Deep-Sea Stories and Thanksgiving Message with Master Diver Jim Phalin

Jim Phalin, Master Chief Hull Technician, Master Diver, talks about his 28-year Navy career.  Jim was an accomplished swimmer and springboard diver in high school.  Inspired by Navy stories about Deep-Sea Divers in Vietnam told by his close neighbor, Jim joined the Navy in December 1975.  Before joining the Navy, he knew that he wanted to be a Navy Diver.  Jim retired from active duty in November 2003.

Jim's first Navy Dive command was the USS Orion AS-18, homeported in Charleston, South Carolina.  His follow-on dive duty assignments were the Submarine Escape Tank in New London, Connecticut, USS Brunswick ATS-3, Submarine Development Group One Saturation Dive School in Point Loma, California, Navy Medical Research Institute (NMRI), Bethesda, Maryland, and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3.

Master Diver Phalin recalls his most memorable dives: the salvage of the USS Bluegill and his experience with extreme hypothermia during an HeO2 mixed-gas dive after losing the main and auxiliary hot-water heaters while stationed on the USS Brunswick.  His back-to-back saturation dives to 1,000 feet of seawater during his tour of duty at NMRI,  and when he was the Master Diver in charge of a dive team from EOD Mobile Unit 3 that searched at high altitude for two missing 4,500 lbs bombs following an A-10 Air Force Pilot's desertion from formation and flight to Colorado.

Jim remembered these names when he talked about his adventurous career.  MDV Cliff Ellis, Tony Thompson, Kevin Ryan, Vance Hudson, MDV Dick Slinkerman, Terry (Moon) Mullins, Bob Corby, Navy SEAL Brian Cavolt, DMO Captain Jed Morrison and MDV George Powell.  The leaders who influenced his success the most were MMC/DV, CWO4/LCDR Ron Roe, MDV Donny Laurin, MDV Frank Witunski, MDV Bill Loudermilk, MDV Don Roberts, MDV Ray Straining, MDV Don Curtis, and MDV Langlais.

Post Navy career, Jim had a successful 13-year career with ADS, Inc. as a West Coast Sales Account Manager for federal and local law enforcement and managed accounts for Navy EOD, Divers and West Coast BMU1, ACU1, ACU5, and ACB1.  Jim Phalen continues his commitment to the Navy Dive community as the Navy Diver Association's Executive Director.

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