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Cherokee Nation Marshal Shannon Buhl swims to submerged vehicle while a member of the Oklahoma Lake Patrol looks on.

TAHLEQUAH, OK - The Cherokee Nation recently announced the formation of an underwater dive team. The dive team will be used to assist the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service and other area law enforcement agencies in situations where an underwater dive team is necessary to further an investigation or assist in a rescue/recovery operation.

"We'll do evidence recovery, cadaver recovery, search and rescue, and search and recovery," said Shannon Buhl, dive master with the Cherokee Nation Marshals' dive team. The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service formed the dive team after the I-40 bridge collapse on May 26. To assist in similar situations in the future, and to better serve the people of the Cherokee Nation, the Marshal Service decided to form their own four-member dive team.

Dive team members are Buhl, Sharon Wright, Garland Thompson, and Danny Tanner.

"David Roberts (Marshal Service Director) asked for volunteers to form a dive team," Buhl said. "We are all certified divers already, it was just natural that we would volunteer."

The dive team recently went on their first recovery mission.

"We volunteered to help the Lake Patrol recover a submerged vehicle," Buhl said.

The vehicle, a 1995 Cadillac Sedan Deville, was recovered from Spring Creek, located west of Hwy 82 on Ear Bob Road. The vehicle had been reported stolen.

"I dove to the submerged vehicle and secured the wrecker cable to the driver's side front tie-rod," Buhl said. "Then a wrecker pulled it out of the water."

The divers have received their training at Nautical Adventures in Cookson, Okla. Although the divers were already certified, they are all completing a training curriculum to become dive masters, the highest certificate a diver can obtain. All of the divers are scheduled to reach the dive master status by the end of October.