Photo By Sgt. Jon Heinrich | A diver with 7th Engineer Dive Detachment, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, jumps into...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii – Army divers with 7th Engineer Dive Detachment, 130th Engineer Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, are currently undergoing their Deep Blue training on Logistical Support Vessel-2, the CW3 Harold C. Clinger, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Deep Blue is a three-week exercise where diving noncommissioned officers hone their skills as supervisors. The training began Feb. 1 and is expected to be completed Feb. 19.
“Deep Blue is ultimately supervisor training that our E-6s use to validate their years of experience, and for our senior E-5s to gain information and knowledge to send them to the Advanced Leaders Course,” said Staff Sgt. Bryan Crowley, the lead diving supervisor with 7th Engineer Dive Detachment.
Some of the training conducted includes a couple of divers at simulated depths while the supervisors monitor the gauges and equipment.
“As the supervisors, we do a lot of emergency protocols,” Crowley said. “We want to make sure our divers are as safe as they possibly can be.”
Although the harbor is only 25-feet deep where they dive, they are simulating being underwater at deeper depths for the purpose of the training itself.
“As you progress in depth and as you progress in duration, the likelihood of something happening increases exponentially,” Crowley said. “The deeper you go, the more prone the human body is to diving-related illnesses such as decompression sickness.”
Another aspect of the training is having the divers placed into a Standard Navy Double Lock Recompression Chamber immediately after resurfacing, so that they can undergo emergency decompression.
“It’s a big pill-shaped tube inside of a 20-foot connex,” Crowley said. “It ultimately simulates depths. We can pull a diver out of the water without doing his decompression stops instead he goes through decompression in the chamber.”
“We also do a lot of decompression in the water, but for our control and safety reasons, we like to do a lot of decompression in the chamber,” Crowley added.
“It’s a heck of an experience,” said Pfc. Nicholas Lowden, a diver with 7th Engineer Dive Detachment. “Not everyone gets to do it.”
Lowden, who has only been with the unit since January and is new to the Army, said he enjoys being an Army diver in Hawaii.
“We can pretty much do anything underwater,” Lowden said. “The water’s great, and people here are awesome too.”
| Date Taken: | 02.11.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 02.12.2016 20:07 |
| Story ID: | 188780 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 303 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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