(FORTUNE Magazine) – I've been a diver since high school. I joined the police department and worked the road for four years. I went to the marine patrol; then a position opened in this unit in 1992. I've been here ever since.

I love the cold water. I wear what we call a skin. It's sort of a wetsuit. We're in the water from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. five days a week. We always have a cellphone with us--it doesn't work in the water, but if we are out to dinner and they need a diver, we go. We are regular police officers. We can handle any type of call.

The ValuJet airliner going down in the Everglades was one of the most significant events that I've been involved in. That and the recovery of missing persons. We found one person who had been missing for 21 years. Since 9/11 we are doing a lot more Homeland Security work. We are at the port several times a month, checking berths and doing searches under ships--cruise ships as well as freighters. We are in a time when people are after us. They just don't like what the U.S. stands for, and there is a high possibility of Miami or any other port being a target. --Interview by Julie Schlosser