UW: What career accomplishment are you most proud of?
CDR.S: The greatest accomplishment of my career has been to work with and mentor those young divers (that keep getting younger every year).
But if I had to pick out any operations that I'm most proud of, it's unfortunately the work that my sailors accomplished during two horrible tragedies. The first one was the recovery of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 and more recently the stabilization and recovery of shipmates from the USS Cole after the terrorist attack in 2000.

UW: When did you first become interested in the underwater world?
CDR.S: I grew up as a river rat on the Illinois River, spending every summer weekend swimming and water skiing. I'm sure that's where I really developed my love of the sea. It wasn't until I saw those Navy Divers repairing submarines on my first ship that I knew that I belonged under the water.

UW: What is the most common mistake your rookie divers make?
CDR.S: My rookie divers think that they are invincible! Sometimes that comes in handy, but most of the time we have to hold them back for their own good. They will absolutely do anything I ask them to do.

UW: What piece of diving equipment has not been invented yet, but will revolutionize the industry when it is?
CDR.S: A decompression pill. I hate to even count up how many hours we spend in a recompression chamber doing surface decompression. Whoever comes up with the pill will be a millionaire (and my hero).

UW: What was the most challenging project you've worked on?
CDR.S: I just finished the Monitor Expedition 2002, where we used both Saturation Divers and Surface Supplied Mixed Gas Divers to work on the 140-year-old civil war ironclad at 230 feet (70m) of water.
Operating off the coast of Cape Hatteras in challenging weather conditions, we cut free the revolutionary 200-ton revolving turret and brought it safely to the surface. My biggest fear was that we would get it out of the wreck, but it would crumble back to the bottom while we were lifting it. The divers, engineers, archeologists, and commercial barge crew did a superb job of recovering it safely to the barge. It was truly a history-making operation.

UW: How specifically can divers, AUVs, and ROVs each help in the war on terrorism?
CDR.S: I can't really get into specifics, but the coordination of all three of these resources together is already working and working well. The combination of divers, AUVs, and ROVs are being used for underwater security and surveillance all over the world. We need to get better at this and share equipment and procedures among the many organizations involved, but it definitely is an important part of this war!

UW: What are your thoughts on the current state of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production?
CDR.S: More oil, lower prices! Actually, as a user of new technologies, I think that the oil and gas industry as been the driving factor behind some of our newest commercial equipment. I'd like to see this industry put more resources into research and development of technologies that would help the commercial, military, and education sectors.

UW: Where did you grow up? Share some memories of that time.
CDR.S: I grew up mostly in central Illinois where the only water was the muddy rivers. But that was enough for me. My father had been in the Navy before he was married, so I had some influence in that direction. I'm just your typical midwesterner.

UW: Tell us something absolutely no one knows about you.
CDR.S: When I was about 11, I had my first command. It was the family's 18-foot powerboat that we would launch every weekend. I would get to drive the boat from the boat ramp back to the camping area that we stayed at. On one particular day, I got the boat ready for launch, but failed to check that the bilge plug was in. This wasn't a problem when I was speeding to the campsite, but when I slowed down to bring her up the inlet, the bilge pump started screaming. Fortunately I had already learned some great salvage techniques from my father and was smart enough to beach the boat quickly before it sank. I almost sank my first command! I guess it also turned into my first salvage job.

UW: Are you married, and if so, how long? Any kids?
CDR.S: I'm married to probably the only man who would put up with me (of course he was an Navy SEAL when we met). We've been married for 14 years, although if you subtract the time that we've been separated because of Navy commitments, we've probably only lived together half that time. I'm still not sure why he keeps putting up with my hectic schedule and bossy personality, but he really is the boss at home. No kids, yet!

UW: What is your favorite and why: movie? TV program? book? sport?
CDR.S: Another thing that I hate to admit to: I'm a science fiction junkie. My favorite movie is Star Wars, my favorite TV program is Star Trek (particularly Star Trek Voyager because of Capt. Janeway), and most of the books I read are science fiction. I do have to say, though, that Men of Honor was an absolutely wonderful movie that showed the courage of all Navy Divers.

UW: What's in your CD player right now?
CDR.S: Primarily smooth jazz or new age. I've got both Enya and Boney James in my MP3 player right now.

UW: What do you want to be when you grow up?
CDR.S: I want to be a mother and somehow contribute to the public education system. Children are absolutely our future and we must take every step to ensure that they are ready to lead our country and the world into a better future.