The Divers Association is proud to announce that Dick Long the founder of DUI and Josh Butner, Military & Professional Diving Division Manager for Aqualung, have joined the Divers Association as members: Both have become members for the purpose of your input: Do their products work, how can they improve a product, what are your needs.
Who these men are.
Dick Long is one of the pioneers of the diving industry and the founder of Diving Unlimited International. He is one of the few executives among the diving equipment manufacturers who regularly gets in the water to dive.
Dick started diving in 1958 and attended the very first NAUI instructor course held in Houston in 1960. He later became certified as an instructor for both PADI and the YMCA.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dick has received the NOGI award for education, the DAN Rolex Diver of the Year Award, the Reaching Out Award, and has been inducted into the NAUI Hall of Fame.
In 1965 he worked as a contract diver for the U.S. Navy in the Arctic and from 1965 through 1972 he operated his own commercial diving company. He also worked with the Navy on the development of equipment for the Underwater Demolition Team’s divers doing lockouts from submarines during this same period. Dick was an equipment designer for the Navy’s Sea Lab II experiment in saturation diving. He subsequently went on to develop the hot water suit which is part of what made modern saturation diving possible.
Dick started Diving Unlimited International in 1963 as a sport diving store and custom dive equipment manufacturer. He sold off the retail division in 1977 and has concentrated on the manufacture of diver thermal protection equipment since that time.
Josh Butner retired in August 2011 from the U.S. Navy at the rank of Lt. Commander after 23 years as a U.S. Navy SEAL. He graduated with BUD/S class 159 and served as an Enlisted SEAL and corpsman before earning his commission.
Josh participated in Desert Storm, Operation Restore Hope, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn deploying to countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Guam, Bahrain, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Additionally, he participated in UNITAS 98, a Naval exercise that circumnavigated South America working with combat divers in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.
Josh has experience as a combat medic, diving medical technician, combat swimmer, and a SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) pilot and primary navigator. He completed SDV tours at both SDV Team One and SDV Team Two as well as SEAL Teams 1, 5 and 4. He recently returned from his final deployment to Iraq where he was the Joint Operations Center Director for the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Arabian Peninsula.
Josh holds a Master’s Degree in Defense Analysis and National Security Affairs with honors from the Naval Postgraduate School.
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