ScubaNorth:
I was stationed at the Arsenal in the early-mid 80's then stayed on for a little education at UAH. I am going to be in the area around July and would love to bring my gear.
Since you're brining you gear.... the "big" (or not so big) local place to dive is the Madison Aquatic Park (a.k.a. Madison Quarry and Rock Divers, who nperates the quarry for the city).
You can do a preview at
http://www.rockdivers.com
The basic summary is that it's around 45 feet deep (+/-) and has about 8 acres underwater. Underwater items include a chevy S-10 pickup and boat trailer, several runabouts, 2 house boats which are gutted and easily penetrated by anyone, a Minuteman Missile (yes that's what I said), a F4 fighter, several other donated items from NASA such as a large tube made up a mock observatory, a rock crusher, a bridge span, plus a few other items. They got a firetruck and a bus which I think they have sunk (but no 100% sure)
The nice thing about them is that they are local, moderately priced ($17 or $18 admission) and you can park right at the edge of the quarry (if you get there early enough). Vis can get pretty bad sometimes, especially right after a rain or if there are lots of student classes there. Many people bring a sun tent/shelter and a grill and stay all day. There was an artilce in Dive Training Mag a few months ago. here it is
http://www.dtmag.com/dive-usa/MadisonAquaticParkAL.html
There is another quarry in Moultan that is open again. The facilities were very limited there. It's a little smaller and shallower overall and doesn't have as many items sunk. They do have a sailboat with mast/sail up and a greyhound type bus.
Of course Marthas Quarry is 2 hrs north near Nashville and Bluewater is almost 2 hrs sounth below Birmingham if you want more quarry diving. Glencoe is about 2 hrs SE near Gasden also.
