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The patterns stand out dramatically on the ice as long

as it’s a sunny day.

As part of its training agreement with the Navy, the

Coast Guard assigns six full-time trainers to NDSTC.

Another seven work at the “dunker” at the Rescue

Swimmer school in Elizabeth City, N.C. Dunkers are

mock-ups of helicopter or small-boat interiors that

drop and capsize in a pool (often in simulated darkness

and storm waves) to train aviators and sailors to escape

from a water crash.

Other interesting jobs done by Coast Guard divers

include habitat surveys of endangered sea grasses and

corals off Florida to see if

navigation buoys need to be

moved and post-Hurricane

Sandy underwater inspections

of newly created hazards

to navigation. Poststorm

assessments such as that, along

with oil and chemical spills,

have gotten program managers

focused on developing

contaminated-water diving

capability for the lockers.

Back in Alameda, Pearsall

complains to Geri Cabrera and

the others, “This gray muck

really clouds up,” as he scrapes

the mud off his dive boots,

which he used to walk across

the not really contaminated

but certainly not pristine

bottom of Alameda Bay.

One of only two women in

the program, Cabrera, who

grew up in Guam, is a pretty

typical Coast Guard diver. “In

2007 I was asked, ‘Can you do

pull-ups?’ ‘Yeah, I can do pull-

ups,’ I said; I guess that’s the

issue they had with women,”

Cabrera says. “So I qualified and began diving with

MSST Honolulu while also driving a 25-foot tactical

boat because diving was still collateral duty. Later I

dived the Pacific off the buoy tender

Sequoia

and then

came to San Diego before moving on to Operation Deep

Freeze [aboard the Coast Guard icebreaker

Polar Star

]

for five months to McMurdo Station. So I’ve dived on

untouched corals in the Pacific and in cold Antarctic

waters. I have had the best of both worlds while getting

to help people. I’d say my career’s been blessed.”

Now the recreational diving community stands to

benefit from the Coast Guard’s growing interest in

diving. Since the Coast Guard investigates all maritime

accidents, the dive program recently wrote a guide to

help nondiving investigators better understand the

factors that contribute to diver injuries and fatalities.

Having themselves emerged out of a deadly incident,

the dive lockers are seriously committed to putting

safety first while also living their service’s motto:

Semper paratus

— Always ready.

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DV1 Geri Cabrera and Chief Petty Officer Lucas Spencer

monitor a diver using the XLDS.

Opposite:

MK1 Michael Pearsall enters the water for

a training dive in Alameda, Calif., using the extreme

lightweight diving system (XLDS).

DAVID HELVARG