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Posted on 07/24/2007 7:43:29 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
The U.S. Embassy in Greece says DNA tests have identified the remains of three American divers missing since 1978 while exploring underwater caves.
Two of the divers will be buried in Minnesota, where their parents are from.
The remains of U.S. Air Force Sergeant Donald Michaud - along with 20-year-old Airman Jan Granroth and her 21-year-old brother Mark Granroth - were identified after extensive DNA analysis by the Department of Defense Armed Forces Medical Examiner.
Funerals for the Granroths are scheduled for August fourth in Sebeka, about 45 miles northwest of Brainerd.
Jan and Mark Granroth grew up in Sacramento. According to a cousin who lives in Sebeka, the siblings' parents were both from Minnesota originally, and their mother moved back to the state after her husband died about ten years ago.
Michaud and Jan Granroth were stationed at a U.S. military base near Athens. The trio were exploring undersea caves near Athens in September of 1978. Their remains were recovered last year by Greek volunteer divers.
Michaud is to be buried today in Maine.
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Their bodies, or body parts, were still there after 30 years???
Of course, I can’t be certain, but I’m betting there weren’t cave diving certs. Such a huge percentage of people who die cave or wreck diving never took a class.
I have my open water cert. and I dove VERY seriously for awhile back in the 70s. But I never did dive in a Florida spring -- because the first time we pulled up to one, the rescue divers were bringing the bodies out. I didn't want to see the bottom of the cave that badly.
Prayers for the families and for the repose of the souls of the departed.
They identify bodies from Vietnam and Korea with DNA all the time, even though the body parts have been exposed to the weather for decades.
In an interesting side note, the same lab that does these DNA idents is hoping to identify the men recovered from USS Oklahoma two years after Pearl Harbor.
Yeah, no cave diving for me. When I was younger I was gung ho to do wreck penetration, but these days I’m glad I never learned. There’s nothing you’ll see that’s worth your life.
Encased in a neoprene wetsuit or, possibly, a drysuit? Yeah, it's possible. Not pretty, but possible.
Much preferred the Caribbean - did do some mild wreck diving in Bermuda, sort of ease in and ease back out. What a difference it makes to your peace of mind when you can look up 40 feet and see the hull of the dive boat!
The problem with springs is that when the water stops flowing, all the suspended sand comes comes down and covers anything below it.
He and his buddies just recently did a cave dive in Cozumel, Mexico.
He won't see me there though . . . especially not that I'm fair, fat and fifty . . . .
http://www.visitwimberley.com/jacobswell/
I know a deathtrap when I see one. That is an extremely dangerous cave, it has all the ingredients for big trouble -- restricted entrances, false exits, shifting gravel, and silt. All it needs is piranha . . . .
There’s a sign at the entrance to the caves in Florida (Silver Springs, IIRC) that says, “This is a cave in which 39 divers have died. Enter at your own risk”. When I dove there (late 70s), somebody had crossed out the 39 with nail polish and written 41. I figured that was all the warning I needed. Tragic.
I can't vouch for the present, but back in the early seventies there was the story a catfish that could swallow a VW was at the bottom. May be strechin it a bit, but there was one big fish down there.
“Yeah, no cave diving for me.”
My diving instructor said, “Today we are going to talk about cave diving. Don’t do it. Any questions?”
Sage advice.
At San Salvador in the Bahamas there was a grouper that looked to be about the size of a VW. He lived in a cave on the coral reef off the Columbus Landing bay.
Divers would bring him their leftover sausage from breakfast and drop it down to him. He would poke his head out, watch the food fall, and then just vacuum it in. Looked from that angle like he could SWALLOW a VW.
I think anyone with an instinct for self-preservation is lacking the "right stuff" for cave diving.
Possibly what a few years ago, was called a jewfish; however, in today's PC world, they are now known as goliath grouper.
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