Archive for ‘Aquatics’

This past week unit 43 went through the NAPD, SRD, (Search & Recovery Diving), training. They started in canals on Monday and practiced all the different search patterns along with actual training in an low visibility to no visibility environment.

It was great to see them all improve each day as they get more used to the public safety side apposed to the sport diving side. they all enjoyed it and progressed more and more each day. At the end of the week they had a chance to put their skills to the test and do a search for vehicles. They searched 2, lakes with a depth of 60′ and visibility of about 25′. found 2 vehicles 1 had been reported stolen in 2008.

The past week the aquatics dive masters and past aquatic graduates, (the dive instructors), taught Unit 43′s ERT open water and advanced open water SCUBA training. The week started Sunday night with class, the day we arrived, to the next morning they were in the water and doing the skills.

With a class of 25 students and 7 Dive master/Instructors the week went well and everyone adapted quickly from class room teaching to in water practicals. each day the students would dive twice to get the appropriate amount of time underwater to be able to be certified.

they all did extremely well with only a couple problem students the dive masters worked fast and quickly taught all the appropriate skills for open and advanced SCUBA, including underwater navigation, night diving and deep diving. the students all excelled each day to meet all the required skills. In hopes of making the required certifications to make it to a public safety diver this next week through NAPD.

The Aquatic Dive masters had the chance to participate in the first NASE Instructor conference at the NASE Worldwide head quarters starting Jul 30. We arrived in Ocala, FL on Thursday the 28, the following morning were treated to a tour of there facilities and were invited to dive in their narrow but deep blue hole. The visibility in the water was close to 50′ vertical and 72′ horizontal the water a dark blue color and a great diving experience.

The instructor conference was all day Saturday the 30th and half day Sunday the 1st. During the conference they addressed the changes of NASE under its new management. We all had a wonderful time despite the extremely long drive.

This past week was lift specialist taught through NAPD (National Academy of Police Diving) The class went well and they all passed there skills demonstration test. We practiced boat recoveries, car recoveries, and moving and positioning of underwater pipe lines.

The boat was lifted in two stages, one just to get it close to the surface and off the bottom and the second to get the sides out of the water so we could start to bail water out of the boat so it would be independent of the lift bags.

This Pontoon contained all the gear needed to make a safe controlled lift of any vehicle, small boat, small aircraft, or anything needing to be lifted. It was easy to move and the swim to get more gear short and fast. plus we could lift it wile standing right next to the object, and keep an eye on the lifting process.

On Sunday July 18th The ALERT Dive team was called out to a search for a drowning victim. When we arrived we met up the the game wardens who were over seeing the search. The boat they had on scene could only take one diver. Colin Price was sent out with a crew of two game wardens, Colin when down on the lines they had dropped on high probable areas (about 5 or 6) and searched just around the buoy, and got information on, the temperature, bottom composition, and visibility. Finding nothing waited until a second boat was brought on scene and the rest of the team, Mark Sowash, Josh Thomson, and Joel Talley, loaded all there gear and went out to assist him. When they arrived, they imitatively dropped down and began to search the areas. After covering approximately 1,884 square feet, and had yet to come up with a body, we waited for the first boat that was equipped with side scan to search for more high probable areas. After covering an area equivalent to four football fields or 180,000 square feet, dusk was long over. calling off the search for then night. We are confident that the victim was not in the area covered by our divers.
Some might say that we failed, or did not succeed, but that is not how search and recovery is conducted, we did our job to the best of our abilities and we knew exactly were he was not.

Agency’s involved: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department , Whitehouse FD, Smith County Sheriff’s Office.

We are glad to report that they did find the victim later the next day.

Aquatics 2 has started off good. starting June 28th we had several classes on campus. the first week was dive experience, and following week was equipment specialist run by NAPD (National Acadamy of Police Diving)

This past week July 12th through the 16th we had Marina Diver held in Louisiana. We road tripped down Monday morning and started class that night. The following day we went out the Lake Pontchartrain to the 24 Mile long bridge and did pile-on inspections.

We each inspected several Pile-ons to get a handle on what the work is like.

We clean a fishing boat, a pontoon, and a yacht. All in bad shape and had not been kept up, so the work was longer then usual.

They all did well and all passed there practical skills with flying colors.

The end of equipment specialist we had an opportunity to take out out the hurricane, our rescue boat, a ridged hull inflatable swift water rescue, small coast guard boarding craft. we practiced maneuvering with limited room, insertion and extraction from hazardous areas, quick deployment of divers, and controlled turns at high speeds.

On May 13th 2010, the Gilmer Police Dept, Called the ALERT Dive Team to search for a Stolen safe.

The ALERT Dive Team arrived on scene Friday morning at 930 and began to search. Because of zero visibility and shallow depths the search was difficult and longer than expected. Another factor that slowed the search was the amount of garbage found in the river.

Items found were, one computer screen, a car bumper, two motor cycle exhaust pipes, a weed eater, four news paper machines, a candy machine, two fishing pols, a washer, an oven, a refrigerator, a dolly, two safes, a safe door, a machete, and two rifles.

Neither of the safes were reported stolen and the guns, including one .22 caliber and one 12 gauge shot gun, both came back clean when there VIN numbers were ran on the sheriffs and police’s data base.

The reported Safe was never found,

Divers on scene, Mark Sowash, Collin Price, Collier McGhee, Brandon Sprunger, Benjamin Stoner, and Micah Justice. Tenders, Jedediah Backus and Caleb Hard. Dive Team Coordinator, Capt. Joel Talley. Assistant Coordinator, Casey Zachry. Photographer, Josh Thomson.

Other agency’s involved, Gilmer Police department, Gladewater Police Department, Cass County Sheriff’s Office.

We had a great training session with ERT Unit 42. Including Openwater, Advanced Openwater through NASE (National Academy of Scuba Educators), and Special Response Diving through the NAPD (National Academy of Police Diving).

On November 08, 2009, Steve Dankers and members of the ALERT dive team recovered the body of motorcyclist Antwain Chism from Little Cypress Creek north of Hallsville, Texas. Chism’s motorcycle was recovered from the river at 10:30 pm and his body at 11:10 pm.

ALERT was informed that a young man rode his motorcycle off the road into the swift moving water of the swollen Little Cypress Creek and drowned. The Marion County Dive Team had been called but the area was large and they requested help. Steve Dankers suggested the help of Longview Fire Department Dive Team and they also responded.

Marion County Dive Team located the motorcycle before ALERT and Longview F.D. arrived. Due to the cold water and dangerous conditions divers were limited in the amount of time they could search. ALERT and Longview Divers arrived on the scene at 6:50 pm and began the five hour task of locating the victim among all the debris clogging the river bottom. Despite the cold and hazardous conditions, diver’s covered approximately 15,000 square feet in low visibility water with a 0.7-knot current.

ALERT responded to the call from Harrison County Game Warden Javier Quintez and his partner Darren Peeples. They heard about ALERT from Upshur County Game Warden David Pellizzari. The International ALERT Academy appreciates the opportunity to serve their community with emergency service skills.

Click here to view the CBS19 News Report

ALERT dive team members who responded to this incident: Steve Dankers, Joel Talley, Cliff Patrick, Jedediah Backus, Gabriel Flores, Micah Justice, and Trevor Thiel.

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