If this rings a bell for readers, it’s
because two years ago DIVER ran a story about the team’s training. Back then, 40 men (no women applied) had enrolled for the rigorous program. In the end, just nine qualified. The recovery of the live Mark 82
bomb in May marked the team’s first underwater mission: raising UXO from the riverbed, bringing it to shore and making it safe. It’s a job that requires a cool head
and a certain blend of skills says Mike Nisi, a former U.S. Navy diver and, since early 2015, the team’s lead trainer.
Qualified and Calm The purpose of the lengthy and demanding course is to ensure the divers can be relied upon to stay calm when things go wrong. Three in four trainees dropped out during the two-year program – the initial physical fitness and swimming tests eliminated some; others weren’t able to deal with being submerged. “And in the final weeding
out process, you also look at personalities and who’s going to work well together,” says Nisi. “Even if all 40 were great, we couldn’t take all 40 off the bat – so you find the guys that work the best together and
Top: Challenging conditions train team members to “just deal
with it.” Above:
Working together as a team is an integral part of training
you get them together and then you talk about it and then you get your top nine. That’s how we did it.” While there are plenty of
similarities between recovering UXO at sea and in rivers, he explains, there are important differences, too. The zero visibility of the silt-heavy
Mekong River meant candidates trained with blacked out dive masks, working blind to identify and secure dummy ordnance in swimming pools and in the ocean. “These divers were already accustomed to not seeing anything when they dove, so in real black out conditions they’re very calm,” says
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