An Appreciation for the life of Dr. Christian Lambertsen, dead at 93, the man who opened the undersea realm to all the world with scuba

An Appreciation for the life of Dr. Christian Lambertsen, dead at 93, the man who opened the undersea realm to all the world with scuba

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's note. Before commencing this article, set the mood. Go to any search engine and look for the theme song for the Sea Hunt television series. It's just the right tune to put you in the mood for high adventure on the waves... and under.

Remember the Sea Hunt television series which ran from 1958 to 1961? It starred man's man Lloyd Bridges as ex-Navy frogman Mike Nelson. Mike was an action kind of guy who signalled what kind of program it was right from the opening sequence. There, enveloped in its suitably bold, expansive theme, you saw the ever-ready Bridges pulling down his mask and jumping over the side; his trusty scuba equipment strapped firmly to his back, providing the necessary oxygen for his demanding deeds of derring-do in the undersea world we all wanted to see.

None of it --- absolutely none of it -- would have been possible without that scuba equipment, enabling Bridges to go beneath the surface and chase, flipper-powered, sea villains and marauders of every kind. Equally, there wouldn't have been a good vehicle for showcasing, too, the bevy of "Sea Hunt girls", with their sun-tanned looks and figure-hugging bathing suits, hot stuff for 1958. They didn't usually venture underwater, the better to stay aship shouting "Mike! Mike!" at regular intervals whenever his scrapping manly talents were called for.

The underwater world of Mike Nelson, its too little known but always eye-catching panoramas and astonishing vistas, was opened by one particular man's inventive genius. This is that notable man's riveting story, and his name is...

Dr. Christian Lambertsen, dead at his home in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, February 11, 2011.

Christian Lambertsen, born May 15, 1917 in Westfield, New Jersey had virtually every advantage life can provide. He was intelligent, blond with chiseled good looks, well educated (Rutgers University B.S. 1939; University of Pennsylvania, M.D. 1943)... with unlimited curiosity and the wherewithal to turn questions into practical applications. Most of all, however, he had been abundantly gifted with the desire to serve. It was the most important gift of all.

Lambertsen's first important invention was created in 1939 whilst still a medical student. World War II had just begun when he invented a revolutionary underwater breathing system. It was called "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus," shortened to scuba.

Before World War II, military divers wore cumbrous metal helmets that pumped breathable air through hoses tethered to boats on the water's surface. This "Lambertsen Amphibious Respirator Unit," (or LARU) let divers swim freely and steathily. It used pure oxygen and was a closed system. Equipped with a carbon dioxide filter, it enabled the diver to rebreathe the air he exhaled while underwater, which made the system bubbleless... and therefore invaluable for covert naval operations.

Predictably, the Navy turned it down, preferring their now grossly outmoded equipment and system with its tell-tale bubbles. Fortunately wiser heads prevailed. After Dr. Lambertsen demonstrated the LARU in the pool of the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. in 1942 to officials of the Office of Strategic Services (wartime precursor to the CIA), OSS jumped on the invention... and recruited its inventor, too. They never made a wiser decision, not least because soon-to-be Capt. Lambertsen didn't just invent this revolutionary improvement... he used it in covert operations just like the other brave men. Lambertsen, for instance, not only swam with but often lead the most dangerous of missions; attaching explosives to Japanese vessels off the coast of Burma in the last months of the war.

As a medical doctor, Lambertsen didn't have to go, but he did. "He wasn't someone to let someone else do it," recalled Walter Mess, who had been commander of a near-silent 85-foot vessel that ferried the divers, usually in the dark, within 2,000 feet of shore. "Sometimes they were recon missions, sometimes to bring back downed airmen." It was just the kind of work Mike Nelson would have jumped to do... only Lambertsen got there first. He had a way of doing that... For this important and dangerous work, Major General William J. Donovan, who knew a valuable man when he saw one, awarded him the Legion of Merit.

But Lambertsen was just getting started...

After the OSS was disbanded in 1945, Dr. Lambertsen arranged to demonstrate LARU to all the military branches. In 1948, when others were joyfully going home to Peoria, Lambertsen began training the Navy's elite underwater demolition teams, the precursor of the Navy SEALs, to use the system. Very likely, then, Lambertsen trained Mike Nelson, too. He was after all the Founding Father and well deserving of the Distinguished Service Award from the OSS Society, honoring former intelligence officers. Lambertsen was one of the best.

But, so early so inventive, the best was yet to come... usually emanating from his 40-plus year affiliation with alma mater Penn. Perhaps, amongst so many achievements, he was proudest of establishing in 1968 the Institute for Environmental Medicine, which has conducted multidisciplinary studies of oxygen toxicity, diving- related diseases and aerospace medicine. It was the fullest of lives, always grounded in service, worthy objectives set; worthy objectives met... and always with courtesy, self-effacement, and dedication to the welfare of others.

With Lambertsen's death, the fast-thinning ranks of World War II veterans, is thinner still. Did Lambertsen before the end see his special, unique, irreplaceable generation as the precursor of even better generations to come? Or did he bemoan, as many do, the selfish, me-centered millions who followed the vets... living comfortable lives based upon the sacrifices of their fathers, and mothers, too? Empirical, he must have wondered at what ensued and what was to come.

But let us conclude as we began: adventuring with scuba into the awe- inspiring, mesmerizing world of the seas, a world that Lambertsen did so much to reveal, not least by inventing the tools that made "Sea Hunt" possible and so exciting, too, though not perhaps as exciting as Lambertsen's own high adventure.

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