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All Things Combat Diver (merged)

Gee, thanks Pit for that reassuring bit of morale-lifting advice  ;)
 
Its your CDAC Webmaster checking in - see www.donlowconcrete.com/CDAC - read the item at the top of the page about a new book. Send content - via Joe or direct at the link on the page - how about diver tatoos in a certain arrid country?

Look fwd to it

Despite all the doom and gloom about tempo - your skills mean a lot to the sharp end, as in razor sharp.
 
Why do the wet crowd have all the fun? Find out here http://www.militarytimes.com/multimedia/video/seals_070531/
 
For everyone's information, the Comdt of CFSME, who is charged with being the Army Diving authority, is trying to set the dates for Ex ROUGUISH BUOY 10 this fall.  The concept is to continue the invite to foreign dive teams and the focus will be on close support and covert diving operations. 

Despite a very high op tempo, it is good to see that the Army diving capability is not completely dead....it is just on life support.

S6.
 
Im sorry for starting up an old thread, but I was wondering where a combat diver would be posted to. A base or a ship?
 
An army Combat Engineer Regiment.  Combat divers are army.
 
Thats why I was curious, because they are in the army but their specialty is taken place in water, so i just wasn't sure if they would be moved to the water when they needed to perform an operation or if they would live on a ship and already be there.
 
They are Combat Engineers with a special skill, just like para, heavy equipment, EOD, or any number of others.  The are employed as Sappers until a dive task or training comes along.
 
C.G.R said:
Thats why I was curious, because they are in the army but their specialty is taken place in water, so i just wasn't sure if they would be moved to the water when they needed to perform an operation or if they would live on a ship and already be there.

Keep in mind that the Navy has it's own divers. Each ship has its own team of divers, as well as each formation having their own Clearance Divers.

For combat divers, you need to be thinking not only at sea, but also rivers and lakes. Both of which can typically be rather difficult to get to with a warship.
 
gcclarke said:
For combat divers, you need to be thinking not only at sea, but also rivers and lakes. Both of which can typically be rather difficult to get to with a warship.

Combat divers are responsible for inland waterways, we really don't do much salt water stuff, except for initial / continuation diver training. Not many underwater combat engineering tasks past 2m depth ;)  There was a push a ways back WRT using us to recce / secure / mark coastal beaches for amphibious landings, and I know we've practiced it quite a few times on international exercises, but IIRC, *officially*, this is a task still left to the Clearance Divers.....
 
I've been trying to find out if any of my offshore commercial diving time would count towards any type of army certs? If so, who do i need to speak with at my unit to have it converted? My S1 is kinda lazy!  7 months Civilian dive school for commercial divers, master cert scuba, NDT l-ll..etc I'm sure that i could have fought to come in as an army diver but 03 was a rough year with hardly any work in the Gulf and the Army was taking all infantry soldier left and right. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
To be a combat diver, you need to be a combat engineer first and if the engineers are like the Navy are for their divers, you can't just hand them the certs and say give me the dolphins - you still have to go through the training.  If you're infantry, you can ask to go on a Ship's Team Diver course with a really good memo and if you want to be a diver full time, apply to remuster to clearance diver.  Again, you'd have to get through the Navy's selection and training process for it.

MM
 
chrs_0331 said:
I've been trying to find out if any of my offshore commercial diving time would count towards any type of army certs? If so, who do i need to speak with at my unit to have it converted? My S1 is kinda lazy!  7 months Civilian dive school for commercial divers, master cert scuba, NDT l-ll..etc I'm sure that i could have fought to come in as an army diver but 03 was a rough year with hardly any work in the Gulf and the Army was taking all infantry soldier left and right. Any advice would be appreciated.

To be a combat diver, you must be a Cbt Engr (or Engr Officer), meet the medical standard for military divers, meet the PT standard, be nominated by your CoC, and be a volunteer. While there are a lot of similarities between the commercial diving world and military diving, having civy certs will not directly transfer over, and you still need to do the course. If you wanted to have your quals looked over and see if portions of the course can be written off, start the PLAR process, but I can speak with a relative amount of confidence that what will come back will be a resounding "do the entire course". I can also say with a relative amount of confidence that civy / commercial diver qualifications don't a military diver make ;)
 
Everyone is equal when applying for the dive course (Reg Engineer). Everyone on the prelim (selection) is treated with the same amount of c**k regardless of rank. If you are fit and meet the medical requirements then you will be fine. If you can swing it I recommend getting a "dive medical" done before putting up a memo to the CoC to apply for the prelim. I have seen guys with amazing fitness and pass the selection but were turned away from the course because of something as simple as an irregular heartbeat. Shut your brain off to pain and keep it turned on to situational awareness. Lastly.... Even if you are a Major and a sapper that is a qualified diver is yelling at you to get your' a$$ moving the response will be "yes diver".
 
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