C-Card 38 years late

[scubawhr]

Greetings

I would like to share a story that recently occurred about a diver who dived in the 60's and saw my vintage web site, about the story of Jack The Frogman, which brings me to the subject title: C-Card 38 years late![quote].

The story is about Daniel LePage who retired from the US Navy and settled in Arizona, but he grew up and learned to dive in Minnesota with O. Jack Blocker of Jack the Frogman or JTFMCO.

My part in the story was accidental as I was fortunate to stumble onto a unique collection of dive gear from the mid 50's till 1975 (I will try and improve the on-line JTFMCO story on my site http://goingunder.net/vintageequipment.htm. as it is a bit windy for this topic) until then here is a short version; fortunate is a gross understatement when I look back at the dive store that existed since the 50's - closed it doors and locked everything away until the owner "Jack" passed away, unfortunate only to have missed the first 2-3 dumpsters that were hauled away. When I arrived, I immediately knew that it was a time casual of historic memorabilia and I tried to save everything I could find space for... One of Jack's habits was to save everything - no, literally "everything" from his first correspondence with Palley surplus to purchase orders to Aqua Lung...

Back to Dan, who contacted me via a story on my website about JTFMCO, and he proceeded to tell me a bit of his story about Jack and his years in the Navy. Well the name rang a bell, I could swear that I had seen it somewhere...so the first place I looked was in Jack's log book of students from back when he issued "Qualified Diver" cards, then became PADI instructor #29 as his drinking buddy and local sales rep started up this new training agency...Well I found Dan's name, and further to my surprise was a manila envelope with Dan's name written on front; inside was his original PADI certification card and wall certificate.

The first thing I did was to contact Jack's soul mate, Carol, who was the kind lady to invite me to help clean up the estate and wonderfully generous lady. Carol immediately knew Dan and commented that he took off for the Navy before she could give him the certification. I didn't want to spill the beans to Dan as I wanted to surprise him with a package by mail, so I dug out a few old business cards, wall calendars, brochures, etc. from the JTFMCO dive store and shipped it off to Arizona.

It has been a great pleasure to visit with Dan and I want to thank him for contacting me, as with all the divers who I have met that share their stories about JTFMCO...I only missed training with Jack by one year so my memory is only about a guy who was a legend at this time, but the legend lives on with the people he influenced.

(I will try and post photos of the certificate on the gallery or if I stumble on my web site)

Thanks Dan and congratulations 38 years late!

[JES]

What a neat story with a great ending. Thanks for sharing a little bit about "Dan" and "Jack the Frogman" with us.

[Bryan]

That's a great story. Thanks for sharing it with us Ron.