PFC Francesco “Frankie” DiRenzo was born in 1946 in Philadelphia, PA. He was drafted in 1969 and found himself in Vietnam by Feb. 1971, as an engineman on an Army supply and salvage boat. Earning a Purple Heart for injuries received during his service in ‘Nam, Frankie returned home to Philadelphia before becoming part of M-A-R-A at its founding in 1979. Frankie passed away doing what he loved, making a dive to recover military artifacts off the coast of South Carolina in 2005. SPC Ted Harvey was born in 1948 to a mining family in West Virginia, and he enlisted in 1969 just before the first Selective Service lottery was held. Ted arrived in Vietnam in late 1970 and soon ended up as a seaman on the modified LCM-8 river landing vehicle. It was Ted’s idea to form M-A-R-A after the war and he quickly recruited his two Army buddies to help make it a reality. Sadly Ted died in August 2006 while vacationing in Bermuda. PFC Nate Shiffer was born in Homestead, Florida in 1945 and was a promising scholar athlete before being drafted in 1969. Nate met Frankie DiRenzo briefly during part of their mutual early training at Fort Dix, NJ and later found himself on the same boat in Vietnam, as a seaman specializing in salvage and other underwater / diving work. Nate has worked for M-A-R-A since its inception in 1979 and is the only surviving founding member, still working today to locate and recover important and unique military artifacts.