Robert "Bobby Cave, Engineman Master Chief and Master Diver
Robert Leroy Cave Engineman Master Chief, Master Diver, we knew him as Bobby Cave. He was a 35-year Veteran of the United States Navy. He attained the Rank of Master Chief Petty Officer. Bobby was a Saturation Master Diver. He is the world record holder for the deepest ocean suit dive. In 1972, exposed to ambient pressure in the open ocean, the record was set at 1,025 feet of seawater by a small Navy dive team with Bobby Cave, using the MK2 diving system. The decompression schedule lasted two weeks and was completed at a hyperbaric recompression chamber at the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, Florida. Many Navy leaders I admired as I progressed through the Navy ranks were fortunate to experience dive missions with Bobby Cave. In this episode, I describe my twenty-minute encounter with Master Diver Cave. A lesson I'll never forget.