[Man] ...tie that kinda knot.
[Ellis Powell] Throughout history, game wardens have had
the difficult duty of recovering drowning victims all over the state.
(music)
[Craig Hernandez] It's a horrible part of our job, but it's
a necessary part.
[Robb Furlow] We had a drowning a few years ago in Canyon Lake.
The family was camped out 10 feet behind us.
[Ellis Powell] A family member looked me in the eyes and
asked me, "Please get him back for me, please."
And I've given him my word.
[Justin Eddins] Before we went down to do our search, they
circled us and they said a prayer.
[Derek Spitzer] And not only did they pray for their family
member who lost their life, but they prayed for us as well.
[Johnny Jones] It was difficult not to be emotional when
the family is around like that.
[Justin Eddins] It's a sad deal, but there's a good feeling
knowing that you had a part in bringing closure.
[Man] All right.
One, two, three, go.
[Trey Shewmake] Working with those kind of cases, when they
come up after the fact and they say they appreciate us being there and they appreciate our efforts,
that's about the only reward that we need.
(music)
Our dive team originally was composed of nine individuals.
[Chris Davis] We're not making anybody do this, there's
really no pay incentive or anything like that.
So you have to want to do it.
[Craig Hernandez] It's not always bodies, I mean, we're involved
in a lot of criminal investigations, where there's evidence.
[Robb Furlow] There were only three out of the original
nine, that had dive experience.
[Derek Spitzer] My dive experience was none.
[Craig Hernandez] So we went from zero to sixty miles an hour
it seems like, just over about a year's time.
[Derek] What we wanted to do, is we wanted to get
the same bunch of guys who were trained the same way, and so everybody got the same training,
even the guys that had already been divers.
[Justin] Those camps right over there?
[Man] Yeah, right there.
[Man] The diving we do is completely technical,
and nothing like recreational diving.
[Johnny Jones] I found out real quick, it wasn't like what
I thought it was gonna be.
(music) (splash)
[Ellis Powell] If you would imagine laying on your belly,
closing your eyes, and crawling through a forest, drop the temperature about 40 degrees,
that's how I describe it.
[Robb] It's cold, dark, and scary.
You know, we're not going out looking at pretty fish, it's...you're lucky if you can see a few inches.
[Justin] Johnny, how's your visibility?
[Man] The conditions that we dive in generally,
are what we call black water conditions.
Zero visibility.
[Trey] The division equipped us with state-of-the-art
diving equipment and in search equipment.
[Craig] It's changed the way that we've done things
and cut the recovery times down to a fraction.
[Justin] Yeah, 10-4 Derek, I hear you loud and clear.
[Ellis] As we deploy the sonar, the image that we
get is called a waterfall, and it flows down across the screen and it cast shadows, and
we can determine what we're looking for, be it a body recovery or evidence recovery.
This white imagery right here's gonna be a cliff and there's a log.
The imagery is so good on this particular unit, that we have never dove for a body recovery
and it not be the target that we thought it was.
[Trey] It's difficult for me to watch them break
the surface and go down.
I know the inherent risks that are involved there.
[Robb] It's dangerous, it's technical, and you depend
on each other.
Concrete, rebar, trees, it is very, very dangerous, what we do.
[Man] I can tell you, anybody on the dive team would
do anything for each other.
[Justin] If I go down and I get entangled.
[Craig] If I needed help.
[Johnny] If I go down.
[Derek] I'm gonna do whatever I can to get down there.
[Craig] These guys are coming to help me.
(music)
We understood and had the same purpose and mission.
That's something you don't lose.
You just become a family.
[Johnny] We are a brotherhood within the brotherhood,
of game wardens.
[Craig] Putting our life in each other's hands.
It brought this group tighter than any game warden group I've ever worked with.
[Robb] I'd do anything in the world for these guys.
Any of them.
(music)