Military Diver coming out and want to dive?

[Jim Lapenta]

SEI policies allow for U.S. Military trained divers to apply for a sport diving certification card through our
agency.
For many years highly trained military divers, after leaving the Armed Services, have found it difficult to buy
air, acquire space on dive boats and otherwise obtain the right and privileges afforded to individuals with
recreational diving certifications. SEI welcomes them to the civilian side of diving.
An administrative fee equal to the cost of processing the individual's card and returning it to them by mail will
be charged. This is the same fee charged to SEI divers who have lost and desire a replacement
certification card.
A military diver desiring a recreational certification card from the SEI must provide a photocopy of a U.S.
Navy or Army Special Forces certificate of training/ U.S. Military dive card, and a check or money order
payable to Å´EI? (Contact the SEI Office for the current fees). The individual must also provide their full
name, date of birth and current address.
SEI views this policy as an administrative service for U.S. Military divers to provide them with the means to
pursue recreational diving without having to duplicate training at significant personal cost through a local
civilian facility.
This decision is in keeping with the SEI tradition of working with the U.S. Armed Services.

This post is a result of a question in another forum. Just for your info and thanks for serving!

 

[winker88]

So if SEI do this for ex military divers why not other agencies?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

You'd have to ask them. We believe that as trained divers who have sacrificed for your country and fellow citizens you should be allowed to continue to dive without having to spend money on basic classes that you really do not need. THese are trained divers we are talking about. Some of whom may even know more, have done more, or experienced more than many instructors. I will shoot an email to SEI HQ to verify this or perhaps just call them to make sure that one of your Royal Marines or Her Majesties Navy Divers can do the same. Again I will verify but we have instructors in Germany, Poland, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea. They all have Navy's with divers and I'm sure they can do this for them as well.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

As promised here is the official word on certs for military divers outside of the US. Due to the differences in training and language in order for a military diver from outside the US to get an SEI cert based on his/her military training and experience they would need to contact an SEI Diving instructor in their home country who not only knows our standards(SEI's) but is also familiar with and can evaluate the standards and training practices of the military in their country.

If the SEI Diving Instructor feels that they have the experience and qualifications the instructor has the authority to issue an SEI Diving certification card with no further testing if they feel that the person's military training is sufficient. If the instructor has questions they may require the person to do a skills and knowledge evaluation at their discretion. SEI does not require it. We trust the judgement and integrity of our instructors. It is up to the instructor if they wish to charge for their time for doing this. SEI requires the same fee for processing and issuing a card whether testing is done or not.

Again this is not due to doubts as to the qualifications of the diver but the differences noted are better handled by someone with actual knowledge and experience with them. For instance if a persons qualifications and experience are printed in Japanese it's easier for one of our Japanese instructors to evaluate them.