US Navy Hull Technician 1ST Class Patrick Wheeler (right) listens to last-minute instructions on the "pinger locator" before starting his next dive. Wheeler is assigned to the submarine tender USS EMORY S. LAND (AS 39), and is diving from the Navys salvage rescue ship USS GRASP (ARS 51) as part of an augmentation force to facilitate 24-hour diving operations. US Navy Boatswains Mate CHIEF Donald Dennis, stationed aboard the Grasp, displays the Datasonics "pinger locator", used to locate Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs). The ROVs role in finding bodies from the crash of TWA flight 800 has been a tremendous asset for his divers responsible for a gruesome yet important task. Instead of ...

The original finding aid described this photograph as:

[Complete] Scene Caption: US Navy Hull Technician 1st Class Patrick Wheeler (right) listens to last-minute instructions on the "pinger locator" before starting his next dive. Wheeler is assigned to the submarine tender USS EMORY S. LAND (AS 39), and is diving from the Navys salvage rescue ship USS GRASP (ARS 51) as part of an augmentation force to facilitate 24-hour diving operations. US Navy Boatswains Mate Chief Donald Dennis, stationed aboard the Grasp, displays the Datasonics "pinger locator", used to locate Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs). The ROVs role in finding bodies from the crash of TWA flight 800 has been a tremendous asset for his divers responsible for a gruesome yet important task. Instead of wasting precious hours underwater searching, a ROV can locate bodies and hover near them, directing the divers to its location with an attached "pinger". Divers can then spend most of their time in the recovery phase of this operation. TWA flight 800 crahed in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, New York, on July 17, 1996.

Base: USS Grasp (ARS 51)

Scene Camera Operator: PH1 Glen J. Hurd, USA

Release Status: Released to Public
Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files