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........ He grabbed my manifold like a vice and I hit the trigger. We got to a vertical pit and I stopped motoring and started venting my dry suit. Suddenly I realized that even though I was venting as fast as I could we were ascending rapidly. McFaden would not let go of my manifold to vent his suit. Next thing I knew I was pinned like a bug to the ceiling. I couldn't get him to let go of my manifold so I could even turn around. I finally had to use the scooter to pull us back down so we could continue out. During the entire exit, Bill Main had hold of McFaden’s legs, trying to pull him down by getting as negatively buoyant as he could. By the time we got near the entrance I ran out of gas. I was seconds away from passing out when Bill Main starting buddy breathing with me on his short hose. By now Bill had already given his long hose to McFaden. Bill Main never hesitated to share gas with both of us, even if it meant buddy breathing off a short hose. At this point my head was a ball of screaming agony from carbon dioxide build up. I could barely do anything but try to catch my breath. After a minute or so I noticed Bill Main picking his long hose up from the floor. He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the silted out bedding plane area back into the cave. I was screaming into my/his regulator because I DID NOT want to go back INTO the cave, but he was taking us to clearer water. Off to the left I saw McFaden upside down on the ceiling, pressed there by his dry suit, apparently dead. (The preliminary autopsy report indicated that he had embolized. I would guess that this occurred during the rapid ascent from the pit at 180 feet or during the final ascent across the last room.) Once in clear water, we stabilized our situation, swapped second stages so I would be on Main’s long hose, relocated the line and made our exit. When I broke down my gear later you could take my regulators off the manifold without even closing the valves. I did everything I could for McFaden and so did Bill Main and we both nearly got killed. "
It was about 3:30 P.M., Sunday afternoon in Luraville, Florida, as I was giving a final exam to a group of six students. They had successfully completed their NACD cavern diving course at the Spring System Dive Center owned and operated by Arwyn and Jan Carr. Jan knocked on the classroom door and informed me that my wife Karen had just called and it was very important to call her at my home in Tallahassee.