
Breathe
A Master Diver's Survival Tales
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Narrated by:
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Daniel Grimes
Rick Bettua should be dead. Many times over. The retired US Navy master diver suffered a devastating attack by a 12-foot bull shark that shredded his thigh from his knee to his hip. By the time he reached the shore 90 minutes later, he’d bled out, he had no pulse, and wasn’t breathing. Yet, emergency medical workers didn’t give up. His miraculous recovery in late 2020 was just the most recent of his numerous underwater life-and-death experiences.
Breathe is Rick Bettua’s survival/adventure story. It’s also a story about perseverance against great odds, and his impressive skills to solve problems—and even save lives—under extreme conditions. It begins and ends with the shark attack and his recovery that defied the odds.
In between are 15 other stories in which Bettua narrowly escaped death during his remarkable 32-year Navy career. In one instance, in a search for a lost piece of a ship’s propeller, he was buried alive 70 feet below the surface and under 20 feet of mud when a tunnel collapsed. When he finally worked his way free after two hours, he then completed the task, so no other divers would be endangered.
The first-person narration takes the listener through Rick Bettua’s evolution as a diver from a kid spear-fishing to one of the elite Navy master divers. He never wasted time to achieve a goal. He started spearfishing when he was just 10 years old, then entered the Navy when he was 17.
Because he loved diving and it was also his hobby, he moved ahead rapidly in his career. He became a master diver only one year after becoming a chief petty officer. He achieved the highest rank possible for an enlisted sailor, master chief, at age 33, one of the youngest ever to attain that rank.
But Bettua’s promotions never kept him out of the water—or out of perilous circumstances. His skills, his fearlessness, and his perseverance helped him survive time and time again throughout his career and beyond it.
©2022 Rick Bettua (P)2025 David N. WilsonListeners also enjoyed...




















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Awesome first person narrative
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Fantastic adventures and very well written!
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Really enjoyed this audio version. Well done!
Go Navy
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Great story
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The only problem I had was that the narrator could not pronounce "Commandant" and it jars you out of the narrative every time.
Great career adventure
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A great story
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Awesome stories!
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The story was amazing! Narration needed work
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Great book!
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USN Master Diver Rick Bettua’s story is one of courage, determination, perseverance and the Navy’s Can-Do spirit. He epitomizes the concept of servant leadership, leading his Sailors and Marines from the front and (while never compromising the mission) looking out for their welfare.
Any Naval career spanning 30 years will have a plethora of “Sea Stories” However, Master Chief/Master Diver Bettua’s adventures have spanned the gamut of military diving and seafaring: From the job of ship’s husbandry, towing nuclear subs to combat diving with Force Marine Recon. And when the Master Chief goes on liberty or leave, he takes his speargun, mask and fins and free dives in search of huge pelagics. Rick Bettua’s love of the sea is inspiring.
Master Chief/ Master Diver Rick Bettua is an example of a “Life Well Lived”
Now for the reason why I gave the performance a one-star rating……
The audio mix/recording quality was good and narrator Daniel Grimes voice was OK. However the multitude of mispronounced words and military terms clearly shows that the producer of this audio book did NOT do his/her job. The mispronunciations were so bad and numerous that while listening in my car, that every time the narrator said; BOSS-SON I would scream BOW-SUN
I work in television and audio production. When approaching a project like this, in the pre-production, and pre-reading of the script, you go over any words, phrase or concepts that are not common knowledge and clarify them before you go into the studio. During the actual audio recording, the producer should have gone over correct pronunciation and in post-production have an SME (subject matter expert) take a listen for both production and content
While I counted over dozen mispronunciations, the most glaring where for: Bosun (Boatswain), Coxwain, Commandant and Forecastle. The narrator even mispronounced archipelago and Muay Thai.
This clearly shows an audio producer who was lazy and just pushing this project out the door. If I was the publisher, I would send this back to whomever produced the audio version of this book for a re-edit.
ALL THIS SAID. In spite of the audio production errors (which really bother me because that is my field). I highly recommend this book. In fact, I just ordered the print version for my Library.
Wish I could give BREATHE a 10-star review
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