Wounded soldiers get chance to become scuba divers

Dennis Cline and Sam Floberg have several things in common. Both are 30-something American soldiers who got ambushed in 2006 while fighting the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

Cline lost his left arm; Floberg lost his right leg. Both spent considerable rehabilitation time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. And now both are certified open-water scuba divers.

Cline, of Colorado Springs, and Floberg, of Fargo, N.D., traveled to Fort Lauderdale a couple of weeks ago to complete their scuba training with four staffers from the nonprofit organization SUDS, or Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba. The military men had finished their pool training at Walter Reed and completed their course work online.

They just had to display their skills in four open-water dives to receive their certification cards from SDI, a scuba training agency. South Florida Diving Headquarters in Pompano Beach provided boat transportation to local reefs and wrecks aboard the Aquaview...[MiamiHerald.com]