A Memorial Day Message. HMC (FMF/SW/DV) and Diving Medical Technician Pedro J. Gonzales reported to the Consolidated Divers Unit, now known as the Southwest Regional Maintenance Center Dive Locker, in December 1999. The Petty Officer's Mess knew Pedro as "Pete." In the fall of 2000, Chief Gonzales was one of the dive team members who assisted with pushing the RC 6500 recompression chamber inside the newly reconstructed chamber medical room. Pete led the oversight team that monitored contracts to install two diver compressors and all the associated piping for the recompression chamber. Ghief Gonzales applied for a temporary duty assignment with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, Hawaii. Pete met up with his specialized medical team to recover missing prisoner of war remains in Vietnam in February 2001. Tragically, Chief Petty Officer Gonzales and his medical team were killed in action on 7 April 2002 when their helicopter crashed while in transit to a POW-MIA excavation site in Quan Binh, Vietnam. Navy Divers at Consolidated Divers Unit dedicated the RC 6500 recompression chamber to Pete shortly after the chamber obtained initial certification in August of 2001. Consolidated Divers Unit became the hub for Navy Divers, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians, Navy SEALS and other service members suffering from diving-related illnesses and other illnesses requiring recompression chamber therapy.

In August of 2007, Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two Navy Divers were ordered by President George W. Bush to recover victims from under the collapsed Interstate Highway Bridge in the Mississippi River. Recovery of victims was part of the harbor clearance mission to restore the $1.3 million-a-day commercial waterway. The conditions in the Mississippi River were challenging. During my Command Master Chier and Master Diver tour of duty, this is how I viewed this mission outcome through my Faceplate Window. These are my opinions.

Robert Leroy Cave Engineman Master Chief, Master Diver, we knew him as Bobby Cave. He was a 35-year Veteran of the United States Navy. He attained the Rank of Master Chief Petty Officer. Bobby was a Saturation Master Diver. He is the world record holder for the deepest ocean suit dive. In 1972, exposed to ambient pressure in the open ocean, the record was set at 1,025 feet of seawater by a small Navy dive team with Bobby Cave, using the MK2 diving system. The decompression schedule lasted two weeks and was completed at a hyperbaric recompression chamber at the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, Florida. Many Navy leaders I admired as I progressed through the Navy ranks were fortunate to experience dive missions with Bobby Cave. In this episode, I describe my twenty-minute encounter with Master Diver Cave. A lesson I'll never forget.