Michigan veterans undergoing therapy to heal from past mental trauma or physical injury, may have another option to reduce symptoms...in the form of scuba diving!
The non profit organization, Warfighter Scuba, recently teamed up with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary to act as a diving certification and underwater therapy destination for three veterans chosen for the "first-time" program. WCMU's Tina Sawyer recently spoke with Warfighter Scuba spokesman Kevin Sheard. Sheard began the conversation explaining how veterans benefit ...psychologically and physically... from diving.
Editor's note: This story was produced for the ear and designed to be heard. If you're able, WCMU encourages you to listen to the audio version of this story by clicking the LISTEN button above. This transcript was edited for clarity and length.
Kevin Sheard: So we used in rich air nitrox and all of them get certified for enriched air nitrox as well. So you're getting a higher level of oxygen that is in the atmosphere and we can do we certify them to breathe up to 40% O 2. So that is kind of like an oxygen bar. It recharges your cells and gives you a little bit of benefit there. The second piece is. As soon as you go under the water, you're under pressure and we'll go down to to three, you know, potentially 4 atmospheres. And that's kind of like a hyperbaric treatment. So with the enriched air nitrox and the pressures and getting those partial pressures of oxygen boosted into the cells, it has a healing effect. It helps with traumatic brain injury and that it encourages vascular development. Especially if it's in the brain, making new connections and that kind of thing. But also with scar tissue or arthritis or other things, it it really can be alleviating from some of that and if they've got, you know and and the other side of it too, if they're amputees cause we'll take amputees as well they have, you know, the feeling of weightlessness and they don't have stress on, you know certain joints or body, but also the freedom of being out of a wheelchair potentially or off of crutches or without a prosthetic. And it it's very. Bring the other side is the absolute focus that you required. You might have 99 problems on the surface. You go underwater and you just gotta remember to breathe. So it's a very focused, quiet. All of the noise goes away and you're focused like a laser beam and you're completely distracted from any of the noise from the outside world.
Tina Sawyer: So why bring it to Thunder Bay?
Kevin Sheard: My first dive in the Great Lakes was actually in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. And the people are great up there. I've known the people up there for a while and they were super helpful and helping me get everything set up and then also creating some citizen science programs. So when I was up there for the Thunder Bay International Film Festival that's held in January, it was just a natural fit to try and do a trip here.
Tina Sawyer: And how magnificent it must be for some of these divers also to go underwater and see some of these shipwrecks.
Kevin Sheard: Well, that's the other benefit. I I love diving shipwrecks and that was another draw to it. I mean, the natural attractions and the history and the museum that that we had full access to. Check out just an amazing way to kind of tie everything in.
Tina Sawyer: You had three that were part of this program, but you're hoping for it to grow.
Kevin Sheard: Usually we we do 4 or so, but this time because we had a filmmaker when we're documenting this about what it is that we do to help get the word out. But we definitely plan on and are in the process of planning something in the future to continue coming to Thunder Bay and making it an annual or or biannual trip.
Tina Sawyer: And what do you see for this program in the future, like in Michigan anyway?
Kevin Sheard: Well, in Michigan, we have an annual sporting event that is a fundraiser that we do usually in October or early November. We try to hit it right around Veteran's Day. But really, we wanted to kick off Michigan with Thunder Bay and hope to grow that and continue doing some shipwrecks and we've got some different leads on some folks that are in different areas that want to work with us, hopefully growing. I mean, we're only restrained by budget, so more fundraising means we can get more divers. Through and more folks through the backlog and we just want to grow the network. And if we have funds and and we're able to send more people through, we will.
HOST: That was Kevin Sheard talking with WCMU's Tina Sawyer about their veterans diving program. Warfighter Scuba's documentary on the dive with veterans at Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary will premiere to the public at the Thunder Bay International Film Festival in 2026.
