OAK HARBOR — Whidbey Island Naval Air Station’s "Dilbert Dunker" has soaked its last sailor.
And the man at the top was the one who went to the bottom.
The air station has retired its Dilbert Dunker, the big red contraption with a simulated airplane cockpit that’s used to help sailors learn how to escape from a submerged aircraft.
In Navy terms, it’s called the 9E8E single-place underwater egress trainer. But it’s more commonly known as the Dilbert Dunker, and is easily familiar to anyone who has seen the movie, "An Officer and a Gentleman."
Whidbey’s dunker has been used since 1984, and it’s seen a bit of Hollywood, too. Actors Danny Glover and Brad Johnson used the dunker back in September 1989 for the film "Flight of the Intruder."
In the past two decades, more than 8,300 aircrew members have trained on the device at Whidbey. But on Friday, the air station retired the device because it won’t be needed next January when the naval station opens its new $4.5 million Aircrew Water Survival Training Facility.
The new 23,000-square-foot facility has a multiplace egress trainer that can seat multiple sailors and Marines. It will also have a parachute-over-water slide trainer, a parachute drag and a helicopter trainer, and offices and maintenance space.
For Friday’s finale, base commander Capt. Stephen P. Black climbed aboard for the machine’s final dunk.
"We didn’t want to just tear the thing out of the pool and have it fade into history," he said.
Black’s co-workers at the base prepped him for the final ride by giving him doughnuts and a coffee mug reading "Dilbert’s last dunk."
Black has been in the contraption plenty of times before, though. His first ride on the dunker came when he was in the Navy’s flight school back in 1981.
"It is almost a right of passage as much as it is training," Black said.
That’s because there’s a bit of initial anxiety involved. Trainees have to strap on goggles that are painted black before they take the plunge, so they can learn to escape a cockpit in simulated night-time conditions.
Whidbey’s Dilbert Dunker is the Navy’s last. It will be sent to the Department of Defense office that handles surplus military gear.
Even with the demise of the Dilbert Dunker, there may still be some traces of trepidation for Whidbey’s sailors and Marines when the new multiseat trainer is used after the new facility opens.
That’s because there’s only one way out of the Dilbert Dunker. But on the new machine, some exit-ways can be intentionally blocked to make trainees learn more than one escape route. And because it seats more, that also means trainees will have added obstacles — other sailors also trying to get out.
The nickname for the new trainer?
"Panic in a can," Black said.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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