Jordan and the missing dead.

I had been a Special Response Diver for only 4 weeks. I was about to move into my 3rd phase of training at the International Alert Academy. I had chosen to go into Aquatic Operations as my specialty and it was the Friday before we were to start. We had just finished our end-of-ERT training ceremony and promotions and were ready to kick it back for the weekend, when the training officer over Aquatics, came up to those of us that would be going into his unit and said, "Pack your bags boys, we leave in the morning. We're getting deployed to help with a body search that's part of a murder investigation."

After myself and the other guys had a mild heart attack from excitement, we tried to act cool and put on faces that said whatever, it's just another day in the office. But who were we kidding?! This was the ultimate call out! We would be putting all that training to the test!

All through our training in Miami, we had found cars that were either stolen or insurance fraud. But this was huge! We were heading to Lubbock, Texas to assist the local Sheriff there. The whole trip out there, we thought about what our Instructor had taught us about searching for a drowned person or murder victim. "You never find a body. Bodies find you." Cool as cucumbers. Ok, maybe cucumbers in a microwave.


We showed up to a very warm welcome from the requesting agency, who was just happy to have body's there for this work. As we pulled up to the marina that was the staging area, we noticed a few other divers that would be coming out with us. We were told that these were Public Safety Divers who had been diving for many years. Great. Our first public performance, and now we have to deal with the pressure of impressing these veterans with all the stuff we think we know.

Our team of greenhorns quickly learned a valuable lesson. Don't be intimidated because of titles. Let me explain what gave us this revelation.
First let me explain these two men that were gearing up with us. One guy was 6'2" and probably weighed about 350 pounds. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. While putting on his wetsuit, through his grunts and groans, and winded banter, was telling us about how his wetsuit was custom made because he was so big. It cost him over $600 for this thing, and was a wonderfully bright yellow and red with purple accents. He was so proud! He needed almost 40 pounds on his weight belt!
His partner was next to him putting on the most complicated looking harness I've ever seen. One of my teammates asked him why he had so many knives and shears. He proudly answered that they never get in the water without a minimum of 5 cutting tools. You know...in case you drop the first 4 trying to cut your way out of the giant fishing line factory you plan on swimming into down there.
So as these two gentlemen were putting on their rescue helmets (again, not joking) we boarded the boat and set off to search.

The lake we were searching was not really deep in the search areas. Sometimes it was only 2-4 feet deep, but it still had to be searched. Where this lake lacked in depth, it made up for in vegetative growth. A lot of saw grass and decomposing saw grass root balls were along the bottom in our search areas.
You may be asking yourself right now why this is important. To most experienced Public Safety Divers it's not really important; however to a straight up newbie it is. You see, the visibility was about 8 inches, and every time my hand touched one of these decomposing root balls my thought process would go something
like this...

*Hand touches slimy root ball and inhales regulator down esophagus*
"Ahhh I found a body!"
*Realizes it's just a root ball*
"Woohoo! It's not a dead body!"
*While pulling out regulator from esophagus comes to realization*
"Crap. Now I have to keep searching."

And repeat.

So for two days this went on. We did not locate the victim, but we did recover a shotgun that was used in a different homicide. To say the least we learned a lot! Our first call out taught us some things that only the real world of public safety diving could teach us.

1st - We learned that just because they have a bunch of cool toys and expensive wetsuits, does not mean they are good divers. Their methods and equipment prevented them from searching effectively and efficiently. Don't feel like you have to impress anyone. Just do your job and let others decide by your actions if you're good enough.

2nd - Just because you did not locate a body or a gun does not mean you failed. Remember, there are only two answers... I located the object, or, the object was not in the search area. It takes a team to cover the area we covered in those two days. And as a team we accomplished our mission.

3rd - You can still breathe out of your regulator even if it's down your esophagus! I would not have believed it unless I had experienced it so many times. I wonder if there is a specialty card for that...



Search negatively my friends!

A Gentle Reminder. Gentle Like A Belly-Flop.

Last time I checked, you can not inhale water. Actually you can; but in doing so there have been reported many health risks. One of those risks is death. I'm not joking. People actually die from drowning! And you know what's even more amazing? Public Safety Divers still do it! Even understanding there is a risk of dying, they still try to inhale that H2O. Why?!

Apparently no one told them that it's no bueno. (Free Spanish lesson. You're welcome.) If someone had, then maybe they might have been more careful. They might have had a different outcome. But where can one learn this kind of wisdom? Where can you go to understand what not to do?

It's really not a question of where you can go, but who you can go to. The who you learn from is more important than where you learn. There are a lot of places you can go and learn advanced/specialty diving. Almost every sport diving agency has some kind of Search & Recovery certification. And if you are an advanced open water instructor with your agency, you're all good to teach it. But has that instructor ever actually done it? Have they been down and located what was missing and brought it back? I'm not talking about a weight belt that fell off the boat in the ocean; I'm talking about zero visibility water looking for a gun that's been pulled apart and tossed in piece by piece with every news station for 50 miles watching your every move. How would that instructor perform
then?

Sadly this is happening. Police and fire departments across the country are finding and hiring sport diving instructors to train their people in something the instructor has no experience in, or business teaching. They are learning in clear water and comfortable conditions. If it's raining they go home. Somehow this seems acceptable. Amazing.

Let me ask you a question. Why would you train anywhere other than where you would be performing the job? Pools are really nice; in fact I was in a pool last night. But I was teaching open water newbies, NOT people that need to be bringing their A-game at the worst times in the worst conditions! We need to get away from this mentality of trusting an instructor because they have a card that says they can teach a class. Take the time to interview someone who is going to train your department. Ask them what their experience is. I don't care how many people you have taught, I want to know how long you have been doing recoveries and what kind of cases you have worked on. Tell me stories and some of your mistakes you have made.
Tell me why you teach what you teach! Are you doing this because it's a good gig and the money is good, or are you doing this because you want to bring the very best training to those that serve our community's? It is OK to ask these questions! If someone is going to get all defensive because you are challenging there credibility, then something is wrong.

So to sum this whole thing up in two words...be annoying. Ask questions, do your research, and don't condemn you and your team to failing before the class even starts. Write down what you want to accomplish, and every question you can think of before you interview a potential instructor. Then get at it!

Search negatively my friends!

That water is deep...almost as deep as those misconceptions.

One of my favorite times on scene during a recovery is when people start asking questions. It's not always from bystanders either. It can be from police officers or firefighters, or sometimes the poor kid who "just forgot to put it in park before I got out to tie down the jet ski, and that's why my truck, trailer, and jet ski are underwater." Whoever it is, their questions tend to be the same.

Most people don't grow up around the beautiful waters of the Caribbean. They grow up swimming in the nearby lake or mud hole like I did. There was no way you were going to see the bottom until your face hit it. And if you can't see the bottom, it must be bottomless! This reasoning alone is why we will always need Police and Public Safety Divers. People believe that water somehow swallows whatever gets thrown in. Gun, car, body, favorite pair of glasses, it don't matter. It's lost and gone forever. They believe a lot of things that are not true when it comes to water. You think I'm kidding?

These are the top five questions I get while on scene during a recovery, and how I usually answer them.

1. Question Asker: You're gonna go dive in that water?
    Me: Yes.
    Question Asker: But it's disgusting!
    Me: It helps build your immune system.

2. QA: How deep is it?
    Me: How deep do you think?
    QA: Like...*wrong number* feet. (It's never close. They will always go 10-20 feet deeper than what it is).
    Me: No it's only *correct depth* feet.

3. QA: Are you afraid of gators? (I live in South Florida)
    Me: No.
    QA: Why not? You know I've seen one in here!
    Me: Oh yeah? Well maybe we will get lucky and get to pet him!
    QA: No way man! You're crazy!
 
4. QA: How can you see?
    Me: With my eyes.
    QA: But that water is nasty!
    Me: I have magic eyes.

5. QA: What are you looking for?
    Me: Pirate gold!
    QA: No, really?
    Me: No, really. Pirate gold.

You can probably tell I like to have fun with it. Some questions you can do that with and some you can't. But you will always have the opportunity to teach them something. I have been on recoveries where I spend more time explaining how we do what we do to the police or fire personnel than actually doing the recovery. They just don't know what's really in that murky abyss. That's a great time to build relationships and trust. Some department dive teams want to be this secretive group that does their thing and clears scene. Don't be that group. You can do more for your team's reputation by teaching others about what you do than you realize.

Part of the training for my team is how to deal with questions. We go over scenarios on questions that might get asked and how to properly handle them. They know what can be answered and what needs to get kicked up the chain of command. This is something that I would encourage you to do with your team. Because there is nothing more embarrassing than your divers not even knowing how deep the water is.