Military Divers Memorial deployed off Panama City Beach

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. ( WMBB ) — Local divers have a new place to experience the deep waters and to remember fellow divers.

The Man In The Sea Museum and Warrior Memorial Reefs deployed a 1300-pound bronze diving helmet concrete statue on Tuesday.

“We already have a military diver monument in front of the Dive School that was commissioned there and gifted to the navy in 2012, but why don’t we have an underwater one?,” Man In The Sea Museum Executive Director Steve Mulholland said. “That was the grand scheme of things, and the museum, we got together, and we’re like, let’s build one.”

On the base, there is a plaque that reads “Dedicated to the brave military divers that have served this great country.”

“A lot of people don’t realize that some of these veterans and first responders don’t have family, they don’t have anyone to provide for a funeral service and so our ultimate goal is to provide a zero cost for those veterans for a final resting place,” Warrior Memorial Reefs Vice President and Board Member Gretchen Theodorou said.

For some divers, that ideal resting place is in the water.

“The comfort factor that you build when you’re underwater and you don’t hear anything but your own breathing, it just becomes kind of a peaceful place, believe it or not. And that’s why a lot of us wind up wanting to be placed back down there when that time comes,” Mulholland said.

Mulholland said this Memorial Day they hope to complete the first laying of ashes.

“We carry down salt urns, the remains of our fellow divers set them down in place, and within a few hours, that salt urn disappears and they become part of that monument and that area and we’re honored to do that,” Mulholland said.

“People can go down there and they can visit their loved ones, they can go fishing over the top of them. They can go down and plant corals onto the artificial reef because they’ll know where they are because we’ll have a GPS coordinate for them,” Theodorou said.

The dive helmet is just one part of what will be an underwater heritage trail.

“Working with Bay County, it’s going to be a great underwater reef habitat section that’s going to be one of the biggest in the nation and be able to recognize veterans and what they’ve done for this country and also be a great diving spot for Bay County,” Mulholland said.

To track the artificial reefs in Bay County click here .

To learn more about Warrior Memorial Reefs click here .

All information for the Man In The Sea Museum can be found here .

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