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KEY WEST, Fla. - We waded on the surface, raised our hands out of
the water and made a hand gesture in the form of a peace sign,
signaling to the dive supervisor that we were ready to descend.
Utilitiesman 2nd Class Erick Martin, Hospital Corpsman 1st Class
Virgil Newton, whom everyone referred to as “Doc Newton,” and I were
scuba diving on a wreck 100 feet below the surface of the Gulf of
Mexico. The wreck was home to about half a dozen barracuda, a few
sharks and schools of other marine life.
As a mass
communication specialist and crew's photojournalist, it was my job
to take as many underwater photos as possible. It was the ideal job,
on an ideal day. I was not prepared for the less than ideal
situation that was about to take place.
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January 13, 2015 - Seabee diver performs a front-step water entry during diver training aboard USAV Matamoros (LCU-2026). Diver training is a two-week, joint training evolution between Underwater Construction Team One (UCT ONE) and Underwater Construction Team Two (UCT TWO) designed to reinforce standard operating procedures, qualify personnel, maintain proficiency, and evaluate dive protocol during scuba, surface supplied and recompression chamber operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nicholas S. Tenorio)
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After we surfaced, we muscled ourselves and our scuba
rigs out of the water onto the deck of the rigid-hulled
inflatable boat. It was crowded with a handful of divers
from Underwater Construction Team One 1, and Underwater
Construction Team Two 2, along with scuba bottles and other
miscellaneous dive gear.
“Ha ha, I swear if my boots
don't get wet everyday of this trip, I'm going to freak out.
Having wet boots is the best,” chuckled Engineering Aide 2nd
Class Garrett Snyder, with a genuine ear-to-ear smile that
turned his eyes to slits.
Snyder was known for taking
a lighthearted approach to nearly every situation and
possessing a laugh that could be heard clearly over the roar
of air-compressors and heavy machinery.
I only saw
that smile disappear for about an hour during that eight-day
trip in the Florida Keys. It happened shortly after we
surfaced from the wreck, when Doc Newton said, “Agh, Sup,
[the team's nickname for Snyder, typically used when
referring to the supervisor on diving operations like this
one.] Can I jump back in the water? I think I got hit by a
jelly,” he said, tugging and pulling at the collar of his
wetsuit.
“Negative,” replied Snyder, his positive
demeanor switching to stern and concerned. “Get out of that
wetsuit, and let me take a look.”
Doc winced as he
pulled off his wetsuit. His throat was red and irritated
from where he had been scratching at it. Doc Newton, who
stood about 6 feet 4 inches and weighed a muscle-bound 240
pounds, was the only corpsman on our RHIB.
“Ok,
camera-guy, get me some water,” Snyder said, in a way that
made me want to comply with his request as quickly as
possible and left me scrambling to produce the first bottle
of water I could find.
“Agh, that didn't help that
just moved it!” Doc shouted after the water touched his
skin, recoiling and scratching at his ribs, which were now
also red and irritated.
“Ok, boat-driver - get us
back to the LCU [Landing Craft Utility Boat]. Radio-man -
let them know we have a possible diving casualty,” ordered
Snyder, the words spewing from his mouth like a belt-fed
machine gun.
The main platform we were operating
from, the USAV Matamoros (LCU-2026), was outfitted with
recompression chambers, and a host of equipment geared
toward performing surface supplied and scuba diving
operations. It also had other corpsman, a diving medical
officer, and the medical equipment required to aid our now
incapacitated Doc Newton.
The boat-driver shouted, “Comin'
up!” and threw the RHIB into full speed, which bounced like
a skipping-stone off of the choppy seas.
“Doc, lay
down - and someone get me the O2 and the med-kit,” said
Snyder.
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January 14, 2015 - Engineering Aide 2nd Class Garrett Snyder, assigned to Underwater Construction Team One (UCT ONE), tends to an incapacitated Chief Engineering Aide Christopher Munch, assigned to Underwater Construction Team One (UCT ONE), as part of an injured diver scenario drill during diver training aboard USAV Matamoros (LCU-2026). Diver training is a two-week, joint training evolution between UCT ONE and Underwater Construction Team Two designed to reinforce standard operating procedures, qualify personnel, maintain proficiency, and evaluate dive protocol during scuba, surface supplied and recompression chamber operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Tyler N. Thompson)
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Builder 2nd Class Nate Emmett grabbed the
kit, handed me a brown bag and opened up the black case.
“Toss that bag to Sup,” he said as he started passing me
items from the black case. He handed me a plastic,
hospital-grade oxygen mask, a rubber hand pump (like one
would see in a hospital drama show just as the patient were
being rolled in to the E.R.) and a green oxygen bottle.
“Where is the Epi-Pen?” shouted Snyder, over the sound
of the twin engines, wind, and seas.
“No, Epi-pen
Sup!” replied Emmett.
“Jeez, it burns!,” Doc said,
gritting his teeth as he balled his hands into two
white-knuckled fists.
It was roughly 20 minutes
before we reached the LCU. It took two Seabee divers to get
Doc Newton out of the RHIB and onto the deck of the ship.
They were a few feet from the recompression chamber when
the large Doc Newton slumped to his knees and crumpled onto
the sun-baked deck like a house of cards.
“Camera-guy, bring me the stretcher now!” Snyder yelled.
I hustled over to the RHIB, snatched the orange
stretcher, and scurried back to Doc Newton, who was now
gasping for every breath with his eyes closed.
“Uh
oh,” I thought to myself, clutching the stretcher. “How, am
I going to get this guy who outweighs me by about 90 pounds,
and towers over me by nearly half a foot, onto this
stretcher. This guy's going to die.”
I froze.
“No! Don't hand it to me! Put it down and get him on it
now!” Snyder screamed at me like a drill sergeant addressing
a new recruit, immediately snapping me out of the daze.
Four men, myself included, kneeled down beside Doc
Newton. I'm not sure if it was the adrenaline, but the big
Corpsman suddenly became easy to roll onto that stretcher.
“His airway is obstructed, and his breathing is
labored,” shouted one of the Seabees, Doc now gargling with
every inhalation.
“He's going into anaphylactic
shock. Martin, grab the trach-kit and the j-tube, we may
have to cut him,” said Snyder, referring to a procedure
called a tracheotomy, which involves creating an incision
and opening a hole on the throat above the vocal chords. The
resulting hole, or stoma, allows for the insertion of a
sterile tube that acts as an alternative airway.
“The
[ambulance] is here!” someone shouted.
“Ok, get him
off the ship and into the ambulance!” screamed Snyder.
“On three,” someone said. “One... Two... Three... Lift!”
“And, end of drill!” shouted the Master Diver,
overseeing the scenario.
Snyder let out a huge exhale
of relief and chuckled as his signature grin returned to his
face, “Jeez, that was a nightmare!”
Doc Newton calmly
unbuckled himself, stood up. “Okay guys, not a bad run,” he
said. “Now here's what we could have done better.”
He
then articulated finer points of the medical procedures that
could have been employed, and spoke about the positive and
negative aspects of the scenario.
Throughout the
week, more divers would surface with arterial gas embolism,
tension pneumothorax, alternobaric vertigo, and a host of
other simulated, diving related injuries all aimed at
putting the Seabee divers through stressful scenarios in
which they would be expected to perform with a high level of
proficiency.
“We're here to break a few eggs, and
make a few omelets, said Master Chief Constructionman
Michael “Shane” Jenkins, command master chief of UCT 1.
“We're here to make mistakes so we don't make them when it
counts.”
The two-week training evolution between UCT
1 and UCT 2 was designed to reinforce standard operating
procedures, qualify personnel, maintain proficiency, and
evaluate dive protocol during scuba, surface supplied and
recompression chamber operations. Nearly every diver present
was put into to dive supervisor role, many of whom had never
worked with or met one another.
“We do this training
in a joint setting, to ensure that all of our divers are
working together and that the policies of UCT 1 and UCT 2
align with one another,” said Lt. Thomas Hallam, executive
officer, UCT 1. “These divers are really putting their lives
in the hands of the dive supervisor. They are responsible
for the divers going down, accomplishing the mission, coming
back up and being able to go home at the end of the day. We
put them under pressure to ensure that can be accomplished
no matter the scenario.”
“What I've noticed from this
team is cohesion,” said Capt. John Adametz, commander of
Naval Construction Group Two. “When you think about what
makes a successful team, it comes down to guys looking out
for one another and wanting each other to succeed. They're
not about individuals - they're about the team and the
mission.”
This sentiment was echoed later when Snyder
approached me, smiling his signature smile, to apologize for
yelling during the scenario. He told me he felt bad about
it; that the training puts a lot of pressure on the
supervisor and that it is easy to forget it isn't real.
But his apology wasn't necessary. It's comforting to
know that if I was suffocating from anaphylactic shock –
whether real, or just a scenario – A trained Seabee Diver,
like Snyder, would be ready to drop that smile, jump into
action and yell like crazy at a camera man to save my life.
By U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler Thompson
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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