WEBVTT 00:00.877 --> 00:02.516 (exciting music) 00:02.690 --> 00:05.263 - [Petty Officer 1st Class Mark Powell] Humans are supposed to be walking around on land, 00:06.118 --> 00:08.346 not diving hundreds of feet underwater. 00:10.994 --> 00:12.503 (dramatic music) 00:19.379 --> 00:21.375 - [Navy instructor] Hooyah (indistinct)! 00:21.375 --> 00:24.296 - [Sailors] Hooyah (indistinct)! 00:24.781 --> 00:26.927 Between the roughly 00:26.927 --> 00:28.836 60 Navy dive instructors 00:28.836 --> 00:30.642 that we have here at the schoolhouse, 00:30.642 --> 00:33.023 we have hundreds of years of experience. 00:34.434 --> 00:37.534 It's one big team effort to make the best students that we can 00:37.534 --> 00:39.701 and the best divers that we can. 00:39.701 --> 00:41.621 - What you're gonna do when we tell you, right, 00:41.621 --> 00:44.337 you're gonna get in the water, you're gonna do your in-water checks. 00:44.337 --> 00:45.841 check each other for leaks. 00:45.841 --> 00:46.841 - [Petty Officer 1st Class Gus Gazoa] Here at the dive school, 00:46.841 --> 00:49.948 we want them to be comfortable underwater, first and foremost. 00:49.948 --> 00:52.121 We want them to be familiar with 00:52.121 --> 00:55.248 all of the specific rigs and how they perform underwater. 00:55.248 --> 00:57.469 And we want them to be openminded. 00:57.469 --> 00:59.514 Not everything that you face underwater 00:59.514 --> 01:02.548 is gonna be by the book, black and white. 01:02.548 --> 01:04.552 You're gonna have to get creative with the way 01:04.552 --> 01:06.433 you fix some problems underwater. 01:06.433 --> 01:08.448 (water splashing) 01:09.438 --> 01:12.043 When they first check in here, they're doing aquatic adaptability, 01:12.043 --> 01:14.494 getting comfortable underwater, holding their breath. 01:14.494 --> 01:16.386 They go through emergency procedures 01:16.386 --> 01:18.712 so they know what to do and how to execute 01:18.712 --> 01:20.568 if something does go wrong. 01:22.852 --> 01:24.869 Everything we do here has a purpose. 01:24.869 --> 01:27.365 We're building their confidence to be 01:27.365 --> 01:29.561 the best Navy divers that they can be. 01:29.561 --> 01:31.621 (lowkey music) 01:39.989 --> 01:41.441 - My name's Angel Mendez. 01:41.441 --> 01:43.835 I'm an E5 and I'm an electriciansmate. 01:43.835 --> 01:46.713 See, I went to high school in Naples, Florida. 01:46.713 --> 01:48.358 Got into a really tight spot. 01:48.358 --> 01:50.933 Had like an injury while wrestling, it kind of took me out of working for a while. 01:50.933 --> 01:53.453 My buddy's dad called me up. 01:53.453 --> 01:56.080 He took me in about the same time I heard about the 01:56.080 --> 01:57.837 Navy and the Navy dive program. 01:57.954 --> 02:01.410 Navy dive program . There's a lot of 02:01.509 --> 02:03.364 There's a lot of people that start from different places in life, 02:03.364 --> 02:05.933 but when you come to dive school, everybody starts off at zero 02:05.933 --> 02:07.799 and everything you do from there you earn, 02:07.799 --> 02:09.515 and that's yours to keep. 02:11.472 --> 02:13.732 - [Navy instructor] Standby, into the water. 02:19.950 --> 02:21.848 - [Sailors] (indistinct) T1 on surface, 02:21.848 --> 02:23.474 T1 okay. 02:23.474 --> 02:25.649 - So the dive that usually gets 02:25.649 --> 02:27.757 all Navy divers kind of hooked on Navy diving 02:27.757 --> 02:30.470 is right here at school in the Gulf of America. 02:30.470 --> 02:32.885 (lowkey music) 02:34.294 --> 02:35.831 - [Mengjiao Xing] It can be pretty bumpy and fast, 02:35.831 --> 02:38.988 but it's actually one of my favorite parts about the job 02:38.988 --> 02:40.904 is actually that ride out to sea. 02:43.305 --> 02:44.301 Then once you get there, 02:44.301 --> 02:46.090 the boat will sort of moor down 02:46.090 --> 02:48.405 and then you get strapped into your gear. 02:48.405 --> 02:50.620 (indistinct responses) 02:51.763 --> 02:54.209 - [Sailor] Red 1600. - Green 1800. 02:54.837 --> 02:56.841 - And then everyone takes turns 02:56.841 --> 02:58.618 entering the water. 03:00.517 --> 03:03.479 - [Diver] You have to be locked in and dialed in all the time 03:03.479 --> 03:05.949 because diving is inherently dangerous. 03:08.800 --> 03:11.003 - [Gazoa] For us instructors, it's just cool to watch 03:11.003 --> 03:13.302 like the wonder in the students' eyes 03:13.302 --> 03:15.569 when they're on their first dive ever. 03:19.110 --> 03:21.642 So we have a huge variety of commands 03:21.642 --> 03:23.911 that students can get assigned to out of school. 03:23.911 --> 03:26.598 Expeditionary, where we'll go 03:26.598 --> 03:28.967 support EOD, Navy SEAL, 03:28.967 --> 03:31.082 Recon, MARSOC Marine. 03:31.082 --> 03:33.864 Salvage, where you train 03:33.864 --> 03:36.231 on techniques to salvage 03:36.231 --> 03:38.703 whatever it may be, a ship that sunk 03:38.703 --> 03:40.896 or aircraft that crashed into the water. 03:40.896 --> 03:43.367 And then the third is ships husbandry, 03:43.367 --> 03:46.775 basically just underwater mechanics to fix ships. 03:46.775 --> 03:49.433 We have husbandry bases all over the world 03:49.433 --> 03:51.481 and Navy divers would be there to 03:51.481 --> 03:53.908 fix the ship and get them back out on the water. 03:55.298 --> 03:57.532 (calling cadence) 03:59.210 --> 04:01.451 - [Man 1] This is just the best caliber of people you can find anywhere. 04:01.451 --> 04:03.829 - [Man 2] This is a brotherhood, a sisterhood, 04:03.829 --> 04:05.409 of likeminded individuals. 04:05.409 --> 04:08.172 - [Larontaye Spates] When you're getting hounded, beat physically, 04:08.172 --> 04:09.928 and you're going through this immense amount of stress, 04:09.928 --> 04:12.015 you have no choice to but to be close to the ones next to you 04:12.015 --> 04:15.126 because that's the only way you will get through the next step. 04:15.389 --> 04:17.266 - [Announcer] Twenty-three weeks ago, 04:17.266 --> 04:18.861 the members that you see before you 04:18.861 --> 04:21.145 set out to become basic and advanced 04:21.145 --> 04:23.330 underwater construction technicians. 04:23.330 --> 04:24.974 - [Man 2] So this is a huge milestone in their life 04:24.974 --> 04:26.873 as well as their career. 04:26.873 --> 04:28.921 They earned the right to call themselves 04:28.921 --> 04:30.445 a Navy diver. 04:31.951 --> 04:33.521 - [Spates] So if everything goes as planned, I would hope to 04:33.521 --> 04:35.242 do this job for 20 years. 04:35.242 --> 04:37.614 That's how much I wanna do this job. 04:39.065 --> 04:41.685 - [Mendez] My whole entire dream is just to be on a job site, 04:42.373 --> 04:44.111 knuckles dragging, God willing, 04:44.111 --> 04:46.699 wrenching underneath water with a couple good guys by my side 04:46.699 --> 04:49.055 and doing the job that I love for the country that I love. 04:49.055 --> 04:52.150 This is like my piece of American pie that I'm chasing after, 04:52.150 --> 04:54.054 you know what I mean? This is my American dream. 04:54.054 --> 04:56.473 Being from like almost homeless to diving, 04:56.473 --> 04:57.925 it's really a blessing to be here. 04:57.925 --> 05:00.290 (exciting music)