Who Are The Delta Divers of Vietnam?
The first of the replacement divers scheduled to go to Vietnam started entering the Army Diver pipeline fresh out of Basic Training in 1967.
By then the Army Diving program had diminished to its lowest strength since World War II — and the Salvage Diving School at Ft. Eustis had been all but shut down for nearly a decade.
The Dive Section had become something of a ghost town, as eight Master Divers rounded up every available Army Diver they could find and deployed to Vietnam between late 1966 and January 1967. Most were assigned to the 497th and 523rd Engineer Companies (Port Construction) and the 41st Dive Detachment.
At the same time, the Army was processing draftees through Ft. Ord, California, where there were plenty of young surfer-type recruits more than willing to volunteer for Navy Dive School down in San Diego.
Suddenly, the Army was pushing men through Navy Dive School at a rate not seen since the buildup for D-Day in 1943–44.
Meanwhile, the old Army Dive Section at Ft. Eustis had become little more than a holding area filled with young divers waiting to become the first replacement divers sent to Vietnam.
Fast Forward Fifty-Six Years
Mike Garver, Dana Storts, Bill McFarland, and Jackson Quigley show up at the U.S. Army Divers Association Reunion. The last time they had been together was in 1968, in the Mekong Delta.
At the reunion, the Delta Divers were taken under the wings of the GWOT (Globle War On Terror) guys, and got to spend some quality time with the Det dudes.
Reconnecting not only with brothers from the water side of war, but with a dive community they had bipassed on their rush to Vietnam, was so gratifying, they immediately began planning the Delta Diver’s “Hey, Hey, We’re Not Dead Yet” Reunion 2025.
Their reunion luncheon was held at the Sunset Pointe at Fly Creek Marina restaurant in Fairhope, Alabama, where restaurateur and celebrity chef “Panini” Pete Blohme — the Messlords — pulled out all the stops.