Aquanauts Named Thailand's Only U.S. Navy League Endorsed Dive Center

Aquanauts Dive Centre in Pattaya this week took over the mantle of being Thailand's only U.S. Navy League-endorsed scuba diving center when it was selected as an official Navy League Community Affiliated sponsor. Aquanauts will now be exclusively recommended to all U.S. Navy ships when they once again start making official port calls on Thailand's Eastern Seaboard this spring.

"We are very honored and excited at being selected as a Navy League affiliate," said Aquanauts director Gary Tytler, a 20-year British military veteran himself. "The Navy League of Thailand chooses only one company from any particular sector to endorse and we don't take that endorsement lightly. We're already putting plans in place to give the visiting forces a tremendous experience."

The United States had canceled all official port calls and shore leave when it suspended military aid to Thailand following the September 2006 military coup. Aid and full diplomatic ties were reestablished once the junta handed over power to a democratically elected parliament and prime minister in December. According to Bobby Brooks, head of the Navy League's Thailand Eastern Seaboard Council, ships are "backed up" waiting to resume port calls. Exact schedules are kept secret for security reasons, but the first ships are expected to arrive sometime in April.

The Thailand Eastern Seaboard Council was chartered November 2005 and had until this month worked with another Pattaya-area dive center to offer scuba diving courses and trips to visiting Navy and U.S. Marines personnel. Late last month, however, Brooks decided to offer the diving industry community affiliate position to Aquanauts' Business & Marketing Director Bob James.

"I met Bobby about nine months ago and expressed my interest in having Aquanauts get more involved with the Navy League," James said. "My father is ex-Navy and so I have a personal connection to the League. But the company's interest in getting involved really grew after the very top brass of the Kitty Hawk battle group dived with us in the last port call before the coup. Knowing that ships were going to start arriving again, we wanted to see how we could be part of the 'welcome back' party."

The aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and its support ships visited Pattaya for five days in the first few days of September 2006, just two weeks before the coup. Rear Admiral Douglas Mclain Commander of Carrier Strike Group Five, his wife, Kitty Hawk Capt. Ed McNamee and many of the top deck and flight officers all dived and did courses with Aquanauts in what was one of the highlights in the company's 12-year history.

"We also had a small number of enlisted personnel during that trip, but most of them went to the official Navy League dive center at the time, " James said. "Now that we are the Navy League's official dive center, we hope to see many more sailors and marines experience the pleasure of diving on the Aquanauts boats."

The Navy League will make an official Community Affiliate plaque presentation to Aquanauts during its March meeting later this month. But the company has already been added to a brochure the League will distribute to all ships arriving in nearby Sattahip and Laem Chabang ports. Aquanauts brochures will also be available to all servicemen and women as the disembark from their vessels. Aquanauts will also get listed on both the Navy's League's main and Thailand websites.

"It's obviously a tremendous opportunity for the company and one we take very seriously," James said. "We plan to do it right and are already putting into place more resources to handle the Navy divers. We're also discussing doing join community outreach programs, such as joint reef cleanups, with Aquanauts instructor interns and Navy personnel."

No one is sure at the moment how many ships will make port this year, but when they do, Aquanauts will be front, center and ready.