 Proudly, we hail. New York City, where the American stage begins, here is another program with a cast of outstanding players. Public service time has been made available by this station for your Army and your Air Force to bring you this story as proudly we hail the United States Army. Our story is entitled, Underwater Soldiers. This is the story of the deep sea technicians of the 7th Transportation Regiment at Fort Eustis, Virginia and military divers on 24-hour call at Army port installations from Yokohama to Europe. Our first act curtain will rise in just a moment, but first, those who enjoy freedom must help support it. And in these uncertain times, we must remain strong and alert to the dangers that surround us. If you're qualified, you can join Freedom's Team by becoming a member of your United States Army. There's an urgent need for technical specialists in every field. You'll receive the world's finest training, and at the same time, build an interesting and rewarding career. Visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station for full information. And now, your Army and your Air Force present the proudly we hail production, Underwater Soldiers. A boy and a girl swimming at Old Point Comfort Beach, Virginia. The girl, Jane Gunther. The boy, Carl Jordan, taking a final shore weekend before carrying through on an important decision. Give you a hand back up on the raft, Jane. Thanks. I'm up. Hey, did you see those big blues that cheered off when we went down that time? Bluefish in this close? We'd have had spears we could have shot. With those rubber flippers on your feet, you moved so fast, Don. I couldn't keep up with you. Sorry, I forgot. But the goggles work out for you that time, didn't they? Oh, perfectly. Everything was as clear as up here. Underwater than they ever get up here. What do you mean, Carl? Well, I head back home to Richmond tomorrow. In a week, I'll be in the Army. Isn't that what you want to do? And list, honey? Well, sure, but... You don't sound at all, is it? Well, the trouble is, Jeannie, I... I told my father I'd make it Army and I guess that's what it'll have to stick to. He was Army and I guess he'd almost disown me if I went for anything else. So would I. Carl, I just realized it. It was just this morning. We met for the first time. You've never seen me in anything but this bathing suit. You think I'm complaining? You're about the best-looking... The best-looking corporal on the beach. Corporal? I'm a whack, Carl, from Fort Monroe. I've been in the Army for nearly a year and I love it. Oh, well, wait a minute, Jane. Let me get straight on this. Now, I didn't say that... Whatever you said, for a man going into the Army, you don't sound hilarious about it. Well, it's probably foolish, but... See, ever since I was a kid, I've been crazy about the water. Ponds, rivers, ocean here, any kind of water. Getting under it mostly with goggles away. We're doing now and fishing or collecting stuff or just looking around at all there is to see down below. You think no one in the Army ever gets a chance to swim? Well, I'll admit you're stationed near a beach, but might just be my luck to get a sign a thousand miles away from Saltwater. Carl, you're from Virginia here. Haven't you ever been over to Fort Eustis? Well, yeah. Now, wait a minute. Why all the questions? My brother's a master sergeant over at Fort Eustis. I happen to be meeting him in Newport News tonight for dinner. Oh, would you like to drive over with me? Well, sure, but how do I rate? I think you might like to hear about Bill's job over at Fort Eustis. He's a diver, Carl, and he does his deep sea work for the United States Army. Yes, there's a diving section in the Army in the 7th Transportation Regiment. Both an operating diving section and underwater school are maintained at Fort Eustis, Virginia, and teams of deep sea military divers are on duty around the world with Port Maintenance Battalions of the Transportation Corps and with amphibious engineer units. That night, when he met Jane's brother, Master Sergeant Bill Gunther, Carl Jordan knew he'd found what he wanted to do in the Army. You say anyone can put in for training in military diving, Sergeant? If he qualifies, Jordan, you've got to pass Army Regulation 4100 for one thing, and that's one of the stiffest physicals in the Army. He's nearly as tough as you are, Bill. I've seen him swim. Well, now, say I'm lucky enough to get by the physical. You say you've worked in a shipyard and done some welding? Well, probably not up to your standard, but I've handled the tools. Well, that'll help. When a diver gets under, he's got to be ready to be about everything for a paper man. Bill, you're breaking his heart. Janey, if he's willing and able to learn, and if he can apply what he learns 100 feet down, a couple of tons of water shoving down on you, maybe in mud, nine times out of ten without being able to see... Bill, are you deliberately trying to scare Carl out of trying for the diving school? Mike Moran says if you can scare a man off by talk, Janey, he's not cut out for a diver. But what about it, Jordan? Sound like too tough a deal for you? You'll have to tell me that, Sergeant, after I get to Fort Eustis. Or at least if they let me get there after I finish basic. Carl Jordan qualified after his enlistment in the Army and eventually made it to the diving school at Fort Eustis. Welcome there by Colonel Deagle, commanding officer of the school, Operations Chief Eugene F. Mike Moran, Sergeant Bill Gunther and other underwater veterans. Carl and the men of his training class began learning the essentials of one of the most challenging jobs in or out of the service. The Army gives rated divers extra hazard pay because any job you go on can be dangerous. Dangerous and pretty important. Whether you clear mines and underwater obstructions under fire, as Army divers did going into Inchon Harbor, or go down for cakes of government silver dollars like they once did back in Manila Bay. But if you new men learn enough from your instructors here, and if you keep cool and collected when you're under, you'll do your job and you'll keep your life. Good luck to all of us. If the new men learned enough, Carl Jordan and his classmates had facts thrown at them day after day before they ever got near the water, the physical properties of the elements they'd be dealing with. Pure water is a clear liquid made up of two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. It's compressible, but only slightly. At 39 degrees Fahrenheit, it's the standard for our specific gravity, one CC weighing a gram. Most of you men run to muscle and bone. They're slightly heavier than water. Fat tissue and the residual air in your lungs are lighter. Now what it adds up to is that most of you, unweighted, could float indefinitely as long as you could keep at least a couple of fingers. Air is an invisible odorless tasteless mixture of gases formed cheaply of nitrogen and oxygen, nearly in the ratio of 4 to 1. It's compressible and elastic. At sea level, depending on the temperature and barometric pressure, it might take 773 quarts of air to equal the weight of one quart of water. That means for one thing, it doesn't take much air to get you headed back up for the surface. And the deeper you are, the quicker to land. What they'd be working in, what they'd be working with. This is your deep gear. Look it over and handle the items, all of you. These are your lead weighted boots, 22 pounds of base. This is your suit, rubber diving dress, 18 and a quarter pounds. Your belt. Well, the lead blocks is your heaviest item, 85 pounds. Could we get that belt off in a hurry, Mr. Moran? That is, if we had to. Fast enough, Bracken, but you won't ever have cause to. You handle your lines and the air nozzle as you should. And it's the way your instructors have told you. A man who starts worrying too much on a dip doesn't have time to look out for himself, let alone get his job done. I'm sorry, sir, I didn't mean to give the idea that... Ask any questions that hit you. Top sides where it's easy to answer them, if we've got the answers. Now this is your knife, two and a half pounds. Your breastplate and helmet, 54 pounds taken together, make up the basic gear. Just over 200 pounds of it. A lot lighter underwater than it feels here. But there'll be times when you'll think you're lugging a piano in your shoulders. Inside the helmet, you'll generally have a two-way telephone rig, and of course your air intake and exhaust. You'll regulate your air supply. But the most important equipment any novice diver takes underwater is himself. His own brains, coolness, physical handiness, and some qualities of courage and adaptability that can't be known until a man makes his first dive. It can be rough down there with a deep rig on, Jordan, even for someone who likes the water. Half the men who try this get washed out for claustrophobia. They tighten up and panic when they get down there? With the helmet and a couple of tons of water piled on, anybody can get a touch of it. It can clear up fast if you'll remember what we've taught you. And if... Well, if you can't lick it, give four jerks on the line and we'll haul you up. Up and out of the school. No disgrace for a man's makeup. This won't let him loosen up down under. In your case, though, maybe I ought to tell you that Mike Moran thinks you've got the makings of a good, deep waterman. He's on operations now, not at the school, and that's an off-the-record guess. He's pulling for all of you in the class anyhow, and he knows no bets hold till a man's actually been down. You all set? Yeah. Lucky you, soldier. Thanks. All set, Bill, when you and Keore are... Let's go. The tenders above can follow a man's progress by the used air that keeps bubbling up. In the darkening strange world, Carl Jordan has entered. Except for his phone, a man hears only the hiss of the compressed fresh air entering the helmet. No, not yet, Sergeant. About claustrophobia? I got it all right. I feel about as jammed in as a lobster in a milk bottle. What up? No. It took too many months to get down here, Sergeant. I think I'm starting to feel better already. Sure. Sorry, I'm on bottom now. Good going, soldier. Remember which way for the buoy? I think it's a half turn and straight on. Well, get going. We'll check your bubbles. Moving right along, Bill. Of course there to start with. Then corrections, one back, not a yard out. Halfway to the buoy. I better get them turned. Jordan, you getting your sea legs down there? All okay so far. You want me to keep on going? No. Pull up. Take a half turn right. Go ahead about four paces. Half turn right. Up. At four, half turn right again. Head back to the barge. I'll take it easy and round over any obstructions you hit. Back below the ladder, Sergeant. You want me to start up? You want a hurry to haul out? No. No, I'm getting to like it down here. If you'll drop me a spear, maybe I can get us a mess of crabs. Okay, okay. Get started up. But remember, easy doesn't. Here, I've got him, Bill. Hey, uh, Jordan. Elm it off and you can start drying away some of that sweat. Did I qualify? I didn't come up too fast or anything. Get it all right, Jordan. I'm ready to ride with Mike Moran and say maybe you will be a diver before you throw it. Hold it, Mac. Sure you did all right, Jordan. First dip, you did fine. Well, thanks, Sergeant. I knew I almost got a... But the Army doesn't send men underwater just to keep cool or catch up with the makings of a fish fry. Now we head back to the shops and you'll really start learning what it takes to make an Army diver. You mean welding and underwater repair and all that? Welding, jetting, handling the airsoil. Hey, wait a minute, Bill. Want to save time if we just say what we're not going to teach you? Mac, you've got a point. Okay, Jordan, you won't have to get up on needlework, cotton chopping, ice fiddle playing or brain surgery. You are listening to the proudly-we-hailed production Underwater Soldiers. We'll return in just a moment for the second act. The man who measures up will succeed anywhere. For a life of excitement and adventure, join the United States Army. The Army is the proving ground, the place where the men and the boys part company, where you'll learn more about how to take care of yourself and others in a few short months than you could in a lifetime of civilian activity. In the Army, your opportunities for advancement and leadership are unlimited, but you've got to have what it takes. The man who measures up here will succeed anywhere. Can you measure up? If you think you can, then here's an opportunity for you to serve your country and build a man-sized career for yourself that will take you as far as you want to go. Visit your local U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force Recruiting Station now. You are listening to Proudly We Hail. Now we present the second act of Underwater Soldiers. Sergeant Bill Gunther was laying it all a little when he told Carl Jordan the Fort Eustace Diving School candidates might have to learn nearly everything, but brain surgery and base fiddle playing, but not by much. Working often in blackness with only his groping hands on what he's dealing with, an Army diver has to know the techniques of timber, steel and concrete construction, the handling of pumps and suction devices, understand the interaction of currents and tides, be as ready to rebuild a dock as to blow up an underwater barrier on an in-going combat landing. But the Army gives these cracked troubleshooters an array of special tools matching the varied calls on their ingenuity. This is your water jet. Use a heated high-pressure water hose and use it to clear out mud from a working area or from under anything where you want to get a cable or chain into a rig of lift. Back in June, you saw it used to help free a submerged tank. You rig an airlift when you want to draw up any loose cargo material to lighten a sunken vessel. They gravel or grain or sand. You set your weighted intake down into the material you want to clear. Cutting piling or any kind of timber underwater, you have this air saw. It's motor driven and operates by compressed air. It'll cut through cable. On cable, where you need even faster action, we've got this power velocity cutter. It amounts to firing an expendable blade right through your cable. Tools for salvage and repair. Tools for destruction. In Korea, between the first and second occupations of the Port of Incheon by United Nations forces, United States Army divers, serving with the 50th Engineer's Port Construction Company, had the job of making the docks unusable by the enemy. Then the more satisfying job of helping restore the port to top operating efficiency when the forces of freedom came back to stay as they had done on scores of jobs from Luzon to Antwerp during and after World War II. At Fort Eustis, as the training schedule reached its final weeks, Carl Jordan and his classmates were moving deeper and deeper under the waters of the James River and the Bay, handling themselves and their varied tools with the rising confidence that comes with practical experience. All okay down there, Jordan? All okay, Sergeant. You're at 80 feet. Bring your guideline on the anchor chain and start a sweep search. When you find the pipe section we dropped, burn off a one foot length and bring it up. You got it? Sweep search till I hit the pipe. Burn off one foot length and bring it up. Starting swing to left now, Sergeant. Carl Jordan did have the makings. 22 weeks after he started training at Fort Eustis, he was graduated from the school and awarded a second-class divers badge qualified to work at depths down to 150 feet. The following day he heard even better news. Hey, Carl. Huh? Carl, wait up a second. Oh, what's up, Bill? You're in luck, soldier. The Chief's asked for you and operations here. Mike thinks I'm good enough to work... Don't get too cocky. Tut's been flagged down to the canal zone for a couple of months, and Mike thinks he can make out with you on temporary assignment. Getting the feel of that rivet drill, Jordan? I think so, Chief. At least I'm making a little better time than I was this morning. I've just been posting the new assignment schedule. You'll be an eight-hour standby call tomorrow and Friday. Uh, Mr. Moran. I've been on dry salvage and repair here for nearly a month. Don't I ever get to go down on a real job with you or Mike? Yeah, look, Mike and I both think you're coming along fine. The day a diver first class asks you to go down more than 150 feet with him on an actual job, just remember he's making a pretty big bet on you. His life along with mine. Look, I'd work you below 200 or more if I had to. And we've got a pretty good safety record in this section, Carl. If it takes you four months more to make first, you'll still be beating par. By one of the unpredictable emergencies that keep operations Chief Mike Moran's divers on around-the-clock call, Carl Jordan, not six weeks later, got more than the action he'd been asking for. Taken along as alternate second diver on what should have been a run-of-the-mill, shallow salvage operation in Florida, Carl learned on arrival of their plane at the Army base that this mission wasn't to be routine. Not on the unloading. There was a call from Mike waiting here and we've got to get the gear back on the plane. Mike won't just back it users, we just got here. There's an emergency call from over below Jacksonville. A civilian diver trapped down at 240. Jordan, Keoh, gear back on the plane. Let's go, guys. Mike, pilot checking now on an emergency script down below Jacksonville. It should let us set the plane down within a mile of an inlet. There we can pick up a boat. But come on, I'll tell you on the way. Army team, they said was coming out. Right, I'm Sergeant Gunther. This is Sergeant McMase and Corporal Jordan. Your parish, the one who radioed in? Yes, right. I thought maybe I could get through the Navy at Charleston, but they told me from Jacksonville you guys were already in the area. Oh, thank the Lord for that. Scowsey? Yeah, I'm scared he's... Well, he's almost had it. I'm not sure what you can do. See, there's a big charter boat down there. We were trying to seal off the engine room and get some air into it for a drum lift. But the hull shifted with Scowsey working inside, slipped off down 50 feet deeper, and clamped him in tight. Doesn't he have any tools, Caddy? No, no, his leg's broken and jammed under a casing that shifted when the hull rolled. The way his lines are now, you'll have to burn or cut in to get him loose. I've got a trick heart. Doctors caught up with it a month ago, said if I ever tried to work below 50 feet again, I could go out like a light. This was just supposed to be a survey Scowsey was running today. I told him an hour ago I'd go down anyhow, but he said that'd be losing two for sure, instead of one for maybe, and he'd rather take his chances waiting for a rescue team. Okay, however he got there, it'll take two men to get him up. Mac, maybe you better take the oxy-arc torch and... Bill! Bill, you can't go down this first trip. I can't go. What do you mean, Carp? You're the master diver, the only one who can direct two men below. Or bail them out if anyone gets fouled up. It's a two-man job, Carp. Mac can't swing it alone. Let me go down with him. A 240-feet kid? Well, the deepest you've worked is... I've been below 200, and I could have worked there. Now, wait a minute, Mac. Jordan's got a point. If there's trouble with both of us down, that leads him trying to get three men up from 240. I can have a trial-on, Bill. You won't have to... No, no. No, I want you topside, Mac. You're going down alone, Bill? You just said yourself... I'm going down with Jordan. Get him locked up, Kehoe, and Parish. If you've got a phone hook up down to Scalzi... Bill. Getting cold feet, Carp? No, I... I just wanted to say thanks. You're the one who's taking the chances. Get locking, soldier. We got a job on. Is this your phone, Parish? That's it, Sergeant. Scalzi. Scalzi. Yeah. Who's that? Sergeant Gunther. Army diving section. You're still OK down there, except for the legs? Not to call it medium, Sergeant. But if ever I was glad to hear... The two of us are coming down for you. Can you give us a setup? I don't know how you get at me. The way the boat's keeled over, you'll have to cut through three-inch holes. You're down over 230, Bill. All OK? OK, Mac. We've been guiding on Scalzi's line. Wait a minute. I'm on bottom. Thick growth, but hard under. Cut over to Jordan and see if he's down. Jordan? Jordan, you on bottom yet? Just touched, Mac. OK. OK. Mac up against the hole. I can't see Bill. A hole there, and he'll work in by you. You're still left to Scalzi's line? Yes. Bill, Jordan's in at the hole, still guiding on Scalzi's line from left. All right. Tell him I'm going in on the right, and I'll make hand contact. Jordan, as you are, till Bill makes hand contact. And keep watching your line. Jordan. Jordan. We cut through to Scalzi, Mac, and he's still OK. Bill told me. Now I want to know if you can lever up that casing that's holding Scalzi's leg. I got a jack under it now. A jack? You didn't take down a jack? No, I found one here. Plain old car hand jack. And it works. At 2.40 you've been scrounging around for a jack? OK, kid, OK. Get lifting. Bill, pull him out if you can work the casing up. Here's the inland ahead, Bill. 10 minutes more in. How's the leg, Scalzi? How to worry about the leg, Sergeant? Just being topside and alive is more than I ever thought I'd have. Well, you can thank Diver for his class Jordan here for that, Scalzi. We'd had to take time to try burning that casing away. Diver, first class? Bill, you can't qualify me just for getting lucky on this one job. In the book it says I got... Mike Moran can qualify you whenever you're ready. When he hears how you promoted that car jack down inside there at 2.40, well, I've got five to one. It says you're in. 10 to one, Bill. And I'll throw in that Mike sets up both of you to the two biggest shore dinners you ever tucked away. And I'll wait a minute. Wait a minute, you army guys. After what you did today. Hey, Scalzi, take it easy now. Will you twist that leg around? Look, the soldiers asked me how to twist it off and give it to them for salvage. If anybody's buying shore dinners for the army, Sergeant, I'm putting in to pick up the chick. We all share freedom. Help share its defense. Join the army team. Yes, now, as always, the United States Army is dedicated to the defense of freedom, your freedom. You can do something about it. The time for decision for action is now. The need for trained technicians in every field is urgent. And you can be trained in the most advanced techniques using the world's finest equipment. Visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station for full details. Remember, we all share freedom. Help share its defense. Join the army team. This has been another program on Proudly We Hail, presented transcribed in cooperation with this station. Proudly We Hail is produced by the Recruiting Publicity Center for the United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Service. This is Kenneth Banghart speaking and inviting you to tune in this same station next week for another interesting story on Proudly We Hail.