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 late 1966 — They were immediately sent to the U.S. Navy to be trained as Deep-Sea Divers.
By then the Army Diving program had been diminished to its lowest strength since World War II, and the Army 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 of the eleven Master Divers on the roster rounded up every available Army Diver they could find, and deployed with them 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 McFarlane, 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.
Bill McFarlane, Mike Garver, Dana Storts, and Jackson Quigley with a mock up of the Delta Divers of Vietnam book cover. To be presented to the Man In the Sea Museum, through the US Army Divers Association.
At the reunion, the Delta Divers were taken under the wings of the GWOT (Global War On Terror) guys, and got to spend some quality time with the other Det dudes.
Reconnecting not only with brothers from the water side of war, but with a dive community they had bypassed in their rush to Vietnam, was so gratifying that the Delta Divers immediately began planning their own “Hey, Hey, We’re Not Dead Yet” Reunion 2025.
Hob Divine, Steve Ticehurst, Jackson Quigley, Mike Garver, Bill McFarlane, & Dana Storts - “Hey, Hey, We’re Not Dead Yet” reunion.
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.
Thank you for joining them on their journey