Newspaper Article 2017 – Navy diver awarded for saving student

Navy diver awarded for saving student.

By Rachel Wise
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A Navy diver from Hawke’s Bay who rescued a drowning colleague was yesterday awarded the Defence Meritorious Service Medal for outstanding conduct.

Trevor Strickland, who received his medal in a ceremony at Freyberg House, grew up in Flaxmere, Hastings, attending Flaxmere Primary School and St John’s College. His grandfather, Trevor Whatuira, says as a young boy Mr Strickland was his “crewman” when the pair went fishing and it was hard to keep him in the boat.

“He always wanted to be in the sea,” Mr Whatuira said.

Throughout his school days Mr Strickland played a lot of rugby, representing Hawke’s Bay at Ross Shield level and going on to captain the Navy rugby team and the NZ Defence Force team.

But on September 15, 2015, he was a student on the Petty Office Diver Course when he was asked to play the role of an unconscious diver at depth in an exercise to test a student rescue diver.

As Mr Strickland lay face down in the mud on the seabed, the student rescue diver suffered a flash flood in his diving mask, which caused him to panic.

At a depth of nine metres, with visibility of less than one metre, the student ripped his diving helmet off and tried to swim to the surface. But because he was negatively buoyant and tethered to a diving bell he could not ascend and began to drown.

“We are a military family down through the generations and we are very proud of him.”
Trevor Whatuira, grandfather

When the student rescue diver didn’t appear, Mr Strickland concluded something was wrong and began searching for him, until a temporary clearance in visibility revealed the man fighting for his life a short distance away.

Mr Strickland followed the attached lifelines, got to the safety of the bell and restored the stricken diver’s airway until the bell was brought to the surface, after which he continued the resuscitation.

Mr Strickland’s medal citation says: “The professional skill and presence of mind displayed by Leading Diver Strickland were of the highest order and saved the life of a fellow diver . . . he is a worthy recipient of the Defence Meritorious Service Medal.”

Mr Whatuira says his grandson was “too humble” to tell his family about the medal citation.

“He told me about the incident after it happened but it was his partner, who is also in the Navy, who told us about the citation. We are a military family down through the generations and we are very proud of him.”

Photo caption: SERVICE MEDAL: Leading Diver Trevor Strickland, RNZN, has been recognised for rescuing a fellow diver.  PHOTO/SUPPLIED.