STTU was one of the first training groups to offer programs in public safety diving, with the introduction of the SRT DIVER manual in 1989. Now in its 3rd Edition, this is still the guide that many agencies look to when setting up a rescue, recovery, investigative or tactical dive team.
Operational Studies is now continuing this work with research into several aspects of diving and diving physiology, to include:
Much of Operational Studies expertise in this area comes from the Director’s experience as a deep saturation diver, a former instructor in the UCLA underwater kinesiology diving program, and as a diver, diving supervisor, and training officer with the LA Sheriff’s SEB Marine Company Dive Team – a component of the Special Enforcement Bureau’s (SEB) Emergency Services Detail (ESD). Utilizing deep mixed-gas and cave diving techniques, Lonsdale has participated in Sheriff’s body recoveries as deep as 260 feet and supported US Air Force investigations with the recovery of critical evidence from equally hazardous environments. Lonsdale is also an FBI/LASD trained and certified Underwater Post Blast Investigator.
In 2000 Mark Lonsdale received the cooperation of the Pentagon and Chief of Naval Information (CHINFO), and the support of the Supervisor of Diving to visit every command in the US Navy with a diving capability. This began with the Navy Diving & Salvage Training Center (NDSTC) and Naval Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) in Panama City, Florida, and from there pushed out to the fleet. Lonsdale spent time with Consolidated Divers at CDU, UCT-1, UCT-2, MDSU-2 on the Monitor Project, MDSU-1 on the Ehime Maru recover, NSWG-2, the Navy divers at SDV Team One (Hawaii), SDV Team Two (Little Creek), and the ASDS project. In California Lonsdale visited with the SEALs in Coronado and Marine Force Recon combatant swimmers at Camp Pendleton.
Research for the US Navy Diver book was interrupted by the events of September 11, 2001 when Lonsdale went to work as a pre-deployment instructor for the US and coalition militaries. But after finishing up research with the divers of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) community, and Naval Special Clearance Team One (NSCT-1), UNITED STATE NAVY DIVER went to print and was published by Best Publishing in 2005. This is now the definitive work on US Navy diving and a tribute to some of the hardest working men and women in the US military.