Bradford man serving as Army diver

FORT SHAFTER FLATS, Hawaii – When the son of a Bradford couple tells people he’s a diver for the Army, many assume he must be an Olympic hopeful – then they ask what his real job is.

Army Spec. Michael Randall, son of Melvin and Ruth Randall of Bradford, is one of 150 full-time U.S. Army deep-sea divers in the military.

Before American wartime supply ships enter a port, an Army dive team probably has been there in advance to clear the way.

Randall is trained to jump into any ocean, taking with him special jackhammers, pile drivers and enough TNT to open the port. Otherwise, ships get stuck and combat or humanitarian work comes to a dangerous halt.

“When I’m out diving,” Randall said, “I can do pretty much anything underwater. I have done pier inspections, hull inspections and repair, cutting and welding, demolition, searches and much more. I work on the air systems squad where I pull maintenance on our hyberbaric chamber and the rest of our equipment. I’m in the process of building a charging station to charge scuba tanks from our shop.”

When the United States is not at war, Randall conducts underwater demolition. Or he cuts obstacles with underwater chain saws and unentombs bodies of missing GIs – victims of the Vietnam conflict in the 1960s and ’70s – from helicopters that crashed into the deep waters of Vietnam, in order to return them to the United States for a proper burial.

“I got into diving because I love the ocean,” Randall said. “Most people have never heard of Army divers. Many people don’t know what we do and how important our job is. We have a special skill, being able to work on the bottom of the ocean. Construction, demolition, salvages – we can do it all.”

With only 150 divers, deep-sea soldiers are in the saltwater nearly every day. And while he’s not diving for Olympic glory, Randall insists he wouldn’t have it any other way.