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College of Oceaneering Rally
January 27, 2001
A rally at the College of Oceaneering (272 S. Fries Ave., Wilmington) will be held January 27 from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. in conjunction with the Student Appreciation Day. Diving at the COO gives us a grand opportunity to dive in a relatively safe atmosphere. This provides new members a chance to take their first dive in the heavy gear; to check out new gear; and for the scuba enthusiasts to dive their classic gear.
Several members will be trying out their new Chinese gear. Also, Rick Eriksen will be diving his newly acquired Yokohoma.
As has been our policy at other rallies, first time divers will be instructed on use of the equipment and will be required to "tender" and dress-in at least one other diver. Also, required is at least one dive in the lightweight helmets before being allowed to dive a MkV.
Help in loading the equipment is needed before and after the dive. Be at the COO parking lot by 8:00 a.m. if you can lend a hand.
The COO will furnish barbequed hamburgers for lunch. After lunch a raffle will be held for qualifying COO students for a chance to dive the MkV.
See ya on January 27th !!!!
This years' Dive Into History at Point Lobo was on a cool, blustery day with the water choppy and cold. Although three people dove using Bob Kirby's abalone gear and hand-operated air pump, the days diving activities were shortened due to the cool weather. Mike Smith was the first diver for the day, followed by Gene Webb and Carolyn Parnell, wife of Ace Parnell.
The day long event was sponsored by Bob Kirby, Scrap Lundy, the HDSUSA and the California State Reserve at Pt. Lobo. A delicious lunch of barbequed tri-tip and chicken was served, but not before Ace Parnell set up his "martini mixer" and made imitation martini's from lemonade for all those who wanted a cold drink. Afternoon speakers were Mike Smith, M.D., whose topic was "Guadalcanal - One of WWII's Most Critical Battles," followed by Scrap Lundy - "The Unknown Heros of Cannery Row."
As usual, it was a great day for everyone, in spite of the weather, and an event we will look forward to again next year.
Display and Dry Dress-in at
the Yuma Crossing State Historic Park
A display to honor Al Christie and his crew for their work on the Colorado River Siphon in the early 1900's was set up in cooperation with the Yuma Crossing State Historic Park in Arizona.
A dry dress-in was held on Sunday, December 3. Three men were dressed-in; Park Ranger, Ken McGrew; Lester Ritchie, an 80-year-old survivor of Pearl Harbor who later became a diver and worked on the USS Arizona; and Ed Raff from Missouri who was visiting friends in the Yuma area. We also had retired Navy Master Diver, Ray Schilz, join us for the afternoon. As often happens, meeting men such as Lester Ritchie and Ray Schilz, and seeing smiles light up the faces of men like Ken McGrew and Ed Raff as they dressed in the Mark V gear, always makes a perfect day.
As mentioned in the last newsletter, the Yuma Crossing Park is currently working to set up a permanent display about the Colorado River Project, the Siphon, and the men who made this engineering feat a reality. Ray Schilz loaned a Morse #15 hand pump, a DESCO mask, a Jack Brown suit and a pair of Navy boots to be used for the display. If anyone has early 1900 dive gear they would like to donate or loan to the Park, please contact Jerry Emert, Park Manager (520) 329-0471 or Charlie Orr.
CCED Meeting
November 17, 2000 - The meeting was held at the L.A. Maritime Museum. Those present included Charles Orr, Rick Eriksen, Mark Howell, Jocko Robinson, Jim Pride, Leslie Jacobs, Torrance Parker, Capt. Ed White, and Frank McGinnis.
The group discussed the Labor Day Rally and future plans to continue this yearly event. Sections of the old and new air hoses and the new fittings approved by the US Navy and OSHA was brought in for the benefit of the members. It was agreed to drop the term "Dive Master" and replace the term with "Dive Organizer." Leslie Jacobs will retype the Safe Practice Standards with the new terminology. The pros and cons of having a set of scuba gear ready in case a diver has problems underwater was discussed. Torrance Parker stated the safest set-up would be to have two complete sets of heavy gear with communications as a scuba diver has no communications and no tether. Rick Eriksen brought in his newly purchased Yokohama dress and hat which were used for the dress-in clinic.
Next meeting - January 26, 2001 - Everyone is encouraged to attend as this will be a special meeting with a short awards presentation There will also be open discussion of future rallies, problems that crop up from time to time, safe practice issues, etc. It will be held at the L.A. Maritime Museum from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. There will be a dry dress-in practice after the meeting if time allows.
New Chinese Hats!
Several months ago an order was placed with a broker in Hong Kong by some of the CCED members to purchase new Chinese hats and dresses. The shipment was received in late December and on Christmas Eve, everyone met at Charlie Orr's house to pick up their new gear. To make it as fair as possible, nothing was unpacked and each man took his turn picking an unopened crate. All the helmets were found to be of good quality and in excellent condition.
The size of the new dresses ran larger than expected except for the feet, which tend to be smaller than found in other dresses. Along with each dress was a booklet showing how to dress in a diver, the parts of the helmet, and a warranty. Now if someone knows how to read Chinese just let us know!
Communication setups need to be added, and with a little refurbishing, the hats will soon be ready to dive. We are hoping to try out a couple of them at the COO on January 27.
Everyone had a good time checking out their new gear and comparing the hats. For a look at the hats as they were unpacked, check our web page at www.geocities.com/cced_barstad.
What's Happening?
"Men of Honor" - Thanks to Andy Lentz at the HDS, a few of our members received tickets for a preview showing on
November 10 at Fox Studios. This is an excellent movie and one you will not want to miss.
Lester Ritchie - A plan is underway to interview Mr. Ritchie about his experiences as a diver on the USS Arizona after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Membership number - You may have noticed that your membership number has been changed. During the past two years
we have had a number of people join the group who have never participated or made any further contact. In order to "close
ranks" those people have been dropped from the membership list.
Website URL - You can now access our website with a shorter URL. Try - www.geocities.com/cced_barstad
Leslie Jacobs - Watch for articles written by Leslie in the HDS USA Historical Diver and the HDS UK Historical Diving
Times. We are sure you will enjoy her articles.
Carl Brashear,
The movie "Men of Honor" was based on the life of Carl Brashear, the Navy's first black deep-sea diver. The movie pales in light of this man's life and career experiences.
Born in Kentucky in 1931, he was the son of a sharecropper and the sixth child in a family of eight. Raised in the segregated south during the depression and early 40's, Carl joined the U.S. Navy at age 17. He underwent recruit training at Great Lakes, Illinois and began his naval career as a steward at Key West, Florida where he worked in the Officers' Mess. It was here with the encouragement and help of Chief Boatswain's Mate Guy P. Johnson, he became a shallow-water diver in the Beach Master unit.
After leaving Key West, Carl was assigned to an escort carrier, the USS Palau, later transferring to the USS Tripoli. It was while on the Tripoli that Carl saw a diver dressed in a deep-sea suit go over the side to recover an airplane. Carl's reaction was immediate: "This was where I said, "Now, this is the best thing since sliced bread. I've got to be a deep-sea diver." So I started requesting, requesting, requesting to be a deep-sea diver. I finally got into school in 1954."
He was admitted to the Navy Dive School in Bayonne, N.J. Getting into diving school was just the start of a long, difficult process. Beside overcoming the problems of racial prejudice, he had to overcome the handicap of a limited 7th grade education and complete courses in such sophisticated subjects as physics, medicine, decompression, and ratio proportion (mixing gases to the proper ratio).
Beside serving on the escort carriers Palau and Tripoli, he also served on the USS Opportune; at the Naval Air Station Quonset Point, where he escorted President Dwight Eisenhower; Ship Repair Facility Guam; Deep-Sea Diving School; the submarine tender Nereus, and Fleet Training Center Pearl Harbor. He also had temporary duty with Joint Task Force Eight for nuclear tests in the Pacific. He served on the USS Coucal, USS Shakori, and USS Hoist.
It was while onboard the USS Hoist in 1966, attempting to recover a nuclear warhead, that a cable snapped, striking Carl so hard it pulled his left foot off. "They said I was way up in the air just turning flips. I landed about two feet inside of the freeboard. They said if I'd been two feet farther over, I'd have gone over the side. I jumped up and started to run and fell over. That's when I knew how bad my leg was."
Transport to a U.S. military hospital took over four hours. By then he had lost so much blood that doctors thought he was dead and were preparing to ship him to the morgue when they checked his heart one last time and caught a faint heartbeat. Carl's life was spared, but following two months of fighting infection and gangrene, Carl told doctors to amputate his leg rather then spending the next three years in the hospital while the leg healed. After four guillotine-type surgeries, where more of his leg was cut off each time, Carl was left with a below-the-knee stump. His plan was to go back to work. The Navy's plan was to retire him from active duty.
Navy brass ordered him to spend a year of evaluation at a Navy diving school, doing calisthenics and diving. Carl demanded of himself what most people could never stand. Wearing a Mark V, which weighed about 200 pounds, he climbed ladders and did dives in the tank. Wearing the full Mark V helium/oxygen suit, which weighed nearly 300 pounds, Brashear had to take at least twelve steps on the surface. To prepare for that, Carl made sure his legs were strong enough. "Sometimes I would come back from a run, and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump. I wouldn't go to sick bay. In that year, if I had gone to sick bay, they would have written me up. I didn't go to sick bay. I'd go somewhere and hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it - an old remedy. Then I'd get up in the morning and run."
While it was a great achievement for Carl to become the Navy's first amputee diver, he still had not achieved his goal. He wanted to be the first black master diver. He didn't have much longer to wait. Turning down promotions because they would interfere with his goal, Brashear went to the Washington D.C. Experimental Diving Unit in 1970. Using a Titan II mask, and breathing a helium/oxygen mixture, he did saturation dives of 600-1000 feet. He was evaluated for five weeks. A candidate either makes it or he doesn't. Carl describes what it means to be a Master Diver: "Master Diver is a man that's proficient in all phases of diving. The highest position that you could hold in the diving community is master."
After years of dedication, training, frustration, disappointments, and obstacles, Carl Brashear's tenacity was rewarded. Restored to active duty, he went on to become a master chief petty officer, a master diver, and Master Diver for the U.S. Navy. He received the Navy-Marine Corps Medal, and his portrait as a "Naval Tradition Maker" hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. He retired in 1979, took up a civilian career, and retired from that in 1993.
"When I challenged the Navy to prove I could be a deep sea diver, never in my wildest dreams did I think it would some
day turn into a Hollywood major motion picture!" Brashear said. "I was just in the Navy doing my job and working
like hell to reach my goal. I didn't think the Navy owed me anything. I was just an average citizen doing my job."
Divers Profile
Jim Pride
Jim was born on August 22, 1947 in Mobile, Alabama. At the time, his Dad, who was a flight engineer in the Army Air Corps, was stationed there. The Pride family soon moved back to southern California where Jim was raised and educated, receiving his college degree. After spending most of his working life employed by the state and federal governments, he retired this year.
Jim was Scuba certified in 1971. Receiving his Dive Masters certification in 1974. He said he loves all water sports and also photography. He became interested in our group after reading Leslie Jacobs article in "The Log" about two years ago. After joining our group, he also joined the HDS USA.. He is now saving to purchase his own standard gear rig. Since joining he has been one of our best supporters. He has attended every meeting and rally, including Dive into History and the HDS Rally. He has also dove with Bob Kirby's Central Coast Working Group in Santa Barbara.
Jim has two children. His son, David, lives in Morgan Hill, California with his wife Keira and son, Brandon. David is a Site Service Director for e-Bay. His daughter, Rebecca lives in Lakewood and is attending college.
Jim said he would like to end this with one quote. "The CCED show's what a few can do in an informal setting with one common goal."
Swap & Sell
T-Shirts No Longer Available
Due to health problems, Cush Lord of House of Lords' retired and closed his shop on December 31. His shop was the only one in Yuma with the equipment to make the CCED shirts. We will try to find another shop in the near future, but until then, the shirts will not be available.
The Scuba Diver
One day a diver was enjoying the aquatic world 20 feet below sea level. He noticed another guy at the same depth, but he
had on no scuba gear whatsoever.
The diver went below another 20 feet, but the guy reached this same depth a few minutes later.
The diver went 20 feet deeper, but minutes later, the same guy reached the same level.
Confused, the diver took out a waterproof chalk-and-board set, and wrote: How are you able to stay under this deep
without equipment?
The guy took the board and chalk, erased what the diver had written, and wrote: I'M DROWNING, YOU MORON!!!
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