*** Welcome to piglix ***

Willard Franklyn Searle

Willard Franklyn "Bill" Searle Jr.
Born (1924-01-17)January 17, 1924
Columbus, Ohio
Died March 31, 2009(2009-03-31) (aged 85)
Alexandria, Virginia
Allegiance United States United States of America
Service/branch United States Navy
Years of service 1945–1970
Rank Captain
Awards Legion of Merit

Capt. Willard Franklyn "Bill" Searle Jr. USN (ret.) (January 17, 1924 – March 31, 2009) was an American ocean engineer who was principally responsible for developing equipment and many of the current techniques utilized in United States Navy diving and salvage operations.

Searle was born January 17, 1924 in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Bexley High School in 1941 and received the school's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred during his first year at Washington and Lee University prompting a transfer to the US Naval Academy where he graduated in 1945 (Class of 1946). In 1945, Searle marched with his Naval Academy Company to accompany the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Union Station to the White House. Searle then went on to graduate work in naval architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology attaining a master's degree in 1952. Later that year, Searle was assigned as an Engineering Duty Officer in salvage, diving and ocean engineering.

Searle's first diving experience came in 1946 while serving in the destroyer USS Meredith before transferring to the USS Weiss where he was introduced to Underwater Demolition Team techniques. Searle then trained at the Naval School of Diving and Salvage at the Washington Navy Yard, where he became a deep-sea helium-oxygen diving officer. He was then assigned to two tours at the Charleston Naval Shipyard.


...
Wikipedia

...