Military to recreational diving

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I'm also extending my offer for basic open water at half price to all Law Enforcement, Fire Dept, and EMS personnel. You also serve and deserve to be recognized for that.

That's a very nice offer. I did my AOW course with a group from the Army National Guard and we received a similar deal.
 
You also serve and deserve to be recognized for that.

I am not serving yet but within the next two years (after finishing college) will be joining the U.S. Coast Guard and hope to dive for them. They do their dive training through the NAVY. Sorry if my original post was misleading.
 
I retirted from the Navy a few years ago however when i was active duty we had a NAUI card. The Navy divers are for the most part NAUI and they got ceryt cards after they qual'ed.
NASA also uses NAUI as there certification agency. Hope this will help. Another Crusty!!!
 
I went through Dive school in 2004. We were issued a diver ID card in Panama City that list's our Navy diving quals. It's generally up to the shops on whether they recognize this card or not. It really wasn't a problem though, there are usually either student or staff civilian instructors down there who would issue you a card from a recognized agency on the completion of school.
 
I wonder if anyone out there that was in the military and was trained by the military to dive has also taken dive instruction from PADI, NAUI, SEI, etc. and how they would compare the two. And I'm just talking about the actual learning/instruction/classroom part. For the most part I think it's a given that a military person would probably be in better condition the the average Joe on the street.

I would think that the military training would be more indepth but I really have no idea.
 
Not having taken the course at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, but having toured the facility, watched some of the training and talked with some of the instructors, even discounting the "military" aspect and concentrating solely on the dive training there's no comparison.
 
I wonder if anyone out there that was in the military and was trained by the military to dive has also taken dive instruction from PADI, NAUI, SEI, etc. and how they would compare the two. And I'm just talking about the actual learning/instruction/classroom part. For the most part I think it's a given that a military person would probably be in better condition the the average Joe on the street.

I would think that the military training would be more indepth but I really have no idea.

Having gone through dive school after already being a civilian dive instructor, I've got a pretty good prespective on that one. The training is definately more indepth, however the skills learned are not that different from your civilian dive course. They just like to add in a lot of other "fun" activities to keep us busy throughout the day!!
 
Thanks Walter and Terry.

It's just hard for me to imagine PADI, NAUI, or whatever agency there is out there saying to military people who were taught to dive by the military that they needed to do some type of minimal course work or show some instructor they can dive to get a card from that agency.

From Jim's post, at least SEI acknowledges what they have already accomplished and will issue them a card although I think $35 is outrageous to charge for a card.
 
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I'm a tad late in this thread, but I will work with any military personnel that need civilian certification. Used to do some YMCA cert crossovers during my association with SOT and I'd reckon a few of my cards are still down there. Only cost is whatever it costs me for the card. I can be contacted through SEI, NAUI or here. Also through Olympus dive center in Morehead City, which has by the way been very involved in SUDS now for several years.
Mike
 

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