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The Roat Deal
Each month John Roat will furnish this page with a new column. Feel free to email him with your questions,
comments, or accusations. This guy's the real deal and he definitely has his very own groove.

Born 11/16/42. I am currently a working diver, surface air/gas and a saturation supervisor. I was a member of Underwater Demolition Teams 21, UDT 11 and SEAL Team 1. I went to work for Taylor Diving and Salvage the end of 1969 as a tender and broke out at Taylor Diving in 1970. I have also worked for Sub Sea, Comex, J. Ray McDermott, Tennessee Valley Authority, Global, Martech, Offshore Petroleum Divers, Cal Dive and too many small companies, some of them very good, to name. Taught rigging, open tanks, harbor and burning for one year at the College of Oceaneering. I authored “Oxy-Arc Underwater Burning Class”, a 90-minute training video and manual, for Oceans Technology.

If I were evaluating myself in this business it would be: good divers, that will leave the next diver well, burn with the best of them. I am proudest of having never bent or injured a diver. I have been running dive’s from 1969, when the tender did the job. I have been supervising since 1977.

I do believe there are more then one good way to do things.
The following are a couple of my opinions, let me know what you think:

Tools
The following are a couple of tools I use underwater and of course some of my opinion on how to work. So let us know some of the tools you use and what you think about how work should be done.

I call this my Crescent Hammer . It’s made with a 15” Crescent wrench, a hammer head from a rig axe and a drift pin. When it’s all welded together, I flatten out the end of the drift pin and grind an edge on it for scraping. It’s not the best wrench, hammer, drift pin or scraper but it’s a good all purpose tool.

I never tie myself off in heavy current but I will use a Sky Hook to hang my hose. I use a   welding rod and ¼” rope, see below. As a rule of thumb I don’t use a Welding rod I can’t bend by hand. If it’s necessary for my tender or bellman to get up on me quick, the Ski Hook ( bent welding rod ), will straighten out and slip my hose

If you have not used one here is how it works. You’re on the work location with a heavy current. Tie off the Ski Hook where you want to hang your hose. You have your tender pull the slack out of the belly in the hose, until he starts pulling you off bottom. Give him an all stop and have him slack off the amount you want at the work site. Pull the amount of slack you’ve asked for to you and slip the bail off the hook between the dive line and safety line. You now have current pulling on the Ski Hook and not you while you work.

Top Divers
Over the years I have worked with many, what I call, Top Divers. They may rig a clamp different from each other or have their personal gear set up in different manners, but they all had a few things in common.

1)    They never lied about their work.
2)    They left the next diver well. What I mean by this is the work site was cleaned up before they left bottom.
        Tools where the next diver could find them, excess line cleared, the work site ready for you to go to work.
3)    They took pride in being able to get work done where most people won’t even go.

Just one more thing I would like all of us to think on
There are people who do not belong underwater. They can be smart hard working people but as soon as their head gets below the surface, things start going wrong. We that supervise or manage diving companies have an obligation to do the right thing and tell them to find another line of work. It may save someone’s life, avoid a lawsuit and it is just plainly the right thing to do.

What do you think?

click here to email Roat

Sincerely,
John Carl Roat

I will do my best to answer any response to the things I say. That is, if you put your name and e-mail address with it. If there is no name and e-mail address, I won’t post your e-mail and I won’t respond. If you just want to let everyone know how you fell about what I say, without putting your name on it, post it on the discussion board.

John's previous columns are archived here:

Roat 1

John has also authored a book on his experiences in SEAL training.
Click on the cover image to read reviews and order the book .

Real Deal SEAL Team website: <http://sealstrike.com