Richard von Trapp
Richard von Trapp
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Captain, USA, Retired
Richard came to the Tiburon for the spring and summer of 2006 as our Expedition Diving officer and crew. His talents, now available after a little over 30 years in service to the US Army, have provided for expanded capability and safety to the verity of missions conducted aboard the RV Tiburon. During his tumultuous career Richard served as an Infantry Paratrooper and Pathfinder in the 82nd Airborne Division, and than earned his Green Beret, becoming a Special Forces Light Weapons Leader, and Special Forces Medic. Like most divers of his era, he was influenced by TV diving programs and movies. Programs like Sea Hunt and several WWII movies about Combat Frogman and the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) inspired him deeply. In the spring of 1986 he realized one of his greatest dreams when he became a Special Forces Combat Diver and Dive Medical Technician.
During these years Richard conducted operations in 7 countries including reconnaissance in Iraq, and delivered instruction in advanced combat trauma, and field surgical skills to members form 10 European and Mid Eastern Countries. He was selected to be the principal creator and Senior Instructor of the NATO International Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol Medic Course, in Weingarten, Federal Republic of Germany.
During the 11 years Richard served in Special Forces, he was assigned to the: Institute for Military Assistance (SERE Committee) where he played a significant part in creating the Army’s Survival Evasion Resistance Escape Course. The 5th Special Forces Group at Ft Bragg as a member of a SCUBA SFODA (Special Forces Operational Detachment ALPHA or A Team) which was a SADM Green Light Team (Special Atomic Demolitions Munitions) a nuclear delivery team, and the 10th Special Forces Group Bad Toelz, Germany.
By 1992, at the rank of Master Sergeant, Richard left Germany and Special Forces to enter the Army’s Physician Assistant Course at Ft Sam Houston, Texas. Two and a half years later he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Specialty Corps as a PA and was assigned to the 1st Armor Division, Germany where he served in Forward Support, Combat Engineer, and Multiple Launch Rocket Artillery as there Battalion Surgeon. In the first week of January 1996 Richard crossed the Sava River as one of the first PAs to enter into the war torn region of Bosnia known as the Posaviena Corridor, and conducted operations there for the rest of that year.
Two months prior to September eleventh 2001, CPT von Trapp returned to the states from Germany ending over 12 years abroad and accepted his final mission as the Chief of Company Training, Department of Combat Medic Training at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. He was posted to this assignment to bring a combat-minded approach to the newly redesigned medic program. After the events of September 2001 and the operations that followed, Richard knew he was in the right place at the right time in history. During these final years he was able to directly influence and train some 4000 soldiers in combat medicine, preparing them for the battlefield and the challenges that lie ahead of them. Richard was selected for the rank of Major, and recommended for the Legion of Merit. So after 30 years, 2 months and 12 days of service and his mission now complete, he was able go on to other adventures and challenges, embracing the joys of civilian life.
Richard’s love of diving took a real turn for the adventurous, (as if combat diving was not enough), when in 1999 he started reading about the relatively new use of Trimix and of the newly coined Technical form of diving. He was drawn to the meticulous nature of this kind of diving and after six months of intensive daily self study, he started his technical training in Germany with a local instructor, Thomas Detritch.
From the summer 2001 to the end of 2002 he worked relentlessly on completing his technical qualifications with the goal of becoming a diving professional. In that time Richard became certified as a: PADI Dive Master, NAUI Trimix Diver, NAUI Instructor, and NAUI Technical Wreck Penetration Diver. Most recently he became further certified as a CCR diver with TDI.
He has been part of 3 expeditions to explore Rock Lake, N.M. located just south of the well known Blue Hole of Santa Rosa, N.M. which is a sink hole that is over 250 feet deep and is at over 5200 feet above sea level. As a member of the Duggan Diving Technical team they became the first team trimix expedition to Chuuk (Truck) Lagoon, Micronesia. During which the use of trimix allowed the members of the expedition to find errors in the published data regarding the deep wrecks which were previously dove on air.
Richard has served as staff diving instructor at the Newfound Harbor Marine Institute, SEACAMP in Big Pine Key, Florida and the Diving Safety Officer for a Great White Shark Encounter at the Farallon Islands, San Francisco, California.
Richard’s military and personal adventures and exploration have taken him to 30 countries, and include the following locations:
South Siani and Hurghada, Egypt The Red Sea ( Five trips each)
Dahab, Egypt and Elat, Israel (The Gulf of Aqaba)
Trogiar, Croatia (The Adriatic Sea)
Locations around Viti Levu and Taveuni, Fiji (One trip each)
The deep wrecks of Chuuk (Truck) Lagoon, Micronesia
Aplin lakes of Southern Germany, lakes of western Germany
Reefs and wrecks of Florida’s, Key Largo, Marathon, Big Pine and Key West
Wrecks off Panama City Beach,FL
Ft Lauderdale, FL
Vortex Spring, FL
Deep reefs of the Cayman Island
Roatan Island, Honduras
The springs Blue Hole and Rock Lake, Santa Rosa, N.M.
The spring Belmorhea, West Texas
The lakes and rivers around San Antonio and Austin, Texas
Oil platforms of the Texas coast, Gulf of Mexico
Quarries and lakes of South central North Carolina
Wrecks off the North Carolina coast
Kelp beds off Northern California coast
Reefs and wrecks of Bimini and Bahamas
Video of tiger sharks off the Grand Bahama (crew of the RV Tiburon)
Farallon Islands, California
Exumas and the Southern tip of the Tong of the Ocean
Cozumel, Mexico
Richard’s dreams for the future include diving under the Artic ice, trimix expeditions to the wrecks of Bikini Atol, Scapa Folw, and back to Truck. He plans to dive with the Hammerheads and Whale Sharks of the Galapagos, and “anywhere else I can get some great bottom time.” “Life is too short. So I pride myself on being a collector of the memories that only a full life can provide.”
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