USS Hoist

[tlawler]

I love that pic, back when men were men and sheep were scared.

In the 60's? was that when Carl Brasher was around?

A neat note I visited DIT in Seattle a while ago and the had a picture of Rob Dinero and Cuban Gooding Jr in full dive dress, that would of been a good day to visit the school

JUMBO

Master Chief Brashear was stationed on the Hoist then and in fact found the bomb.

 

[Henryville]

They were dry"to an extent". First, you would sweat your tail off and that moisture would accumulate. Second, the material was impervious to water but any tear, scrape, etc would "weep". This looks like a 50's, 60's Desco full dress. FYI - shoes = 20lbs each, helmet = 54 lbs, suit -38 lbs, weight belt usually around 80 lbs for a 180 lb man.

Maybe obvious, but is the reason for the massive amount of weight so the diver can exert force against objects without pushing himself away? Also, has there ever been a female Navy diver of this type?

 

[SKBRDVR1]

Master Chief Breshear was assigned duty on the USS Hoist from 1965-1966. THe first Female Navy hardhat diver was Donna Tobias in 1975. There were "scuba" qualified divers prior to her. Since then, many inc. Master Chief Mary Bonnin, M/S Karen Kohanowich, Bobbie Scholley, Susan Trukkem & Darlene Iskra who all have exemplary records with service to the US Navy. The excessive weight was to combat buoyancy and to "offset" sympathetic movement while working. The Navy Hardhat Diver was a salvage expert.....

 

[Gary D.]

Master Chief Brashear was stationed on the Hoist then and in fact found the bomb.

They didn't find the bomb but he was part of the crew that recovered it. The bomb was at something like 1600'.

Gary D.

 

[SKBRDVR1]

The bomb was at 2600 fsw. It was located months earlier by ROV ALVIN. The contraption rigged by M/C was a "spider " with grapnel hooks. When deployed, it almost hit the bomb on the bottom (Next time you here a DM complaining that his shot bag missed at 100'...). The bomb was on the surface when M/C lost his leg, however it was a section of pipe that held the mooring line that broke that injured his leg. He was attempting to get another sailor out of the way.

 

[Gary D.]

These things were a lot of fun but at the same time a lot of work. They are good for heavy work when you made yourself heavy but yet you could swim on the surface in it and bob like a cork.

They were very stiff and leaked at least a little. They were a very heavy rubber coated canvas. They came with dry cuffs and three finger mitts that were rough too work in but warmer. They run around 18 pounds.

Sometimes the suit would fail and there would be a total flood. The nice part was the water would stop at the exhaust valve and recycle itself back into the water column. But you still flooded up to your chin which could be a little unnerving at times.

The weight belt runs around 84 pounds and doesn’t vary from one diver to another. I was just over 100 pounds and the belt would come off of me and go on one of the bigger 200 pound guys.

The hats were all hand made. The hat and the breastplate are a matching serial numbered pair. They don’t work well at all if interchanged. They weigh between 54 and 64 pounds. When new they are silver. With use and polishing the solder gets rubbed off the surface and the color comes through.

Boots were a combination of brass, leather, lead and sometimes some cotton and run around 34 pounds a pair.

There were two kinds of communications boxes. A 120 volt man killer and a lower DC volt unit that was very safe. The Skol Can looking thing on the helmet is where the two way speaker was housed.

Most of the entry and exits into the water were done with the diver walking up and down a ladder. Only on the bigger diving commands was the luxury of the platform available. We mainly worked off a 50 foot UT with three of us so it was a real hard working job.

I miss the old rigs.

Gary D.

 

[cfelliot]

FYI:

Picture that started this thread is of

LtCdr Ed Lefebvre
XO Hoist 1968-1971

 

[drtheo]

I'll have to show that to my wife when she complains about a 50 m walk with normal scuba.

 

[SKBRDVR1]

By the way CF, Thanks for the pics!

 

[cfelliot]

.......
Most of the entry and exits into the water were done with the diver walking up and down a ladder. Only on the bigger diving commands was the luxury of the platform available. ........

Gary D.

I assume this is the ladder entry you are writing about