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When the Dive Team c*ose^| the elements essential for a success
dive program were lost—career
,ed
There is no point in depending
cap3'
Coast Guard responsibilities when ^
Dive Team.
Coast Guard divers do it better . . .
Since closing the National Strike Force Dive Team in October 1986, the U. S. Coast Guard has become the only sea service in the Free World without a professional diving program. The idea was that civilian contractors could do the dive team’s work less expensively than the Coast Guard. But the civilians have been unable to perform some of the diving work the Coast Guard needs done, and they are not meeting strict standards for safe diving operations.
Coast Guard divers have been a dynamic resource when the nation needed them. When the USCGC Cuyahoga (WSC-157) and then the USCGC Blackthorn (WAGL-391) sank, the first divers on-scene were Coast Guard.
They were the first to enter the ships and were an integral part of both salvage operations. They also were the first military divers to respond when an Air Florida jet crashed into a bridge over the Potomac River in Wahington,
D.C. Coast Guard divers assisted in the search-and-recovery operations after the space shuttle Challenger exploded. And Coast Guard divers have supported operations in aids to navigation, ship repair, law enforcement, search and rescue, environmental protection, military readiness, and aircraft recovery. These divers even have installed and repaired submarine cables and emplaced and recovered mines.
The civilian dive companies the Coast Guard is contracting with cannot do much of this work, especially the jobs in military readiness, aircraft salvage, search and rescue, and law enforcement. Moreover, the reason the companies work cheaply is that the Coast Guard is not requiring them to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations governing manning, equipment, and safety procedures for diving operations. The Coast Guard Dive Team, on the other hand, complied with U. S. Navy diving regulations, which are stricter than those of OSHA.
Many Coast Guard units are now ^ using their enlisted personnel who ar recreational SCUBA divers to perfor underwater work. This practice con flicts with Commandant Instruction
M10560.4, “Coast Guard Diving P01' icy and Procedures.” It is like usin<r Coast Guard personnel with civilian flight training to fly Coast Guard ai craft on Coast Guard missions.
The National Strike Force Dive Team represented 30% of the duty 1 volving diving billets in the Coast^ Guard.
growth, advanced training, incieas1 responsibility, and pride in one s s marginal civilian resources to supp1 ble Coast Guard divers are traine I ready to do the job. The service s , rethink the concept of the Coast
Lieutenant Carr served eight years of diving with the Coast Guard.'
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