Treutlen’s Dive Team Expands In Skill and Reach

The Treutlen County dive team, part of the local Emergency Management Agency (EMA), continues to expand its arsenal of skills and equipment with aims to make its services available to a wide number of nearby communities.

The dive team consists of a collection of trained first responders, all pulled from other emergency response agencies in the county, who will search waters for missing persons. According to EMA Director Justin McNure, the purpose of the dive team is to help provide closure to families whose loved ones may have drowned. 

“When you have loved ones standing by, knowing that their significant other, or mother, father, whoever it is, is a family member underwater somewhere,” said McNure. “They don’t know exactly what happened, and basically, you know, what we try to do is to at least offer them some sense of closure.”

The origin of the dive team lies in 2024, when Treutlen County emergency responders received a call regarding a missing person near a pond. Upon arrival, responders were “pretty confident the missing person was somewhere in the water.

Firefighters were deployed to search the pond, but the cold water and a depth above the firefighters’ heads made the search difficult.

“By the time you would dive down, the water was so cold that it would just basically push the air out of your body, so they would have to immediately come back up,” said McNure.

However, one of the deployed firefighters, Kevin Wheeler, was open water certified and had brought along his own diving equipment. Coordinating with Joseph Glenn, Wheeler located  and retrieved the body of the missing person.

“When that happened, myself, the sheriff, some of the county commissioners, along with Joseph started putting our heads around what we can do to basically better respond to an event like that, and it was to come up with a dive team,” said McNure.

Glenn was made leader of the dive team, as he had years of experience teaching scuba diving at Georgia Southern University, as well as a dive shop in Statesboro.

“I had the… teaching background and the leadership background, kind of just come hand-in-hand,” said Glenn.

The newly assembled dive team, made up of 16 local firefighters and local law enforcement, began working towards their first and most crucial certification: open water. This certification allows the team to dive down to a depth of 60 feet, forming the foundation of the skills to follow.

According to McNure, the team could not ask for more funds from the Board of Commissioners, as the EMA had already been budgeted out for the year. So, to demonstrate the team was serious about the project, each member paid the $550 cost for the open water certification themselves.

“Most of your volunteer firemen and law enforcement officers that are on the dive team, they put skin in the game, so to speak,” said McNure.

Next, the team worked towards their underwater breathing certification, after which they would be allowed by law to operate in public safety. However, Glenn requires extra certifications and training before he allows a student to operate in that area.

“I do things a little differently,” said Glenn. “I make all of my students, if they want to travel that route, they at least need to get an advanced water certification. We’ve certified them up to 130 feet.”

Glenn also requires a certification in night diving and limited visibility to better prepare his trainees for difficult field conditions.

“So, they don’t necessarily have to have that, but I make them,” said Glenn. “I make my students have that only because it’s going to make them a better diver in the long run, and they get more dives under their belt before you throw them into black water.”

The dive team is also pursuing Emergency Response Diver (ERD) certifications as a capstone to the team’s training. According to Glenn, the ERD certification is “the end goal” for the team, which they are close to achieving.

For the initial equipment, the team secured a line item in the EMA’s budget to purchase the necessary tools, with the funds supplemented by large donations from local organizations such as the mason’s lodge and Chick-fil-a.

In the two years since its creation, the dive team has secured more advanced equipment to aid in calls. For cold months, the team acquired dry suits to keep divers warm in the water. The Board of Commissioners also approved the purchase of a mobile command trailer from the dive team in Haralson for $10,000, which may be used by other Treutlen County emergency responders.

The team also acquired a boat with grant funds, which has been outfitted with extra equipment such as a sonar.

“Just say if somebody has drowned or whatever the case may be, we have a few people who are trained to read the sonar, and that basically gives us dive points instead of just going out there blind,” said McNure.

The team has also begun practicing with full-face masks featuring two-way communication, allowing the divers to communicate with coordinators and each other.

“We’ve definitely enhanced the safety aspect for all of our divers and the entire team,” said McNure.

The dive team does not see much action, with McNure estimating the team receives up to six calls per year. For Glenn, the dive team serves as a “notch” for Treutlen County to offer other communities in times of need, with the range of calls expanding as the team grows.

“What I mean by that is other surrounding counties are going to ask for your help,” said Glenn. “Ultimately, I want Treutlen County to be one of those counties, and we’re getting there, and I shouldn’t say, ‘We’re getting there.’ We are there.”

To that end, the team is pursuing a classification as a Georgia Search and Rescue team from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Not only would the classification open up more grant opportunities for the team, the Treutlen County dive team would be some of the first called for major situations as far as Alabama.

“That’s what I want it to be,” said Glenn.