The Good Life – September-October 2014

cutting one of the divers. The entire
group, including Bud Meyers,
VWR’s official Canine handler,
arrived with his scent dogs,
Barnaby and Laura, headed further
down, under the Center Avenue
Bridge. Before long, it looked as
if a small band of frogmen were
setting up an encampment on the
Red’s river bank. Several minutes
passed and as it is now past five
o’clock, the heat index has peaked,
with the humidity feeling about 75
percent. I felt an instant empathy
for the three divers who already
had their divers’ suits on, waiting
for the green light to start putting
their tanks and gear into place on
their bodies.
During this time, Johnson
explained more about the critical
importance of a Tender’s job.
Essentially, Tenders are who make
the difference whether or not a
diver could lose their life or not.
A Tender makes doubly certain the
divers have everything they may
need, above or under the water,
by going through each and every
aspect of what they have on them −
their tanks, their hoses, their pony
tank, their communication ear and
voice pieces. The the Tender will
attach a tether line with which a
diver can communicate or let them
know if they have a problem, or get
into unforeseen trouble. While the
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