SOCNET - The Special Operations Community Network - Dr. Chris Lambertsen 1917 -2011

Chris invented the closed circuit O2 re-breathing system and helped establish the first OSS combat swimmer unit. [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_Demolition_Team[/URL]

Dr. Chris Lambertsen had developed the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit (LARU), an oxygen rebreather, which was used by the Maritime Unit of the OSS. In October 1943, he demonstrated it to LCDR Kauffman, but was told there was no place in current UDT operations for this radically new device.
However, Dr. Lambertsen and the OSS continued to work on closed-circuit oxygen diving and combat swimming. When the OSS was dissolved in 1945, Lambertsen retained the LARU inventory. He later demonstrated the LARU to Army Engineers, the Coast Guard, and the UDTs. In 1947, he demonstrated the LARU to LCDR Francis "Doug" Fane, then a senior UDT commander.
LCDR Fane was enthusiastic for new diving techniques. He pushed for the adoption of rebreathers and SCUBA gear for future operations. But the Navy Experimental Diving Unit and the Navy Dive School (which used the old "hard-hat" diving apparatus) declared it was too dangerous. Nonetheless, Fane invited Dr. Lambertsen to NAB Little Creek, Virginia in January 1948 to demonstrate and train UDT personnel in SCUBA operations. This was the first-ever SCUBA training for Navy divers. Following this training, Fane and Lambertsen demonstrated new UDT capabilities with a successful lock-out and re-entry from USS [I]Grouper[/I] (SS-214), an underway submarine, to show the Navy's need for this capability. LCDR Fane then started the classified “Submersible Operations” or SUBOPS platoon with men drawn from UDT 2 and 4 under the direction of LTJG Bruce Dunning.
LCDR Fane also brought the conventional "Aqua-lung" open-circuit SCUBA system into use by the UDTs. Open-circuit SCUBA is less useful to combat divers, as the exhausted air produces a tell-tale trail of bubbles. However, in the early 1950s, the UDTs decided they preferred open-circuit SCUBA, and converted entirely to it. (The remaining stock of LARUs was supposedly destroyed in a beach-party bonfire.) Later on, the UDT reverted to closed-circuit SCUBA, using improved rebreathers developed by Lambertsen.