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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Diver First Member Of Special Seabees Group

Lorenza Munoz Los Angeles Times

Although she is soft spoken and modest, her crushing, confident handshake betrays her true nature.

As the Navy’s first and only woman underwater construction battalion officer, Petty Officer Margaret Cooper is part of an elite group of Seabees.

There are only two underwater construction battalions in the Navy, with 66 enlisted personnel in each.

It is a rigorous, challenging job that requires divers to be mentally tough enough to endure working in icy, murky deep water. They must have the skill to pour concrete, drill and jackhammer underwater. They have to be smart enough to pass difficult physics and medicine exams, and strong enough to work under the weight of thousands of pounds of equipment.

Yet, the most difficult part about her job, she said, is leaving her husband, Richard, for seven months when the battalion is deployed.

Cooper, 29, underplays her place in history as the first woman underwater Seabee. Any attention, she says, makes her a little uncomfortable. Her work, she said, is a labor of love. Her dedication is a natural reflection of doing what she loves.

“I want to show them how I got to where I am and how much work I have put in,” said Cooper, who graduated with honors from the Navy’s dive school. “I want to show (other women) the desire I have and how they can do the same thing. You gotta have the will.”

As a child, Cooper was a shy, unathletic bookworm - making her an unlikely candidate for one of the most competitive fields in the Navy. With her father in the Marines, her family traveled constantly, making it hard for Cooper to maintain friendships.

But the military seed had been planted and Cooper joined the Army Reserves when she was 16. Within a few years, her love of the ocean and passion for building led her from the Army to the Navy.

Cooper first heard about the Seabees at Navy registration, when a colleague inspired her to join up. He told her that John Wayne had immortalized a battalion in a 1944 movie called “The Fighting Seabees.” Although women were not allowed into Seabee battalions until 50 years later, Cooper was confident that would change soon.

But she did not want to be just a Seabee. She wanted a bigger challenge - to build and fix things underwater.

“I was always into water,” said Cooper, her blue eyes brightening excitedly. “When I heard the possibility I could build, I said ‘I gotta do it.’ I can’t sit in an office.” At 5 feet 9 inches and a solid 149 pounds, Cooper was known as “Cast Iron” among her colleagues. To prepare for the dive school exam, she trained for a year - swimming, running, cycling, weight lifting and diving. She studied physics and medicine.

Her cast-iron will came through when, months before her dive exam, she was diagnosed as having a form of cervical cancer. She underwent an operation, worked her way back into shape and took the exams. She graduated with honors - and in dive school, was one of two people who passed the medical exam.

“You can’t let something like that stop you,” she said of her illness. “That would be an excuse.”

With a 70 percent attrition rate, dive school was the most challenging time of her entire Seabee career, she said. “There was a time when I thought I wasn’t going to get in. I remember once I broke down in tears (studying for the medical exam),” she recalled.

Today, she said she has softened a bit - her peers now call her ‘Coop’ - but her drive remains the same.

Now a certified Seabee diver, Cooper has traveled to Korea, Midway Island and throughout the United States.

Up at 4 a.m., the divers sometimes work until nightfall sinking and raising barges, connecting hoses in offshore petroleum projects and repairing underwater cables.

They brush alongside sharks and seals. They jump into Arctic waters where their hands begin to freeze after hours of work.

Sometimes the water is so murky that not even a flashlight helps divers find their way, so they must memorize a layout of their destination. As they make their way along the depths of the ocean, an officer above directs them through earphones inside their helmets.

They must also be keenly aware of diving dangers, such as gas embolism when deadly gas bubbles form in the circulatory system. The most common affliction among divers is decompression sickness, when they come up too fast and their joints ache from the pressure.

Being a woman has not made things difficult for her in the predominantly male world she lives in.

“I know that when we are working, I’m part of the group,” said Cooper. “There is no question about that. Your life depends on your buddy, and his life depends on you.”