Come at me Flipper

As a Judge Advocate in the Navy, my focus is pretty narrow.  Particularly as a prosecutor, you end up seeing a lot of the worst people in the Navy.  Just part of the job.  However, there are some bright spots.  For instance, today a group of us listened to a presentation from a Master Chief who works Explosive Ordinance Disposal.

Master Chiefs are usually pretty cool guys.  They have reached the highest enlisted rank and they have a bit of swagger to them, but they can back it up in spades.  This guy was the real deal, he has been all over the world doing different missions.  When I was in Afghanistan, we lived in fear of improvised explosive devices.  We got some training on what to look out for.  The problem was the guidance wasn't that useful.  For instance, they told us to look out for suspicious garbage piles.  However, it is difficult to pin down what makes one pile suspicious and another one not.  It isn't like a garbage pile has shifty eyes or a menacing scar.  Similarly, they told us to look out for broken down vehicles.  In Afghanistan, all the vehicles are either broken down, or right on the verge of it, so once again not that useful.

Unlike the normal person, an E.O.D. guy actually seeks out these I.E.D's and disarms them.  Pretty heavy stuff.  They are also trained in anti mine warfare and some other high tech stuff.  But the most interesting part of the story involves the dolphins.

The Navy has trained dolphins to do two missions.  First, the dolphins can locate mines.  Really well and really fast.  Once they locate a mine, they will surface and signal where it is as best they can.  The other thing they can do is patrol an area for swimmers who may be carrying explosives.  They carry a device on their snout and when they detect a swimmer they will hit the swimmer with this device which activates a dye pack on the surface.  Of course, they just think it is a big game.  Part of the EOD mission is to train these dolphins, and act as intruder swimmers to give the dolphins some practice.

As you can imagine, when you go against a dolphin in the water, you lose.  Now if anyone could have beat a dolphin it would have been this Master Chief.  He was a pretty short guy, but incredibly powerful, like a bulldog.  Like a bulldog that beats up lesser bull dogs.  The way he told it is that some of the dolphins, particularly the big males get really into this game.  They like nothing more than swimming up at top speed, 40 mph or so, and just barreling into people.  Apparently a number of guys have broken ribs or suffered some pretty good facial injuries.  I am sure for these guys it is a source of pride though.  I just love the idea of someone swimming along and a dolphin coming out of nowhere and tagging the guy. (go to 30 second mark)