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.
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Inventer of the circle...
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:

I’m going to deviate just a little from Diving.  Well let’s say I’m going to try and make some points on politics by asking a diving related question?  Many do not believe it, but we are in a War for our survival, so I think this election is important.  There are people out there that want to “Break Your Things and Kill You and Yours”.  The only people they want left will pray to God in their way.  They believe that GOD will welcome them to Heaven and give them Seven Virgins, for blowing themselves up and killing as many of us as possible.  Old people, women, children, babies, to them it doesn’t matter. 

Think about the President we’re going to elect as your Diving Supervisor. If you want a Supervisor that goes around asking everyone if they think it is too rough to dive, then vote for the guy that thinks we need the UN, French, Germans and Russians to co-sign that we have rough weather.

Any good Dive Supervisor makes that call himself, he will listen to other people, but he makes the call.  When you have a dive Supervisor that doesn’t have balls to make a tough call without everyone co-signing it, you have someone that will cut and run, when things go bad.  Not the kind of man I want in charge while I’m in the water and bad things happen.  We have a guy right now that isn’t afraid to make the tough call. He has decided to fight as many of them as possible on their home ground not ours. I like it!

Sorry I’ve been so slow on this one but I have been heavily involved in getting our new Dive Tables fact checked, published and out.  I’m happy to say its done and so far no complaints.
 

The Diver in the picture is a Navy Stand-by Diver, ready to go.  The picture is not at school, it is on a salvage job, that’s the way they Stand-by. How many of you stand by in the winter and on deep Air or Surface Gas jobs with no rubber on? I received quite a few, dirty looks from divers on my shift last winter, because they had to Stand-by with at least a top on.  Now I promise you, if they were Stand-by Dive on the other shift, most of them wore no rubber.  The shame of the whole thing is that it has been going on as long as I’ve been here, 1969.  No one thinks a cold diver will do a better job rescuing another diver, they just couldn’t be bothered. It’s too much trouble to do it right. Hell 99% of the time no problem anyway, why be ready?  Look at that picture again and think about this.  If we leave it up to others, to make us do the right thing, we will be standing by just like the Navy.

What I would love to see is, in every contract that is written, at a least 1 Recover an Injured Diver Drill, on each job.  How many of you have done even one since you got in the business. We do a lot of Fire and Abandon Ship/Structure Drills. Doesn’t it make you feel all warm and fuzzy that no one seems to give a kaka how they are going recover you when you’re injured? 

Now here are some good thoughts from The Miller Man for you.
The Stand-by Clip
From the Miller Man - Matt Knowlson
EMT/DMT since 1994

I am writing this letter to try and put a little emphasis on being a stand-by diver and telling you about a device I call the Stand-by Clip that might come in handy one day for you. First I will talk about the clip and then I will say a few things about stand-by diving. The clip’s cost is right around $20.00 so it won’t break your bank and I will try to explain why you need one.

First the clip is made of (1) #3 brass swivel clip, (1) large snap shackle, and some 50/50 Para-cord. Braid the #3 clip and the snap shackle, one on each end of about 10” of the 50/50 cord. I like 50/50 cord because it is small and can hold 500lbs on each strand, but you can use a number of different kinds of rope. You want the rope just long enough that the #3 clip will hang right around crotch level with the snap shackle end clipped onto your side D-ring of your stand-by harness. If you have an unconscious diver you can clip the #3 into his back D-ring and his hat will come up to about hip level leaving you plenty of arm room for maneuvering. It also leaves all the strain on the clip rope and not on the pneumo hose that is trying to stay in his neck-dam. The big bonus is that you now have two hands free for climbing your way out of a platform or un-fouling his hose to get both of you free to the surface. You might think that the tenders are going to come up on the hose slack so why do I need both hands free. Try crossing a crossover line with one hand holding the diver and the other just inching along toward the bell, trying to keep the pneumo hose in his hat. Then you find yourself about ten feet below the bell when you get there, with a current that won’t let the tenders help you up to the bell anymore without jerking you off the crossover line. Once on the surface you can grab the snap shackle and quickly release yourself from the diver. You don’t want another clip that you will have to try fishing off of the diver at the surface. Once on deck you can retrieve your clip from the divers harness. With the snap shackle you can easily switch the Stand-by Clip from your stand-by harness to your bailout if you are using it as your stand-by harness on a mixed gas job.

Now a little about being a stand-by diver! When you are on stand-by, take it as seriously as you would want someone else to take it when you are in the water. As a diver you always try and look at blueprints to find the best route to the work sight through a platform, but how many times do you ask where the dive sight is of the diver in front of you. It can make a difference when you are going down that divers hose especially at night. Don’t just sit the whole time in the dive shack either. Walk out on deck and inspect your hat that it is on line correctly. See where your hat is and where your neck-dam is so you can get to it quickly if need be. If you have to jump prepare yourself for the worst and it can only get better, remember that diver is depending on you for help. I know some good divers that got out of the business because they couldn’t deal with what they had found on the other end of a dive hose.

If you go down, first you want to look in the faceplate of the diver and determine if he is conscious or not. Second you want to get that pneumo hose up his neck-dam and in by his oral nasal. If he is conscious and has air, ride his in water decompression out with him. You are the communication between the diver and the dive supervisor now. If the diver is unconscious omit decompression and get the diver down in the chamber on a treatment table as fast as you safely can and start you’re ABC’s. Unconscious victims have a higher comeback rate at depth in the chamber during CPR than at the surface. After the fact if your trip down the hose wasn’t a good one don’t keep it bottled up inside. Talk to some of the older divers that have been in your shoes and don’t feel weak if you cry. It’s healthy and it is no fun to loose a friend or fellow human being. You will burn an image in your brain that you will always keep for the rest of your life and only you can make peace or get out. This last part is not me trying to be some sort of psychologist or something, it’s just that out there on the job sometimes all we have is each other (The Brotherhood of the Deep), so think about this when you are on stand-by. Take it seriously, dive safe, and remember that there is no job going bad enough to where it’s worth your life to rush to please a company man! All the company men I know would rather take more time than explain an accident. Some company men have never been divers and don’t know what it’s like to work alone in a weightless world with a big helmet on your head. It’s up to your supervisor to make him understand that you are all doing your best as safely as you can.    

Thanks Matt
R E S P O N S E

In twenty years I had the ocassion to jump for two divers. Thankfully both standby jumps turned out good. "The Miller Man" and John have really hit the nail on the head. A good standby is ready to jump no matter what time of the year it is. As a client rep I have noticed many standby divers just don't take the job seriously. Some would rather joke around and not pay attention to the supervisor while he is talking with the diver in water. They also don't get involved in planning the dive. A really good standby is involved in the rigging and planning of his divers job. Actually a better way of saying this would be: A really good standby would be involved with planning and excuting his partners dive. After all a standby is the divers partner through out the dive. So, John, your article about the standby diver is very appropriate. Thanks for keeping the dive locker open and bottom clear.
(From one old Navy diver to another)
Andy Hartley
hartleya@cox-internet.com

That was a good point that needed making for a long time. As I am sure you know, most Corps jobs require a fully dressed diver as stand-by. I try to hire at least Gulf gas divers and prefer the ones who have made it to sat as they have accumulated the right attitude but without exception, they think wearing a harness is good enough for stand-by. There is a lot of stuff we could do better but don't.
Tom Long
tom@prodiving.com


Thanks to you and Matt for this month's column. I have had a brass #2 clip on my standby harness and another on my bailout for years for exactly that purpose - clipping in to an unconscious diver to free up my hands and guarantee I didn't drop him while dicking around with the down line or unfouling dive hose or whatever. I forget who, but it was an Aquatica dive sup that first turned me on to it. But I don't think the quick release hook-up is necessarily a good idea. Yeah, it'd be nice to get quickly unfouled of the other diver when you get him to surface, but what if the damn thing popped open while you were on the way up?  With, say, both hands on the downline? Click - he's gone. It's not like they never open on their own, you know. I think it's better to have the snap shackle permanently attached to your harness. One less thing to go wrong in an already wrong situation.
brasshat@offshorediver.com


last year I worked in boston on a pipeline project. it was oct/nov and obviously cold. i used to live and work in boston and we would use hot water year round. That was the first time i hve ever had to be in full rubber as standby or any rubber for that matter. i wasnt happy about iy nor the other divers, but after thinking about it the standby was really useless without a wetsuit on.  He wouldnt last 5 minutes in the water we were working in.
I agree with it now, in the right circumstances.
Roddy


John,
It is my opinion that politics should stay out of discussions of diving in the first place. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and I don't want any part of your asshole. But since you started the whole politics up......I think it is wrong for a neighbor to come to my home and destroy my property, but I don't think that going into his home and taking over is the right thing either, try calling the police. The funds spent in this war could have found the culprits, the government could have spend some time learning about  why it is that these people hate us so....Why is it that they haven't bombed Sweden? Argentina? Norway? Brazil? South Africa? Because these countries don't fuck with them and their governments!!! Young Americans dying for our interests????? Weren't you in Vietnam? would you want that for anyone? Wasn't 911 enough death and devastation....?? While those Americans are getting millions for settlements, what are our Soldiers getting? A death Fund for the family? A dive supervisor has to take in consideration for safety of all involved the best interest of the client and the company he workes for, every job will be different, throughing money and lives at problems isn't the right thing to do..
I used to have alot of respect for you....sorry I ever read your post.
James Novaes


John,
Feel free to post my reply, and I feel as if I do owe you an apology in the manor of my writting.
Please understand that I am not a liberal nor am a right wing republican, I do believe that Sudam should have been removed, but not by the United States of America, Germany, France or any other country, it should have been accomplished by it's own people.  In protecting our interests.....our interests lie here in our own country, not in a foreign land where our values are so different that it might as well be day and night. We as educated and modern people cannot reason with such people because they are for the most part barely people, the only reason these people don't walk on all fours is that their anatomy will not permit them to run around like dogs, you know that as well as I do......So why fake that we have liberated the Iraqui people? In ten years they will be the same as today if not worse, sure Sudam is gone and now there is chaos as a society, we as americans will be paying for this for years to come........
If you are going to have a war have a war......were is our cheap oil? How about investments in hydrogen vehicles, solar power, recycling materials for highays, the list can go on forever. Are you willing to sacrifice your family menbers for the Iraqui People? I am not against involvement in the matter of Iraq, what I am against inthe lack of support to our troops, financially and morally.  Unfortunately 911 was not Pearl Harbor, it was a gross act of violence towards people. We need to ask ourselves, what have we the people of the United States of America done to deserve this? The answer is not " nothing", we need to find the reasons and act upon these reasons, reevalute our foreign policy and business methods to suit our countries needs for the future.
Once again John I am sorry to rant about this with you, I haven't forgotten 911 and all the people falling from the building. I just don't want to see friends die for the governments wrong choices, I could not imagine my brother, sister, nephew coming home in a body bag.
James Novaes

yawn...


click here to email 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.

Dive Safe and Profitable

John Carl Roat


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

From the Diver's Forum:
Posted by Surprised Diver on 7/11/2004, 6:05:56
 I read that old bastard Roat’s book, Class-29, I couldn’t put it down. No wonder he has so little patience, most of us don’t know what the words "team work" or "effort" mean. The thing that surprised me most was he made me laugh. I hate to give him the satisfaction but I’m going to ask him to sign it. Well maybe not.
 

Real Deal SEAL Team website: <http://sealstrike.com
John's previous columns are archived here:
Roat 1   Roat 2   Roat 3   Roat 4   Roat 5