would repeat it in a heartbeat.

On one trip home on leave I went to the hospital that changed a snotty nose kids life. I saw some of the people that got me through the crisis. We were all in tears.

Why did I do it? Because it was the toughest thing the service had to offer that I qualified for. See why I hate the word “NEVER”! I went from NEVER walking to where I am today still passing LEO physicals 40+ years later.


Gary D.

 

[rmediver2002]

HOOYAH Gary!

anyting, anytime!

 

[Rick Murchison]

Great inspirational story Gary. BZ.
---
There is one aspect of any of the "primo" military schools (mine was flight training rather than diving) y'all have alluded to - I like to explain it this way: The school is designed to be impossible for even the toughest, smartest, most motivated individual there. Part of the training is to melt you and your buddies together into an alloy much stronger and tougher and more resilient than the sum of your individual abilities. Even though you are in competition with one another for class standing, it's the guy who gives the most to help his classmates succeed who gets the most.
You will love it; you will hate it; you will LIVE it.
Rick

 

[rna]

Gary, your story has inspired me, thank you for sharing. I can only hope that when I join the U.S. Navy I will find myself among such great and dedicated people such as yourself.

 

[Gary D.]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

What the Navy did for me and more spicifically Diving, was take a small scared kid and give him the courage to face the world and all the problems it can dish out.

Nothing has ever been tougher than those early years but today I can shed stuff off like water off a ducks back.

I just have to say Thank you Uncle Sam. I had a good attitude but he tought me how not be a quitter.

Gary D.