Thread by @CIA

Dr. Christian Lambertsen & the Secret Story Behind #SCUBA
bit.ly/2sYDWJ4

#WorldOceansDay
#SCUBADiving
#OSS
#WWII
#OSS75

Dr. Lambertsen laid groundwork for tech used by:
#OSS
@NASA
@us_navyseals
@USArmy #GreenBerets
@uscoastguard
& all diving enthusiast
#OSS75

@NASA @us_navyseals @USArmy @uscoastguard Christian grew up near coast & studied medicine @RutgersU & @Penn
During summer break he experimented w underwater breathing devices.
#OSS75

Ohio Chemical & Manufacturing Co hired Christian to use their anesthesia gear to develop an underwater breathing device to save lives
#OSS75

Christian tested & perfected his device in Lake Erie.
With onset of #WWII one of his professors saw its potential for military use.
#OSS75

Rejected by @USNavy, Christian reconfigured device & presented to Navy, British #SOE & #OSS.
He jumped in DC @OmniHotels pool to demo
#OSS75

LARU–Lambertsen Amphibious Respirator Unit had carbon dioxide filter allowing diver to re-breath air exhaled while underwater.
#OSS75

Using LARU one could swim @ depth of 50 ft & stay underwater for 90 mins.
All without bubbles on surface.
Perfect for covert ops.
#OSS75

Christian graduated from med school in 1943, joined @USArmy & was assigned to #OSS Maritime Unit as lead trainer for underwater ops.
#OSS75

Maritime Unit ran:
amphibious infiltrations
underwater sabotage
supplied resistance groups by sea
developed special maritime devices
#OSS75

Christian taught #OSS Ops Swim Group (OSG) @NavalAcademy, for sabotage in Bay of Biscay on #DDay
Mission was scrapped bc of resources
#OSS75

OSGs were eventually split up & deployed to China-Burma-India.
Christian went to Burma to conduct underwater infiltration & espionage
#OSS75

Christian helped advance British submersible canoe: Sleeping Beauty.
Used to conduct clandestine recon & attack enemy vessels.
#OSS75

Sleeping Beauty #canoe was 12’ 8” long & held 1 navigator who could expect to spend 10 hrs or more in vessel when on a mission
#WWII
#OSS75

Christian trained #OSS swimmers to anchor #canoe near target, swim to target, place demolition charge & swim back to Sleeping Beauty.
#OSS75

This concept paved the way for the swimmer delivery vehicle used by the @USNavy ’s UDT & @us_navyseals years later.
#OSS75

@USNavy @us_navyseals 1945: #OSS disbanded.
1947: Christian helped @USNavy save UDT from demobilization.
UDT was precursor to @us_navyseals.
#OSS75

1952: Christian wrote a paper for @theNASciences & coined the term "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus"– #SCUBA.
#OSS75

Christian taught @Penn for more than 40 years & continued his work w government, including @NASA & @USNavy through the 2000s.
#OSS75

Christian spent his final years on Maryland’s Eastern shore raising cattle, tending to bees & gardens.
He died in 2011 at age of 93.
#OSS75

Dr. Lambertsen: Father of Frogmen, inventor, environmentalist, undersea & aerospace pioneer.
bit.ly/2sYDWJ4

#WorldOceansDay
#OSS75