PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — If anyone knows about the depths of the oceans, it's a U.S. Navy submarine veteran.
WPTV spoke with the national commander of the United States Submarine Veterans Inc., who lives in Palm Beach County, to get his perspective on efforts to find a missing submersible in the North Atlantic Ocean.
With every new search detail, William Andrea knows his group's 12,000 members are closely watching the operations to find the submersible.
The Titanic tour submersible is a much different situation than the operations of a Navy submarine.
"It's much different for people that aren't trained to get ready for it, who haven't been on deployment," WPTV anchor and Navy veteran Mike Trim said to Andrea. "These people were only supposed to be down there six hours."
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"They're having a hard time dealing with it for sure. They're in panic mode," Andrea said. "Even if you were set for it, and you know you're in that dilemma because they realize they've only got so much oxygen left."
Andrea talked about signs of hope after military aircraft heard possible sounds underwater Wednesday.
"If all they can hear is banging, I would think that they probably lost electrical power," Andrea said. "Otherwise, they would have some sort of underwater communication, like an underwater telephone, where they could say, 'Help, help, come get us and transmit through the water.' Chances are they lost electrical power, which they can't dump their ballast, which would allow them to come up."
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Andrea served on two submarines in nine years of U.S. Navy service.
"What's the mindset when you get deep underwater?" Trim asked.
"It's like being in that building with the windows shut," Andrea replied. "You go down and you realize you're going to be there, and you got your job to do. You got to sleep and watch movies, read a book. You get into a routine, and you don't even pay attention."
The Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast "bases" of the United States Submarine Veterans Inc. are very active.
Members from both groups most recently participated in local Memorial Day ceremonies.
