Italino "Tony" Pietrantonio
Italino “Tony” Pietrantonio, a native of Louisiana, began his diving career in 1994 when a friend introduced him to it. He then took a hiatus from diving when he joined the U.S. Army in 1995. Tony began his military career as a Combat Engineer serving in this job field until 2001. He then attended the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in 2000 successfully completing the grueling test earning a spot in attending the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC). After graduating the SFQC, Tony was assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group (SFG) as a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant serving in 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group until October 2013. During his time in 3rd SFG, he was responsible for training other team members as well as host nation personnel during deployments. He has held positions as Junior Engineer, Senior Engineer, Detachment Sniper, and Assistant Operations Sergeant. Tony’s final assignment before retiring in May 2017 was as a Sniper Instructor for the 3rd SFG where he earned his rating as an Instructor and Small Group Instructor. Mr. Pietrantonio began his fire service career in March 2009 when he joined the Flat Branch Volunteer Fire Department as a firefighter rising through the ranks to his current position as Captain. He later joined the Harnett County Underwater Search and Recovery Dive Team where he currently serves as Lieutenant under Captain Darrell Adams. Tony holds certifications as a certified Firefighter, Hazardous Materials Responder, Technical Rescuer, Technical Water Rescuer, and Fire Services Instructor. Tony has obtained a Bachelor of Science in Fire Science Management from American Military University.
Tony also works with the North Carolina Community College system as an adjunct instructor in training public safety professionals in multiple discipline areas. He has obtained various diving certifications including: SDI Instructor, ERDI Instructor, ERD Supervisor, SDI/ERDI Full Face Mask Instructor, SDI/ERDI Drysuit Instructor, ERD Rescue Swimmer, ERD Dive Technician II, ERD Tender, TDI Cavern Diver, TDI Advanced Nitrox Diver, and TDI Trimix Diver. He has thousands of hours of training as a public servant and has logged numerous dives in the public safety environment or black-water situations. He has a diverse diving background in multiple diving environments and locations throughout the world.
Tony is an owner / partner of Public Safety Instructor Group (PSIG) which is a collective of public safety instructors teaching together with the simple mission to help facilitate quality training programs to the public safety professional which are committed and dedicated to providing students with the highest level of professionalism with an emphasis on high quality training programs and safety. He has worked with multiple dive shops between North Carolina and Florida bringing public safety dive training to teams.