Anyone else wonder, while watching this, why they sent 3 divers in zero vis to try to find by touch a bomb that they believed was buried in 5-15' of silt? Not sure if it was just bad editing not explaining the scope of the dive operation or something similar, but they didn't even seem to be using basic search and recovery / archaeology techniques or the equipment that's available out there. After watching it I wasn't too suprised they didn't find the damn thing =/
Heh... Very sharp, parkerco.
What is portrayed in the show was quite different from reality. That said, the story that was then told was as accurate a portrayal of reality as I've seen, which helped to dispel a lot of myth and legend surrounding the Bomb. To that end, Mark Marabella of Marabella Productions must be congratulated - the story he told was the best account of actual events that I've seen.
...But as far as that day's dives go, what was portrayed was quite different from actual events, in an effort to tell an accurate story overall.
Here's how the shoot happened: I was introduced to Mark at a friend's house, where he identified himself as a producer of documentaries that aired on NatGeo, History, Discovery, and the like. He expressed great interest in the story of the Tybee Bomb, and told me that he'd get back in contact.
Almost a year later, he asked me to put a search together for his film crew. Frankly, with a lot of people claiming a lot of things, I was surprised to hear back from him, and surprised that he wanted to really pull together a shoot. At the time, we had no assurance that what was shot would ever actually end up on television.
I coordinated the dives using two chartered boats (ours were put away for the winter) and contacted the rest of the team - notably, Derek Duke, who invited Joe Eddleman (nuke specialist), Commander Arseneault, and more. I elected Tim Lynch (dive buddy and EOD specialist in the Marine Corps) and RavenC from here (my then-girlfriend and dive buddy) to dive with us. Also present was Nancy Heffernan, our media photographer.
Our chartered boats were not equipped with our normal scanning equipment. Joe Eddleman had brought one of his Geiger counters (altered and housed for this application) and the film crew had brought a rented underwater camera capable of theater-quality shots - complete with a fiber tether that allowed the film crew to see what was being shot underwater while they stayed in the relative warmth of the boat.
Our objective that day was not an actual search - our objective that day was to get footage... To LOOK like we were searching. In an actual search, we would have no time or attention span to work with the camera and crew... Nor would they be interested in hours and hours of "mowing the lawn" - riding around on a rocking boat for hours at 3 mph.
There is considerably more structure to our activities during actual searches.
The first time I saw the show, I was disppointed to see that the story was quite focused on Derek as the leader of the group. At the time, Derek had been warned by the Federal government to leave the Bomb alone, and really wasn't interested in any more publicity. Instead, he allowed my company and it's boats and resources to take over the searching... Yet, he was focused on as the nexus of the group, for the sake of the story. This differed from reality at the time, and is completely different now.
There was also a point in the show when Commander Arseneault was said to be "heading a dive team today." While he WAS the head of the dive team in 1958, we did not meet Commander Arseneault until that day, on the boat. He was there to provide additional information (which we need so desperately), and because he is STILL interested in finding the Bomb - not because he held a leadership role at the time of filming. Nonetheless, it made a good story to say that he was leading a dive team today.
Obviously, during editing Marabella productions decided to add credibility to the story by introducing Derek Duke (USAF Ret) and Commander Art Arseneault (USN Ret) as the leaders of the group. In reality, the only leader of this search was me - but the best way for me to lead the group was to stand by and allow everyone do what they did best... Sniff radiation, provide information, represent the team, and of course... Tell the story.
...So that's what I did.
And the end result, while perhaps not a fully accurate portrayal of the actual searches (we don't really want everyone knowing our exact methods anyway), is shockingly accurate in the tale of the Tybee Bomb... And like I said before, it helped to dispel a lot of myth, legend and folklore that surrounded the Bomb.
