NASA Astronaut Recognized Local Sailors
NASA astronaut Jim
Reilly recently presided over an awards ceremony for Mobile Diving
and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 2. The ceremony, held at Naval Amphibious
Base, Little Creek, recognized Sailors for their search efforts of
space shuttle Columbia STS Flight 107.
"NASA is grateful for your help," Reilly said to the group of
Sailors. He went on to tell them how he plans to take a part of the
command with him, long after the ceremony ends. "On my next mission
to space, I will be taking a MDSU challenge coin with me."
While re-entering earth's atmosphere February 1,
Columbia broke apart, leaving a debris trail over 220
miles long that started in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and ended in
western Louisiana. Several witnesses, who were fishing nearby the
morning of the crash, reported hearing debris hit the water of the
Toledo Bend Reservoir, which spans 60 miles long and four miles
across.
Directly following the tragic Columbia Space Shuttle
disintegration, MDSU-2 responded to a request from NASA for search
operations and wreckage recovery. A team of 63 military personnel,
including active and Reserve divers, Supervisor of Salvage,
Supervisor of Diving, and several other Naval Sea Systems Command
(NAVSEA) personnel, worked with local and national civilian
organizations to complete the search project despite adverse
conditions.
Three civilian dive teams, from the FBI, the EPA, and the Texas
Department of Public Safety began diving February 3, based on the
witness accounts.
February 14, the Chief of Naval Operations appointed the Navy to
command the underwater search effort. The search area was defined
by NASA as one nautical mile on either side of the
Columbia flight path. A secondary search area extended the
original by an additional one nautical mile on either side of the
flight path. This produced a water search area of 14.69 square
nautical miles.
After two months of intensive search and recovery efforts that
extended to Lake Nacogdoches, dive operations were completed April
12 with a handful of recovered pieces turned over to NASA officials
as possible shuttle debris. Nine dive teams (four Navy and five
civilian) with more than 140 divers, cleared 3,100 targets, made
3,019 dives, and recorded 825 hours of bottom time in the efforts
to recover key pieces of debris, that might unlock clues to the
Columbia crash and prevent future tragedies.
[ANN Thanks Lt. j.g. Sara Olsen, Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit
2 Public Affairs]