Youth Offenders Dive Into Life at Navy’s Underwater Training School

The two men stood at attention among the eight graduates of the Navy’s Underwater Construction School in Port Hueneme on Friday.

But instead of sailor dress blues, they wore starched khaki shirts and pressed blue jeans.

And instead of training for years to qualify for this elite diving program, these two young men were carefully selected from the California Youth Authority as part of an experiment.

David Muniz, 19, is serving time for assault with a deadly weapon. A second 19-year-old, who asked that his name not be used, is serving time for armed robbery.

They are the latest graduates of a mentoring program designed to give troubled youths a chance to learn a trade and and mix with motivated Navy men who could give them a new outlook on life.

In September, Daniel Armendariz was the first youth authority ward to complete the rigorous Seabee training program. His experience proved so successful the Navy wanted to expand the program. As a result Muniz and the other ward entered the school in October.

Financial concerns call for moving the Underwater Construction School to Florida, but Navy officials have decided to continue the program at Port Hueneme with the base’s Construction Mechanics Apprentice School. A fourth ward began that program several weeks ago.

Although the mechanics school may be less thrilling than the dive school, officials say it will be more practical for wards eager to learn a trade they can use when they are released.

In March, when the wards have graduated from the training sessions, the mentoring program will be launched at Port Hueneme.

The program has caught the eye of the Navy’s chief of naval education and training in Florida, as well as other correctional institutions.

Officials say they hope the mentoring program can be expanded nationwide.

“I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t and couldn’t be replicated at other training sites: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps,” Chief Warrant Officer Bill Johnson said.

Johnson will be speaking about the program to the American Correctional Assn. in Nashville next month.

But whatever the long-term plans for expansion, the mentoring program has already changed the lives of the young men who have completed it.

Before arriving at the underwater construction school, the Seabees have already completed eight weeks of basic training, at least two years of Navy service and a 20-week diving program.

During the intense nine-week program, the Seabees learn to build piers and lay pipeline and cable underwater.

The Seabees also learn to install, fix, repair and remove pipeline and cable at underwater sites ranging from the polar icecap to Somalia. As they undergo their high-risk training--surveying marine environments and working on the decks of marine construction platforms--the wards learn at their sides. The youth authority wards do everything but complete the dives.

Muniz said the mentoring program changed the way he looks at government.

“Before I thought of the government as just getting involved in world affairs. They did stuff everywhere else, but they never did anything for the public. Finally, they are getting involved in domestic affairs--that’s what I really liked.”

It was hard for the street tough from East Los Angeles to get used to the idea that people were doing something for him for nothing. He said that being around the motivated young divers changed him.

“Most of my life I’ve always been around negative guys,” he said. “Gang bangers, people doing drugs. These guys, they are working hard to be somebody.”

In the past he thought about his life day-by-day, but now he thinks longer term, he said.

The other ward, from Los Angeles, said he hadn’t thought he’d be able to hack the tough physical training. But he found himself running farther than he ever had, pushing himself to new limits.

“It goes to show me I can achieve if I just put my mind to it,” he said.

What stood out most to him, he said, was the teamwork among the men--the knowledge that other men are relying on you when they put their lives on the line.

Johnson, whose nephew is a California Youth Authority ward, takes his mentoring duties seriously. Throughout the training he took time with all three young men, calling them into his office almost daily and talking to them about life goals.

He still talks regularly with Armendariz, who returned home to San Bernardino a month after his training ended.

Although the training gave him motivation and self-confidence, Armendariz said, being out is still hard.

One night he ran into some guys at a gas station and ended up in a fight. Johnson is doing his best to bring him back to Ventura, where he can get a fresh start.

“They are trying to help me,” Armendariz said, “but I expected no miracles from them or anything.”

The other two young men’s parole officer attended Friday’s graduation ceremony.

Other wards are full of questions for them when they return home at night, she said, and many others are eager to try it out.

“I think it’s an extremely positive program,” she said. “It gives the wards lots of motivation to succeed.”