Editor

LETTER FROM THE ED's helper 09 Mar 02

Ed is out of the Army but this site remains dedicated to Army Diving. Changes are happening in the background and should be announced in near future.

In the mean time we are pleased to present an article written by Now Civvy Foreman and sent to us from Kosovo where he is with the United Nations. As usual the story is filled full of hard working Canadians and Allied soldiers. pop up the pictures to see them in larger size.

KOSOVO – COMBAT DIVING IN SUPPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

The search for war crimes evidence is still very much a serious task within Kosovo. The International War Crimes Tribunal in Yugoslavia (ICTY) is still active with new allegations occurring regularly. One of these allegations originated on behalf of the Serbian authorities. They claimed that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had dumped K-Serbian bodies in the only large water reservoir in western Kosovo. As with any allegations the UN and KFOR were called upon to prove or disprove the premise. Enter the Canadians. The UNMIK CIVPOL Series Crimes Unit Cpl Judy Thomas of the Prince Rupert Detachment of the RCMP notified LCol Doug Foreman, UNMIK Military Liaison Officer (MLO) and the dive was on. First the helicopter recce of the site organized by Sgt Rick Anthony Victoria City Police who was the commander of the UNMIK CIVPOL Helicopter Unit

The site was in a remote area of western Kosovo in the local man made water reservoir. One of the few decent bodies of water in the entire mission area. The site pictured above was virtually inaccessible by vehicle so the only likely spot for a large vehicle to access the water was immediately obvious from the air. Enter the Royal Engineers with the only operational dive team in the mission area. The follow up ground recce by LCol Foreman and British Army Diving Supervisor Sgt Griffiths of 26 Regiment RE was more problematic when the recce vehicle developed two flat tires simultaneously. You can imagine Sgt Griffith’s surprise when within one hour two MLOs (both LCols) showed up with two spare tires after the UNMIK and KFOR recovery promised a twelve hour response time. The MLO network was one of the few reliable means to communicate across all boundaries and mandates.

The only day the dive could be organized was ,of course, a Sunday. (Albanian Beach day). A covert operation was out of the question and the dive was done as a seemingly recreational activity. 26 Engineer regiment was deployed and set up camp across the lake from the dive site the evening previous.

The Brit procedures pretty much followed along the same format as Canadian Combat divers would. What started out as full drysuit and face mask with through water communications quickly reverted as depicted in the pictures because of the intense heat and the warm temperature of the water. And as always a fresh water dive is a black and murky thing. Kosovo was no exception.

The operation took twelve hours of water time and a total of three kilometers of shore line was surveyed out to a depth of 60 feet. As predictable as with all allegations with in politically motivated Kosovar scenario there was no evidence to be found.. In the end the operation was successful. Combat divers did their thing and demonstrated a capability to UNMIK Police that will be further utilized in the mission. The next task will be the investigation of several deep wells.

As with the Combat Diving world in Canada many advances in the RE diving kit have taken place. Here the deployable all in one steel container simplifies in the field diving operations and make the job of the diving storeman manageable. Standards and supervision were first class and the emphasis on the diving medicine aspects were quite pronounced. A suitable last operational dive.

Bubbles Up Diver Foreman CDAC #0002 UNMIK SMLO Pristina Region

As always the divers on site had a great day away from the RSM and the confines of what is mostly the dreary task of providing a secure environment within Kosovo. Future dives wll include coming back to this location where an entire village was flooded over when they made the reservoir forty years ago. As well an as yet undefined underwater lake exists at the little known Gadimjle Marble caves. Amazing how there is always a job for a diver.

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Ed is AWOL but this is the 5th Internet Edition featuring 2 CER Petawawa. If anyone see's the Ed tell him he owes me pics of a certain Hydro Dam built by a certain Combat Engineer of WW1 fame.

Floyd

For those of you that need replacement coins etc., just send the money ($15.00) and your coin will eventually arrive. Sending coin on credit has, as suspected, in spite of good intentions lead to a deficit situation. No cash/no coin.

We need new members!
Ed.

Keeping the site current is the big draw and is essential.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS OUR INTERNET ADDRESS IS http://www.oocities.org/armyflipper/
For articles send input to logau@storm.ca

DJJF. -------------------------

Wait a minute there - don't put your flippers on just yet!

THE CDAC CME 2003 HISTORY PROJECT

Discussions with the assembled diving officers and supervisors at RB2K revealed that there is a collective willingness to produce a published hard cover book on the history of Canadian ARMY Combat Diving. Many of you have been asking about the issue and the CME 2003 scenario presents the opportunity.

The concept is as follows:

- The book will be focussed on people/names and every combat diver past and present will want one.

- The book will contain photos and names of every dive course conducted. MWO Earle Butt has the photos and is researching names. He may need help from specific course members to fill in the blanks.

- The book will contain the overall history of Canadian Army Diving from WWI to the year 2000. LCol foreman will produce based on the work Col Chip Bowness did for CME History Vol III

- There will be a chapter for each unit dive team to include 1 CER, 2 CER, 4 CER, 5 RGC, 4 ESR, AB Fd Sqn and CFSME. Those units named will be responsible for all previous units. AB Fd Sqn will require a volunteer.

- Everyone agreed that the unit Dive O of each unit will be the OPI for the unit.

- There will also be a Chapter on EX Roguish Buoy .

- All drafts are targeted to be completed by 01 Jun 2001 and submitted to CDAC - LCol Foreman.

- CDAC will fund the event. Fund raising TBA.

That is the concept. We will need lots of volunteers to work on the units particularly on the earlier days. CDAC will formally announce the plan in a letter to DMILE, MEAC UNIT COs and CME 2003. Let your name be known. Use of the diver log on the web will facilitate co-ordination. Give us your feedback. Bubbles Up djjf

GOSSIP

As the time rolls around for another edition of the Diver Times there are a lot of changes within the Diver world. The biggest change is the retirement of MWO Earle Butt who has worked out some kind of deal to remain in the Army for a little while longer. I had hoped to run into him on EX RB2K but he never showed. I never did here if they mugged him out yet. Congratulations to Kevin MacLeod who was promoted to Colonel and is posted as Commander Northern Region. He will no doubt take over ice diving. We now have 6 divers at the Colonel level so hopefully we can make some more progress. He certainly left his mark as Senior Army Diver. Progress over the past year has been unprecedented thanx to Roy Fenton, and Charlie Ralph. Roy is posted to Bosnia for six months and will return for language training while Charlie is happy as a clam to be posted to PEI. WO Hamilton (2 CER) has assumed DDivS duties while Maj Dana Woodworth will be posted from Staff college to CI of CFSME. There he will fulfill the duties of Senior Army Diver and supervise the newly created CFSME Dive Centre. The Dive Center will comprise of a WO, Sgt and Cpl storesman and will operate as Army Dive staff to oversee Diver selection and training, diving standards, diving equipment issues, diving exercises including Roguish Buoy and facilitate Diver exchanges. Again a major step forward to have the Army take responsibility for what has been in the past a very cursory approach to the maintenance of this risk burdened specialty trade skill. The CME Branch is unanimous in this approach with DMILE, DLFR, Comdt CFSME supporting this approach.

The CDAC Webmeister is taking his coin and plaque from the engineer world and has accepted a job with the newly formed Canadian Joint Support Group. We wish him well and trust that he will be able to keep our website the best diver site in cyberspace.

Rod Keller is back in the diving world in 1 CER. John Hampson is headed to Staff college and Al Poston is headed to Bosnia as well. Looks like a Balkans diving adventure is in the offing. Have picked up the trail of Boots Boutilier who made a brief appearance in KOSOVO with his mine clearance company. Only divers in the this water free place are Dave Armitt (soon to return) and Sam Dow working out of the Mine Action centers and Doug Hubbs working with OSCE. As you can appreciate running the CDAC from KOSOVO will be difficult and putting out a Diver Times virtually impossible. When broached at Roguish Buoy no one came forward with the commitment to carry on with the paper trail. Hence the paperless approach.

The Dive Coins and plaques and CDAC memberships still reside in Victoria and my business partner can deliver the goods as I order them based on email contact. The major events are of course the Combat dive Course ( Who will give the history lecture this year??) and of course EXRB2K+1 (Maj Woodward and WO Hamilton will sort that one out.) So for the next year if it doesn’t appear on the web page it doesn’t appear in writing. Hopefully unit Dive Teams will contribute directly to logau@storm.ca

As can everyone else. The signing in on the log book is proving to be a increasingly popular means of communication and many interesting issues have been raised for discussion. A VOUS. djjf

Why we admire the Airforce and their de-construction ability.

Get some town planners over here!

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