My First Official Dive

This was a comment left by my friend from the boat Leonard Leslie. He was with me on my first official dive when I got back to the boat after dive school.  The first part of the comment is a plug for my book, which I will shamelessly leave in. I thought I would highlight the second part so you could see just how awesome of a diver I was.

“I just finished the book the night before last, I stayed up way past my bedtime two nights in a row to finish it. What a great read! It really brought back a lot of memories of serving on the Key West. I have told several people that if they want to know what it is like to serve on a fast attack boat, they need to read this book. Keep up the great writing.

Remember the first time you got to dive to inspect the ship in Norfolk in the winter and you didn’t have your wet suit yet, so you wore the ships dry suit that was way too big for you? I remember pulling you down by the buddy rope and sticking you to the bottom of the ship because you couldn’t get enough air out of the suit to become neutrally buoyant, Good Times!” ~ Leonard G. Leslie

Thanks Lenny, I’m glad you enjoyed the book. And I remember that dive very well. That dry suit I was wearing was apparently made for an NFL lineman. The thing was so filled with air I was like Ralphie from the Christmas Story movie. What a sight! I was just like Ralphie lying in the snow unable to get up, except it was the bottom submarine and Lenny had placed against hull. I couldn’t move so he just dragged me along the bottom of the boat with our buddy rope. Once Lenny had finished his inspection, it was time to head to the surface. Lenny pulled me out from the bottom of the hull, but my boots came out first so all the air went to the boots and I headed to the top feet first. I pulled Lenny along with me like I was a giant helium balloon. We came up way too fast but we were okay.

Thanks for the memory Lenny, and thanks for spreading the word about my book!

~T. Steven Sullivan