3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2016
Hero has saved 10 lives so far as a diver
By JILLIAN WARD
The World
COOS BAY — After the
Patty AJ capsized in March,
and 6-year-old Isaiah Metzger
nearly drowned in August,
a name kept being repeated:
Bob Hood, the rescue and
recovery diver from the Ban-
don Dive Team.
Locals call him a hero, but
when Hood got into this job,
he never imagined it would
become what it has.
“When this dive team was
starting out, we didn’t know
how overmatched we were,
that we weren’t trained to do
what we were doing,” Hood
said. “Our first case with the
airplane really showed us
what we were getting into.”
It was 1994, and he and a
few other divers had formed
an unofficial team because
they had all done commercial
diving in the past and wanted
to put their skills to good use.
Hood had a friend with the
North Bend Police Depart-
ment at the time and heard
there was a need, one that
Hood and the others hoped to
fill.
They didn’t have to wait
long before they were called
to work.
A small plane crashed
at the Southwest Oregon
Regional Airport. There were
three on board, and the team
was called in to recover the
bodies.
“It was really traumatic,”
Hood said. “It was a high
speed accident, and so it took
a while to get over that. That’s
not a normal thing that you go
through.”
But it was the beginning.
Hood said that case kick-
started the team into gear
and established the airport’s
water rescue team. Hood and
the others were sent to Div-
ers International for train-
ing, where they took courses
for public safety diving, dive
technician one and two, over-
head environment and how
to handle underwater crime
scenes.
“And off we went,” he
said.
Close call
tell by his face, a tough guy,
and if he says he’s hurt, he
was hurt. We have a lot of
stuff on, so our gear soft-
ened the blow, but we were in
recovery mode at that point
and had to ask ourselves what
are we risking and why are
we risking it?”
Hood and his team
attempted another dive once
more, hoping to bring the
sailor home, “but we couldn’t
do it. Whenever there is a
drowning, you feel like you
didn’t do your job.”
“These are all emotional
cases,” Hood said. “When
a human is involved, it will
always be emotional.”
Hood said he was able to see
all the way around the cabin,
but that’s when a wave swept
over and pulled Hood out
toward the net reel behind
him.
“That’s not something
you want to deal with, and I
was hanging onto the door-
jamb when the door slammed
on my hand over and over
again,” Hood said. “That was
unforeseen. I didn’t realize I
would be pulled out and knew
not to go back in.”
Hood tried the dive the
next day with a member from
his team. The Patty AJ had
not only sunk by that point,
but did so in one of the most
dangerous areas of the bay
according to the Coast Guard.
The underwater currents
showed their power during
the second dive, when the
man with Hood was hit by the
boon swing.
“He got hit,” Hood said.
“It hurt him enough that we
had to abort the dive. I could
Magic hour,
miracle boy
Over his diving career, he
has dealt with 19 drownings,
but he has helped rescue 10.
The most exceptional case out
of those 10 rescues was when
6-year-old Isaiah Metzger
became trapped when his
family’s fishing boat flipped
in Winchester Bay, and he
remained under the boat for
close to 40 minutes.
“We operate in what we
call the ‘magic hour,’ and
the classic example of that is
Isaiah Metzger,” Hood said.
“There were other times we
tried CPR and it’s failed.
Things have to happen just
right, and we always hit the
gas hard because that hour is
important. It’s hard because
your emotion will get away
from you, so you have to be
careful.”
Hood risked a lot to save
a lot when he got out to Win-
chester Bay. He arrived ahead
of his team and was informed
that the 6-year-old was still
in the water. Hood then made
the decision to go in without
a safety diver watching over
him.
“I know the cavalry was on
their way, but we were almost
out of time with our magic
hour on that one,” Hood said.
“I risked a lot for him.”
When Hood got under the
boat and saw the tennis shoe
in the mess of debris, he had
to move fast. He grabbed it,
which was still on Metzger’s
foot, and focused on getting
out from under the boat. How-
ever, the current was strong
and he already knew better
than to go a different way.
Not only did Hood get
Meztger out, but he shed his
dive gear and let it sink to the
bottom of the bay in order
to perform CPR on the child
against the underside of the
boat. Once the Coast Guard
arrived, he handed the boy off
and remained behind in the
water.
“There was no time to get
me in the boat too, so I told
them just go,” he said. “I
knew my team was on their
way for me.”
By the time his team
showed up, the Coast Guard
was already hoisting him out
of the water via helicopter.
“They were my mitiga-
tion risk that day,” Hood said.
“I was taking a chance, but
knew my guys were coming
and they would move heaven
and earth to get to me.”
‘Why we’re here’
Why does he do what he
does? Because it has to be
done. Hood said the rescues
he and his team have accom-
plished are due to dispatchers
getting the calls out to them
quickly, and everyone else
moving fast.
“I got to score the touch-
downs, but there were a lot of
blockers,” Hood said.
The team has moved from
one city to the next in the
county, and currently resides
in Bandon. Hood and the oth-
ers often visit classrooms to
talk with kids about what they
do, letting them know they are
there.
“When we’re with the lit-
tle kids, they always want to
know if we’ve been bitten by
a shark,” Hood said.
“I haven’t, by the way,”
he laughed. “Fourth grad-
ers on up are interested in the
gear. What we tell all of them
is that this team will always
be around in some form, in
this community with the riv-
ers and the bay. Unfortunately
too, with as many accidents as
we had this year with the ves-
sels, we were able to really
perfect our craft. But that’s
why we’re here.”
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When a diver knows there
is a person in the water, they
weigh the “risk a lot to save a
lot” saying. The risk becomes
even greater when an over-
turned vessel is involved.
Hood said he saw that in
Lakeside, and again earlier
this year in March when the
Patty AJ started sinking in
Coos Bay with Capt. Jerry
Barkley still inside.
“It was another situation
where we got the call from the
Coast Guard and showed up
not 30 minutes later,” Hood
said. “We responded quickly
and I got into the water, into
the cabin, to look for the
captain.”
The wheelhouse was
flooded. With his flashlight
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Located on Beerman Creek Lane, Seaside
one half mile from US Highway 101
spo
nso
red
by
S
D O N A C T O I M O E N D
WEL
Deborah
State Representative
HD 32, Democrat
s
S UNDAY
Re-elect
Boone
T HE C LATSOP C OUNTY H ISTORICAL S OCIETY
in partnership with the
S EASIDE M USEUM AND H ISTORICAL S OCIETY
‘Risk a lot to save a lot’
“We’ve never had a big
accident where someone
really got hurt, but that’s from
the training,” Hood said. “It
is not a safe environment, but
we are masters at mitigation.”
However true that may
be, Hood also reminds him-
self and his team of the saying
that hangs over their actions:
“Risk a lot to save a lot, and
risk a little to save a little.”
When Hood was on the
recovery mission in Florence,
he remembered that. A diver
will put more at risk when it
comes to the life of a child,
and depending on the situa-
tion, it can become the most
Amanda Loman/The World
Bob Hood, a rescue and recovery diver from the Bandon
Dive Team, lifts out his scuba diving buoyancy control de-
vice at the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport in North
Bend. In 1994, he and a few other divers formed an unoffi-
cial team because they had all done commercial diving in
the past and wanted to put their skills to good use.
XIII
It was his wife Veronica’s
birthday when the mission
that nearly killed him came in.
A 14-year-old drowned
after being swept into the surf
in Florence, and Hood was
being asked to be part of the
recovery.
He suited up with his team,
donning what they called a
“shell” suit made of rubber
panels. He climbed onto the
U.S. Coast Guard boat and
headed to the last known area
to recover the boy.
“Things didn’t go as
planned, and if it goes side-
ways, it goes sideways in a
big way and you can’t antici-
pate how bad it’s going to be,”
Hood said.
The surf was unforgiving,
beating down on him and the
other divers. As he and the
others resurfaced, Hood dis-
covered that his suit had filled
with water.
“I had a lot of weight by
then and got tired,” Hood said.
“I managed to grab onto the
boat, but then the boat kicked
sideways in the surf. I was just
hanging onto the side. I was
cold, tired, and swallowed a
lot of water, but God bless the
Coast Guard because they got
me back in the boat. But still,
that scares you.”
The team learned from that
mission, and almost immedi-
ately replaced the shell suits
with dry suits.
dangerous thing.
He remembered it again in
2014 when he and his team
were dispatched to Lakeside
for an overturned vessel with
three people trapped inside,
including a 2-year-old girl.
Hood arrived with another
diver, who put his regulator in
the hull of the boat and free-
flooded it, which bought time.
When he surfaced under the
boat, he was horrified. There
was less than one foot of air
remaining.
“The grandmother was
standing on the roof hatch
and I tried to pull her out, but
she wouldn’t move,” Hood
said. “She had good cause not
to, because her daughter and
granddaughter were in there
too.”
Knowing that he had to
move quickly, he took the
2-year-old first.
“For the mother to let me
have the child, the faith for
her to give me that little girl,
must have been huge,” Hood
said.
Once he had her, he told
her, “Honey, let’s hold our
breath.” On the count of three,
she took a big gulp of air and
under he went.
“I didn’t have much time
because I can’t teach a 2-year-
old how to breathe out of a
regulator,” Hood said. “The
mistake I made though was I
came in a different way then I
left. I ran into lines.”
Ropes and cords from the
boat had tangled in the water,
something Hood didn’t see
earlier from the other side of
the vessel when he entered.
When he felt the lines wrap
around him and begin to
tighten, he pushed the child
up until she surfaced.
“My safety diver grabbed
her, and once she was taken to
a waiting boat, he came back
and cut me loose,” Hood said.
“We got rid of the remaining
lines and I repeated the pro-
cess two more times.”
Ta
Never imagined
his important role
Visitors sh
ould
plan
no later to th arrive
an 3 PM,
as the de
to fade fr ceased begin
the dark om view as
ness
draws ne of night
ar.
For more information about this event or other Clatsop County Historical Society activities,
please call 503-325-2203 or email cchs@cumtux.org.
Native Oregonian
Rural homeowner in HD 32 since 1974
“ The endorsement of representative Deborah
boone is the result of careful consideration by
the sheriffs of oregon. We are confident Deborah
will promote laws designed to better protect
oregonians and their families by making law
enforcement more effective.”
— Sheriffs of oregon PAC
“ boone’s lengthy tenure, experience and record
of accomplishments make her our choice to fill
the seat.”
— The Daily Astorian (Oct. 14)
Deborah is aLso enDorseD by:
Oregon Nurseries PAC
Oregon State Building &
Constructions Trades Council
Oregon State Firefighters Council
Oregon State Council
for Retired Citizens
National Electrical Contractors Assn.
Oregon AFSCME Council 75
Oregon Coalition of Police & Sheriffs
Cultural Advocacy Coalition
American Federation of
Teachers–Oregon (AFT-Oregon)
Sen. Ron Wyden
Sen. Jeff Merkley
Oregon School Employees Assn.
Basic Rights Oregon Equality PAC
Stand for Children Oregon
Humane Oregon
BooneforStateRep.org
Paid for by: Boone for State Representative P.O. Box 637, Cannon Beach, OR 97110