Four countries, three continents, eight cities and two islands … this hectic schedule is that of the newly formed USACE Forward Response Dive and Survey Team (FRDST) during its 2012 inaugural season.
In all, by the end of this year, the team and its members will have traveled more than 50,000 miles during 80 operational days, flawlessly executing six separate underwater and two survey missions
“You could say we’ve been just a little bit busy,” said FRDST Program Manager Rick Benoit. “However, it’s been a labor of love getting the program off the ground to the point where we are working underwater wherever and whenever we are needed.”
Conceived shortly after Benoit’s arrival in Portland District six years ago from the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, N.J., it was not until January 2012 that the team Benoit envisioned first saw action. That mission, jointly facilitated using USACE divers from Portland and San Francisco, as well as from the Navy Dive Locker in Bangor, Wash., was an emergency operation to assist the Coast Guard at Station Coo Bay.
Since then, the team, with members from throughout USACE and led by the Portland District’s Office of Dive and ROV Operations and Safety, has safely accomplished missions in Japan, South Korea and Italy. The most complex of these missions was a combined bottom sonar survey and surface/below-water inspection at Naha Military Port in Okinawa Japan as Typhoon Sanba threatened the Island.
“This was an exceptional opportunity for us and the dive team,” said Derrick Dunlap, San Francisco District’s dive team lead and assistant operations chief. “It’s not often we get to accomplish this type of complex and challenging mission, especially during a typhoon.”
In all, divers, who accumulated more than 18 hours of dive time during 25 dives, and surveyors inspected more than two miles sea bottom, seawall, pier and docking facilities at Naha.
“This was the first time we employed a bottom sonar survey team,” said Benoit. “However, it adds greatly to Naha mission’s value for Camp Zama, as well as tenant commands, like the 835th Transportation Battalion and the Navy’s Military Sealift Command, as they hope to use the information generated by our surveyors and divers to facilitate major repairs and harbor dredging.”
Two major developments have allowed the team to materialize as it has -- the hiring of Deputy District Dive Coordinator Todd Manny and an agreed collaboration with the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to serve as its dive safety office.
“Without a doubt, bringing Todd into the Dive Office was what allowed us to move forward with this program,” said Benoit. “He truly was the final piece to our dive team puzzle.”
Manny, a retired Navy senior chief, brings 22 years of military experience as a First Class and saturation diver, as well as operational expertise with underwater robots and cameras known as ROVs (remotely operated vehicles).
“This has been an exciting time for the Dive Office and the dive program,” said Manny, who joined Portland District in 2009. “We have an exceptional dive program made up of very dedicated people. Together we’ve been able to safely and efficiently accomplish a lot of good work for the benefit of USACE, as well as other military and federal agencies.”
During 12 days in October, Manny and Benoit led a team of seven to Busan, South Korea, where they conducted a bottom sonar survey and surface and below-water inspection to check the structural integrity of Pier 8.
The inspection was an international, multi-agency effort that brought together Corps divers, South Korean soldiers, and Navy and Army logistics assistance.
The South Korea inspection is, as are the U.S., Japan and Italy missions, part of the Installation Management Command’s Army Transportation Infrastructure Inspection Program (ATIIP), which is managed by Kevin Haskins of ERDC. In all, there are 15 Army installations that have waterfront facilities requiring inspection at least once every four years.
“In working with Rick and his team, I have been amazed by their persistence to get the job done,” said Haskins, who is stationed at ERDC’s Hanover, N.H. facility. “All inspections have been completed on time and well under budget. In the first OCONUS (outside the continental US) inspection alone, Rick and his team saved my program one third the estimated cost. While each OCONUS effort has many unknowns, not only has Rick realistically anticipated these in the planning phase. He has done an outstanding job to mitigate new issues quickly and effectively.”
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