Saturday's dive

Left: S/S Syria.
Sorry for the crappy photo.




The wreck diving at Bjuröklubb was scheduled for 27-29/7 but since I was working on Friday I arrived to late for Friday's dive. The following day I got up at around half past nine. One of the compressors had been running a few minutes and even though I could rest fairly comfortably I couldn't sleep, might as well get up.

Left: one of the compressors.








I had a light breakfast and spoke to some of the other divers. Today we were going to dive the Syria. Syria was sunk at N 64.22.0 - O 21.36.0 on July the 16:th 1916 by the Russian sub Vephr. Vephr fired three torpedoes which hit Syria astern, mid ship and at the bow. Syria was transporting iron ore from Luleå to Germany and due to it's heavy cargo it sank rapidly but the entire crew of 23 men, one pilot and one pilot apprentice was rescued. The wreck lies at 22 meters depth just outside Bjuröklubb.

We had two boats at our disposal, "Bulan" and "Explorer", each towing a dingy. We stowed our gear onto the boats and got into our dry suits. The boat ride took roughly 70 minutes one way. There was a constant light rain in the air and the winds were picking up. After about 40 minutes at sea a lot of people did not look all that well. As we got to the position we called up "Explorer" and asked her to drop anchor at the wreck. We paired up and the dive leader documented the dive teams. I dove with my instructor as this was a course dive for CMAS 2*. Dive time was decided to be no more then 40 minutes. We got into our vests and prepared to dive. Out of paranoia and caution I did not fasten the vest clip that is positioned closely to the button that inflates the suit. During a dive in the river that very clip pushed down on the inflator which slowly and quietly filled the suit with air, pulling me to the surface despite my attempts to empty the air through the escape valve.

We made entry onto the water from the dive platform and swam towards the descent line. My instructor went down first and I followed behind. I could see roughly 7 meters down the line, beyond that there were just darkness. At around 19 meters there was a large sheet of metal against which the line was resting. As we hovered past it I could see the bow of the ship. Beyond the bridge the decks lay like an open landscape below. It was quite a sight. Much of the wooden deck was still in place although parts were torn open to reveal the rooms below. There were several holes on the deck including what looked like a brick chimney. My instructor picked up what looked like an S-shaped pipe while hovering just above the deck. He handed the pipe over to me and I immediately sank to the deck a few inched below. The pipe was massive, not very long but very thick and quite heavy.

Daylight was sufficient to illuminate the decks well enough for navigation but inside the ship it was pitch black. I turned on my Underwater Kinetics Q60 and looked into the holes. There were usually not very much to see inside since most of it was torn by the explosion and ravaged by time - but it was still hard to just swim by without examining more closely. The white light of the Q60 pierced the darkness with a sharp concentrated beam. We swam past the deck and over a cargo hold. It extended down perhaps 5 meters into the dark belly of the ship. My instructor went down into the hold. Although the opening was fairly large I waited for him to get down before I made my way down. When you're lying horizontally and wearing fins you take up a lot of space. I raised my left arm to let air out of the suit and ascended into the hold. Around the edges of the opening there were steel support columns. We looked around for a while and then my instructor went back up onto the deck. I waited for my instructor to clear the hold and then made my way up. At this point I was rather careful not to over inflate the suit, if I filled to much air into it I would probably not be able to stop my ascent. Just at the top of the hold I kicked something with one of my fins. The first thought was that I just kicked the regulator out of my instructors mouth. I stopped moving my legs and turned 180 degrees to my left but I didn't see anyone. At this time a second dive pair swam by the hold. I turned my light into the hold but couldn't see anyone or any bubble trail. Well, the good news is that I probably didn't kick anyone. The bad news is that our two man team just became two one man teams. I decided to stay at the hold, if my instructor was going too look for me this was probably the first place to search. I looked 90 degrees to my left and saw my instructor at a distance, looking around for someone - presumable me. I flashed my light in his general direction and swam up to him. We started to move back over the deck towards the bow. At the end of the deck there were debris from the bridge above. I could clearly make out several faucets and a tile floor in the beam of my flashlight. As I looked above I could see the torn upper deck stretching above my head.

We swam back and over the bridge to the line. We made our way up the line to 5 meters were we made a decompression stop for three minutes. My instructor hooked his Jon line to the ascent line, I held my right arm above the line just in case. The idea is to "hang" at the line, using it as a reference point without actually holding on to it. Suddenly the line dropped a few meters. Apparently one of the divers above had a too negative buoyancy and pulled the line down with him. As I looked up I could see a diver trying to swim to the surface only to be grabbed by his dive buddy which signed to him, in no uncertain terms, that he MUST stay for the entire decompression stop.

After a while the line stabilized again and the top most pair broke the surface. Shortly there after we ascended to the boat and swam to the diving platform. We handed over out weight belts and climbed the dive ladder. Syria may be ravaged by time and Russian torpedoes alike but it still offers great diving. We stowed away our vests and waited for the other divers. As all divers were accounted for there were only a hand full of people in shape for a second dive. My instructor had a slight shift in the skin color of his face and didn't really feel like diving again - even though he was the number one candidate for retrieving the anchor at the end of today's dive. Only four divers went down for the second time, one of which nearly got puked upon on his return. During their dive time the winds started to pick up and the dive platform was savagely striking the surface of the water for each big wave. As the diver ascended it was decided that divers should only enter the platform from the side to prevent getting struck on the head by either platform or ladder. There were two of us on the platform, one on either side. The divers handed their weight belts and fins to us and we helped pull them on board. Shortly there after we pulled up the anchor and made our way back to Bjuröklubb.

Left: "Bulans" dive platform - image from Simpan.

At the harbor we had some refreshments and shortly there after my instructor, me and another dive pair was on the next boat out to a small wreck just off the harbor. My 10L 300bar bottle (3000 liters of air at 1bar/surface) was not filled yet, so I used my 12L 200bar bottle (2400 liters of air at 1bar/surface) instead. The other dive pair was going to see the wreck, we were going to practice breathing two divers on one regulator, buddy breathing and mask emptying at 21 meters. The boat took us out to the presumed position of the wreck and we went down the descent line. At the bottom my instructor attached a search line and we swam roughly 15 meters out were we made a stop. My instructor signaled "empty mask". I let some air into the mask from my nose in order to remove the mask without getting squeeze on my eyes. As the mask was slightly over pressurized I held it and slid it right of. The pressure forced some water up my nose but there weren't much to do about that, I just concentrated on the breathing and putting the mask back on my head. I held the strap with both hands and hooked it over the back of my head and pulled the mask over my eyes. I emptied the mask, tucked the seal of the mask underneath the hood and signaled "OK". Then we made a circle search around the ascent line for a while. My instructor then signaled "no air". I took a deep breath and handed him my main regulator. I exhaled constantly but slowly to prevent lunge damage if we were to rise against the surface. I held the regulator at the hose and my instructor grabbed my hand, that way the assisted diver can still reach the purge button. We each took two breaths then handed over the regulator. After a while my instructor signaled me to hand over my secondary regulator and use the main myself. I gave him my secondary air source and we swam along the line for a while. I held on to his vest's shoulder strap in order to make sure that we did not get separated. The hose for the octopus is longer then the main, but we still had some problems since the hose extended from the first stage's right side and the regulator was connected to the hose on the right side. In other words the hose most be positioned from my right side, behind the other diver's head and to his mouth. After a short swim I looked at my manometer, 50 bar - just into the red area. The general rule is use 1/3 of the air diving, 1/3 to get back and 1/3 as backup. I only had a 1/4 of my original air supply left and we were two divers breathing from that tank. I showed the manometer to my instructor and he switched back to his main. We swam to the line and ascended to 5 meters were we hovered for 3 minutes of decompression. It's a strange feeling to float almost weightless in the water. For every inhalation I moved closer to the surface and for every exhalation I moved closer to the bottom. Every time I moved closer to the surface the pressure against the suit decreased and my lift increased, every time I moved closer to the bottom the pressure squeezed the suit and lift decreased.

After our deco stop we swam up to the boat. I was as good as out of air but my instructor made a short dive to try to locate the wreck that should be around here somewhere. I climbed aboard and stowed my equipment. The other divers joined shortly. That was the end of that day's diving.

We returned to the harbour and unloaded our gear. Today's dinner was surströmming, very tasty but an acquired taste to say the least. Later in the evening we broke out the whisky, brandy and cigars - well, no cigars for me thought but plenty of whisky (both Laphroaig 10 years and Ardbeg 18 years) and a hint of brandy. As for cigars, I've sold off my humidor and quit smoking as advised by the doctor I saw about my lunges, which was probably a good idea but the other doctor is not going to like that I sold off his access to a cigar habitat (sorry dad).

Sunday's dive

Got up at 09:35, seemed like the right thing to do - the compressor people usually power up the noisemaker at around 10:00. I felt OK, I suppose. A little to much whisky, salty snacks and surströmming. I felt sober and fairly fine but my stomach didn't seem to like yesterday's food arrangements.

I spoke to my instructor, who was in no hurry to get on a boat again, can't say I blame him. The man was not a minute away from vomiting on a surfacing diver but luckily his breakfast saw the surface before the diver did. I never became that ill, but I felt it creeping up on me. Seemed like a lot of people were feeling queasy, people (like me) who've never felt seasick before. The culprit was most likely a combination of diesel exhaust and rough seas. After a while on the boat I realised that I'm probably not gonna blow chunks but my stomach still felt kind of in an uproar. I forced down a Snickers bar and pretty much felt better immediately. I guess I was more hungry then seasick. The Snickers bar was a so called "2 pack = big one", it's quite ingenious actually, there are two pieces of Snickers in one bar and to open it you just snap it in half - very useful when your hands are restricted by three-finger wet gloves. Anyhow, no boating was kind of good news. The agenda of the day was a rescue dive for the CMAS 2* course. Fair enough. Free diving to a little more then 5 meters to retrieve a diver. Free dive? In my dry shell suit? I was perhaps not all that enthusiastic. A dry shell suit is basically a large air tight non-flexible overall. While diving you control your buoyancy by adding or releasing air from the suit. If the suit contains a too small volume of air for a given depth (/pressure) you get a so called squeeze. That means that there is very little air between your body and the suit, allowing the water pressure to squeeze the diver. As the diver ascends the pressure will further squeeze the suit and the diver will plummet towards the bottom if air is not added to counteract this effect. If too much air is added the diver will start to ascend fairly slow but as the water pressure decreases the diver will be quite forcefully uprooted if the expanding air is not evacuated. A related problem is the tendency for air to travel within dry suits, creating lift in undesired areas - mainly the boots. My suit has neoprene choke points at the boots which prevents this phenomenon but in actuality it only moves the point of lift to the thighs. That makes it more controllable but still a problem.

Now that we have the basic theory done with, here's the specs for the exercise; the diver will free dive to 5 meters, retrieve an "unconscious" diver to the surface while keeping airways free to prevent lung rupture, tow the diver to safety while giving rescue breaths and remove weights and breathing apparatus/vest. The "unconscious" diver will be fully equipped, the rescuer will only wear dry suit, knife, gloves, hood, weights, fins, mask and snorkel.
Sounds simple enough. We made our way to the water and swam out to a depth of around 5 meters. I was going to make a few test dives before the live scenario. I snorkeled at the surface took a few deep breaths and pushed my torso underwater and raised my legs to swim down. Nothing happened. I had my torso underwater and my feet in the air. The remaining air within the suit rose to the legs and with fins over the surface I could not propel my body down. I noticed fairly quick that this isn't working and tried to raise my head over the surface, but the weight of the belt and the lift generated by the air in the legs wouldn't let me. There is a release valve at the left shoulder of the suit but since all the air was in the legs it wouldn't do anything. In order to shift the air I did a somersault in the water which moved the air to the chest and allowed me to hold my head over the surface. At this point my near-under water exercises had allowed water to enter through the neck seal. I let more air out of the suit and was now floating with my nose just at the surface. I made a new attempt and actually got underwater this time.

I've been diving in 4 meter pools before and can hold my breath for 2 minutes on dry land but at roughly 4 meters I felt that I had no air left in my lunges. There's a good reason why free divers never wear dry shell suits. Free diving without a suit or with a neoprene suit works just fine, neoprene fits snugly against the body and spreads the squeeze over a greater area. My shell suit forced all the air to the feet and squeezed my chest. I had to make my way back to the surface. At around 2 meters from the surface I slowed my ascent and felt the air returning to my lunges. As the pressure from the suit eased up I felt that I had no immediate need to surface. It is indeed a strange feeling. When you scuba dive your lunges are filled with air pressurized to the current depth which prevents the lunges from compressing. I made several attempts to reach the bottom, but never quite made it. My instructor was somewhat optimistic and thought it was time to do the exercise. I had my doubts. We both started at the shore, he swam out and positioned himself on the bottom at 5,something meters. I waited for him to get settled and then snorkeled out to the stream of bubbles. I took a few deep breaths through the snorkel and at the very end of my last breath I inhaled as I began my descent to make sure that I had as much air in my lunges as possible. As I felt the resistance in the snorkel I knew that the tip was under water and held that breath. About halfway down I realized that A: at this angle I was going to overshoot the diver and B: he was positioned on his stomach with his head against me. B was kind of a problem considering that I had to hold the divers head back to prevent lunge rupture and control his vest inflator with my other hand. This means that the best approach is from behind, that way you can control the neck with your right hand and inflator with your left without having to reposition the diver. As I was ascending towards the right side of the diver, I made a 180 degree turn and positioned myself behind the diver. I grabbed his inflator and the vests shoulder strap. At this point I didn't feel any need to surface, I was just focused on holding the vest and controlling the inflator. I felt that the worse part was actually the descent, I suppose that's because my lungs were compressing - once I was at the depth I felt pretty OK. I pushed air into his vest and then held his neck as we started to ascend. I managed to empty some of the air as we ascended but I think we probably broke surface a litte too fast. At the surface I filled more air into the vest, towed the diver to shore and dumped his equipment. It went pretty well I suppose, and I did passed the rescue segment of the course. But I dare anyone to call free diving with a dry shell suit easy. This was definitely the hardest part of the CMAS 2* course.

It can always be worse, but God damned...

I'm having one of those unpleasant weeks. Started of with 13 hours of work on Monday (06:55-21:05), continuing with 13 hours of work on Tuesday.



Tuesday's schedule was exactly like Monday's, except it started 10 minutes later otherwise it would be illegal to work due to restrictions regarding the minimal amount of (theoretically possible) sleep between shifts. Who the hell wrote my schedule? At the start of the month I had several 4h days, now I'm working all day...
I've scratched the glass on my EcoZilla while diving in the river. I felt the impact against the stone underwater and just I knew it was a bad hit. The curse of mineral glass I suppose, it won't break but it will scratch.
After a visit to the local hospital the results are in; I may have a slight touch of asthma in addition to my already reduced lung capacity due to my restricting thoracal. I had to return to the hospital the following day since I did not get the paperwork for the blood test in the letter they sent me. I was prescribed an inhaler, but since I basically don't have a dime on my account I haven't picked it up yet, no rush I suppose but still. I've been working for 1 month and 8 days and still haven't gotten my first paycheck. The bills are starting to stack up, reduced only by the somewhat staggering pile of loans I've gathered. I leave you with the words of Mr. Waits;

When I'm lyin' in my bed at night
I don't wanna grow up
Nothin' ever seems to turn out right
I don't wanna grow up
How do you move in a world of fog
That's always changing things
Makes me wish that I could be a dog
Well, when I see the price that you pay
I don't wanna grow up
I don't ever wanna be that way
I don't wanna grow up

Seems like folks turn into things
That they'd never want
The only thing to live for
Is today
I'm gonna put a hole in my TV set
I don't wanna grow up
Open up the medicine chest
And I don't wanna grow up
I don't wanna have to shout it out
I don't want my hair to fall out
I don't wanna be filled with doubt
I don't wanna be a good boy scout
I don't wanna have to learn to count
I don't wanna have the biggest amount
I don't wanna grow up

Well when I see my parents fight
I don't wanna grow up
They all go out and drinking all night
And I don't wanna grow up
I'd rather stay here in my room
Nothin' out there but sad and gloom
I don't wanna live in a big old Tomb
On Grand Street

When I see the 5 o'clock news
I don't wanna grow up
Comb their hair and shine their shoes
I don't wanna grow up
Stay around in my old hometown
I don't wanna put no money down
I don't wanna get me a big old loan
Work them fingers to the bone
I don't wanna float a broom
Fall in love and get married then boom
How the hell did I get here so soon
I don't wanna grow up
/Tom Waits - I don't wanna grow up

Franken-belt and SMB

A Surface Marking Bouy (SMB) is a inflatable device attached to a line controlled by a diver in order to mark his/her position. The correct marking is either the North American "Diver Down" flag or the international "Signal flag A".

Apart from entangling divers and getting on the wrong side of bridge pillars these devices are fairly harmless - although they often pose a fairly large mental multi-tasking strain. A SMB is actually harder to control then one might think. The line to the SMB must be long enough to allow the SMB to float freely at the surface. A to long line will move in the current, get entangled with the diver's equipment and allow the SMB to drift away - making it's function to mark the diver below somewhat arbitrary. A to short line will prevent the diver from ascending to the desired depth or at the very least make that trip fairly strenuous. SMBs also tend to get entangled in vegetation and against surface obstacles. My old weight belt had a small Velcro patch at the end of the handle which attaches to the belt, this prevent unintentional dumps and possible entanglement in, for instance, SMB lines. My Fraken-belt had yet to be equipped with such a function. Too bad. As I adjusted the vest on dry land I had a little too much air in it which made the straps too loose when the vest was empty (which can prove to be a problem since I adjust buoyancy with the dry suit and hence dive with no air in the vest). Not a big problem, except for the fact that the slim but heavy 10 liter 300 bar steel tank had a tendency to prefer either the right or left side. As I dove in the streaming water, battling the line of the SMB and the slate, I was making notes of the objects on the bottom while trying to keep the tank on my back and not on my side. At the time I thought that the strap holding the tank in place had slipped loose but as the vest had a small noose over the tanks reserve and main valve the bottle wouldn't fall, at least that's the theory. Me and my dive buddy dove around for a while, finding bicycles, ammunition and car batteries. To make sure that we were in the right area, we ascended to the surface to check our position. As we broke the surface we noticed that we were fairly on target, with a slight overshoot. The boat passed by and we signaled "OK". Suddenly I felt how something heavy fell from me and pulled the SMB line with it into the depths - a line my vest was currently anchored to. I informed the boat that I lost something. At first I though that I'd lost my tank and that even if the tank was loose from the vest it was still firmly screwed to the first stage. I thought the bottle would snap me down as it would tug on the hoses so I immediately filled the vest pretty much on reflex. As the vest filled properly I realised that it couldn't have been the tank that fell, which also made sense since the tank was not very likely to drag the SMB line down with it. The boat crew asked if I needed assistance, I informed them that I'd only lost the weight belt. I asked my dive buddy to retrieve it and that I would try to make it to the bottom with him. My dive buddy descended along the SMB line and found the weight belt. Apparently the SMB line got between the release handle and the belt and somehow the line got tense enough to release the weights. The two weights that I normally carry on the left and right side had fallen on either side of the SMB line, pinning it down at the bottom. I managed to swim down to the belt. My dive buddy had gotten somewhat entangled in the line and had trouble freeing the belt. I swam down to him and as he held the line I lifted the belt. As I grabbed the belt the added weight helped to keep me at the bottom, I didn't have to swim down in order to keep my position any longer. As I held the belt in my right hand I could feel the current trying to pull me away. At first I thought I should return to the surface and put the belt back while floating in the current. The problem is that the current at the surface could easily carry me way off my grid if I made anything more then a short stop. I found a log close to the belts crater, resting against a rock which lifted it approximately a meter from the bottom. I got one knee on either side and tried to hang on as I got the belt around my waist. This was fairly hard since the current pushed against me and gravity wanted the belt to fall down. I had to get the belt around my waist and snugly fit it just under the vest otherwise there would not be enough slack to close the buckle. Sitting up proved hard, I decided to hold the belt in place and then lie down on the bottom - letting the weight of the belt hold me in place as I struggle with the buckle. Wearing thick 3-finger wet gloves it was rather hard to maintain any dexterity and even harder to feel which part of the buckle goes where. After a short while I got the belt buckle to lock and started to haul in the SMB line. I made a quick pass of the area to see if I could spot my dive buddy, but as he were nowhere to be found I ascended to the surface. I was just at the edge of my grid with my buddy further upstream. I decided to make a short swim upstream in order to cut him off, but apparently we swam past each other. There was just a small patch left of our grid, so I decided to dive the edge of the grid and then wait for my buddy. I made an approximation of how far I could go without missing my stop, which was the edge of a small strip of land. If I would miss it I would surface at the middle of the river and have to swim across against the current - and get up on the wrong side of the river as the Micra was parked on the other side. As I made my final ascent I felt something tug my left arm. My first thought was that the SMB had gotten entangled, but since I felt the SMB pulling it's line in my right hand - that didn't make sense. Apparently I had gotten entangled in a fishing line.

My first though was to pull my main knife from my right leg, but there's no need to wield a large knife for a small knife's work - what with the SMB line and everything. I had mounted my back-up knife on the inflator hose at my left shoulder, which proved itself to be very useful. The line stretched upstreams further then I could see down to a rock just downstream from my position, with my arm somewhere between.

I cut the line as far up as I could reach and swam to the rock. I could not see a lure and the line was firmly attached, so I just cut it as close to the rock as I could. I put my knife away and made my way to the surface and awaited my dive buddy. He arrived a few minutes after me and we started hiking back to our cars. All in all a fairly successful dive, we logged a fair amount of crap in the area. The dive pair on the other side even found a parking meter of all things. Seems like a heavy object to lug around. Also, I found the reason for the Velcro strap on the old belt.

In search for garbage

The day started at 09:00 with a short briefing at "Simpan", followed by designation of dive pairs and refilling of scuba tanks. Business of the day; inspecting the river for trash, debris and environmentally hazardous materials.

Roughly an hour later we were on our way. Most of us started on the northern bank at Mobacken and worked our way downstream. The weather was miserable - gloomy with a constant touch of light rain. My shoes and socks were wet from the rain and tall grass. To get to our assigned grid me and my dive buddy had to move some boulders in order to get our vehicles onto the path from the parking lot. A path obviously not meant for cars, hence the blockade and the signs. Pedestrians looked on as three vehicles charged down the path, lead vehicle was a Mitsubishi L200 SUV followed by a Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV followed by a 1L engine, 3 door Nissan Micra K11, flying the large "Signalflagga A" from it's antenna. Signalflagga A looks like this, means "Diver in the water, stay clear!" and is dimensioned 100cm X 120cm.

We got to our grid and started our search. After our second grid I couldn't equalize my right ear which started to hurt like crap at 5 meters - I had to abort. Shortly after we took a lunch break. I dropped off my gear at home and changed into dry clothes. I also changed to my Haglöfs "Track" Gore-tex shoes, which are really quite phenomenal. I was not only walking through wet grass in the rain but standing in the water while assisting the divers with lead and retrieved sharp objects. Yet my socks did not get wet nor did my feet get cold. It really made the weather so much more tolerable, A+!

Anyways, since I wasn't going to dive due to my right ear, I got a two-way radio, a "Dykledare" vest and responsibility for the northern bank. Fine. I got to the northern bank to find only two divers.

They were not quite ready to go into the water so I decided to take the Micra down the path to see where the others went, someone said that there should at least be two pairs on the northern bank. I made my way down the path and over a bridge clearly not meant for vehicles, although (obviously) stable enough to get a Micra over and safely returned.










Further down I got to a bridge to small even for a Micra. I radioed the south side and asked how many diver's there should be on my side. They informed me that there should be another 2-man team at the "Pipes [No anchoring]" sign, so I drove back to that position. No sign of anyone. After some initial confusion it became apparent that this was the position for dive pair number five, to whom I had spoken earlier. The number five pair moved into position and made their way into the water. Pair five were the last one out of the water at the end of the day, in part due to the loss of a lead weight. The south side actually radioed in and asked whether the fifth pair was lost at sea, they were ready to drive home and the fifth team had just broken surface and was going back to search for the lost weight. In summation, it all went pretty well (neither injuries nor fatalities) - we found mostly parts of little to no value, fishing lures, cans and someone found a gear box. Norra Västerbotten, the local newspaper interviewed one of the instructors and FotoMicke took some photos for the article.

But the job is not done yet, there are still unchartered areas left. Diving operations will resume on Thursday.







Unrelated link;
It's kind of funny, but not in the way he (the guy in the video) thinks - anyone who laughs does so at his expense. Personally, I'm not laughing - this is just tragic. Video clip here. If i tried to get drunk enought to stoop down to his level, I think I my body would die before I got there. In case you haven't already guessed the individual I'm writing about here's a clue: He scored one (1) point over the "to dumb to qualify" cut-off point for the Texas National Air Guard exam and yet got approved during the Vietnam war. The individual in question is not fit to rule a row boat on dry land.
Link number two: Is Bush an "idiot"?