Chapter V: USS Arizona: The Management Experience
(continued)

NPS/Navy Cooperation (Project SeaMark)

With limited NPS funding and personnel to devote to the preservation of submerged cultural resources, Project SeaMark established an important precedent by allowing park managers to avail themselves of an extensive array of military assets that included people, equipment and supplies. By working cooperatively with the Navy, NPS was able to utilize both active and reserve Navy capabilities to accomplish project objectives. The Navy augmented Park Service underwater archeologists with divers primarily from the Naval reserves to assist in charting, mapping, surveying and photographing these resources.

Navy-NPS cooperation began in 1983 with active-duty divers from MDSU One and Park Service personnel. Since 1986 most Navy input has come from reservists, with less involvement by active-duty divers.

The significance of Project SeaMark is many-fold. From the broadest perspective, joint ventures like this serve national interests and, ultimately, the taxpayers. SeaMark brought together disparate federal resources to accomplish management objectives in a cost-effective manner. We took personnel and equipment resources that would otherwise have been expended on contrived Naval reserve or active MDSU training projects and assisted the Navy in redirecting those assets toward existing projects of international significance. The Naval reservists and active-duty personnel were able to simulate mobilization assignments while addressing real diving problems at real sites. They were forced to use creative approaches to overcome difficulties and successfully complete the projects. Even the logistics of moving personnel and equipment to the site was realistic mobilization training. Project participants spent much more time in the water than during a simulated exercise designed to offer the same kind of training.

The submarine base provided manpower and equipment support. The Naval Ocean Systems Center provided a marine biologist who was an expert on Pearl Harbor biofouling; the Pearl Harbor Naval Ship Yard contributed a metallurgist; the University of Hawaii contributed the resources of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (including its three-man submersible); and PACDIV provided sounding charts for Middle Loch and support of a Navy archeologist.

We have learned a great deal from these projects, and they will serve as a foundation for more productive ventures between active and Naval Reserve units, other support groups and the National Park Service.

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