USAF Sgt dead - Okinawa

[Oldbear]

I am sadden to hear about the lost of any diver, military, vet or otherwise. My condolenses go out to his family and friends. I don't know if the USAF will release the circumstances of his accident, but I hope so so other might learn from this tragedy if there is a lesson.

I have a friend going to Diego Garcia and I am suppose to send him his dive gear from Kwajalein. I hope he gets to use it.

Here on Kwajalein we are a military garrison and our Scuba Club works very close to the military. We have one of the largest scuba clubs on any U.S. Military base and we are proud of the fact that DAN has said we have the best safety record in the world for a dive club our size. But an accident is just that...an unanticipated, unattentional event with negative circumstances. While we are proud of our working relationship with our host command and our club's safety record, as a club we constantly and actively promote safe practices. So in response to previous posts not all military bases have strengant restrictions.

 

[tomfcrist]

When I was there, swimming and snorkeling were permitted in the lagoon, but not on the ocean side. No scuba though.

I always thought that it was an irrational fear of Hector(the resident massive hammerhead) that caused the restrictions on Diego. Further research has indicated that it's due to all around ignorance though.

 

[MrChen]

I am sadden to hear about the lost of any diver, military, vet or otherwise. My condolenses go out to his family and friends. I don't know if the USAF will release the circumstances of his accident, but I hope so so other might learn from this tragedy if there is a lesson.

I have a friend going to Diego Garcia and I am suppose to send him his dive gear from Kwajalein. I hope he gets to use it.

Here on Kwajalein we are a military garrison and our Scuba Club works very close to the military. We have one of the largest scuba clubs on any U.S. Military base and we are proud of the fact that DAN has said we have the best safety record in the world for a dive club our size. But an accident is just that...an unanticipated, unattentional event with negative circumstances. While we are proud of our working relationship with our host command and our club's safety record, as a club we constantly and actively promote safe practices. So in response to previous posts not all military bases have strengant restrictions.

That's good to hear. It's poor management to constantly pile on rules for something which rarely happens or could have been prevented through better training, planning, or more experience. In my AF career, if one person got hurt, they had to pile on rules so it never happened again. Some of the rules bordered on ridiculous and always made you feel like you were a child doing a grown ups job. There were just too many knee jerk reactions to one time events.

 

[AFdivedoc]

I always thought that it was an irrational fear of Hector(the resident massive hammerhead) that caused the restrictions on Diego. Further research has indicated that it's due to all around ignorance though.

I don't remember anyone mentioning Hector. Would have loved to have seen that big boy, though. They gave a couple of reasons for no recreational scuba. The island is British territory, and they were very wary of rules concerning interaction with wildlife of any kind. They handed out $1000 fines like candy for being in the wrong part of the lagoon or interacting with/touching various wildlife. Also, there was no chamber on the island. Any injuries we couldn't care for in the tiny AF and Navy clinics were Aerovac'd to Singapore--a couple of thousand miles away. Other water sports were allowed in the lagoon, including windsurfing, sailing, swimming and snorkeling. Nothing on the ocean side, reportedly because of treacherous currents.

 

[Wookie]

I just moved from Okinawa a couple of months ago. The diver was an acquaintance of mine (although we never dove together). No, they haven't banned scuba, but I'd be surprised if there weren't some restrictions placed on active duty folks once the investigation is done. It's the whole kneejerk reaction thing.


Wookie, when were you on Diego? When I was there, swimming and snorkeling were permitted in the lagoon, but not on the ocean side. No scuba though.

1984/5. We caught some very large sharks in the lagoon. Sad, now, to think about it. We could sail the sunfish, I don't remember wind surfing then.

and it was definitely the Brits who set the rules. Or at least they were blamed....

 

[Oldbear]

When I was looking at going to DG a few years ago I started this thread...I would love to see a Hammerhead such as Hector...I think


Scuba Diving in Diego Garcia --- "NOT" [Archive] - ScubaBoard - Scuba Diving Forum - Diving Social Network

 

[gopbroek]

When I was looking at going to DG a few years ago I started this thread...I would love to see a Hammerhead such as Hector...I think


Scuba Diving in Diego Garcia --- "NOT" [Archive] - ScubaBoard - Scuba Diving Forum - Diving Social Network

Early in 82 my ship pulled into Diego Garcia for emergency repairs and we were tied up to a tender in the lagoon. The tender was tied to platform on one side and then there was another platform tied outboard to the first platform, with about a 10 gap between them. Spanning the gap was a flimsy gangway about 2’ off the water. All boats to shore loaded and offloaded to the outboard platform. Each afternoon around 15:30 the garbage from the ships was loaded onto garbage boats and taken to shore for disposal, occasionally a bag would get dropped into the water.
At 16:00 we had liberty call and we would all take the liberty boats to the base. As we would cross the gangway between the 2 platforms there would be Hector cruising back and forth. I still remember him to this day, he was huge and his dorsal barely cleared the bottom of the gangway. As we drank at the club it gave us time to think about what would happen if we drank too much and fell off the platform on the way back from liberty.

 

[Oldbear]

Moderators perhaps you can break this thread and place the Diego Garcia discussion into a more appropriate place than in the tragic death of the USAF Sgt.

Thanks...
Michael

---------- Post added November 1st, 2014 at 06:16 AM ----------

Early in 82 my ship pulled into Diego Garcia for emergency repairs and we were tied up to a tender in the lagoon. The tender was tied to platform on one side and then there was another platform tied outboard to the first platform, with about a 10 gap between them. Spanning the gap was a flimsy gangway about 2’ off the water. All boats to shore loaded and offloaded to the outboard platform. Each afternoon around 15:30 the garbage from the ships was loaded onto garbage boats and taken to shore for disposal, occasionally a bag would get dropped into the water.
At 16:00 we had liberty call and we would all take the liberty boats to the base. As we would cross the gangway between the 2 platforms there would be Hector cruising back and forth. I still remember him to this day, he was huge and his dorsal barely cleared the bottom of the gangway. As we drank at the club it gave us time to think about what would happen if we drank too much and fell off the platform on the way back from liberty.

Great story...thanks for sharing.

Does anyone know what happen to Hector or when he was last sighted?

 

[Wookie]

Moderators perhaps you can break this thread and place the Diego Garcia discussion into a more appropriate place than in the tragic death of the USAF Sgt.

Thanks...
Michael

---------- Post added November 1st, 2014 at 06:16 AM ----------



Great story...thanks for sharing.

Does anyone know what happen to Hector or when he was last sighted?

This was not Hector, but I imagine he ended up something like this one from the 1985 USS California cruisebook. The catcher said "I don't remember eating it, I cut the jaws out and threw it overboard." Different time and place....

 

[John C. Ratliff]

It's always heartbreaking to hear of such a tragedy. Hopefully, the accident review will be able to conclude that there were specifics that caused the accident, or a medical condition. I say this because Okinawa is about the best diving I have ever done, anywhere. It is simply beautiful coral reefs. Here are some photos from 1968.

SeaRat