Local Doctor Shares World Of SCUBA

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- If you saw the movie "Men of Honor" starring Cuba Gooding and Robert DeNiro, you know that before World War II there was no such thing as an African American underwater diver in the U.S. military. That changed thanks to Master diver Carl Brashear. It changed even more thanks to a Washington DC doctor named Jose Jones.

"We started off with six people in my front room who wanted to learn how to dive and now fifty years later."

The Underwater Adventure Seekers is celebrating its golden anniversary.

The group is the oldest black scuba diving club in the nation.

In 1959, Jones said existing clubs were reluctant to train or accept African Americans and that inspired him to start the group. He learned how to dive in the military and said he simply wanted to pass his experiences on to his own people.

"To me they're heroes, these are guys who were rejected in a sport that was widely enjoyed by another group of people," Jones said.

Jones helped change that. Today the Underwater Adventure Seekers includes both men and women. Curiosity drove Faye Ansari to sign up a few years ago and once she joined, "I found that i really enjoyed this, it was just another world."

That's a good way to describe all the things the group has seen over the years, having been everywhere from South America to Morocco.