First things first.. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY! And welcome.
I don’t know much about diving a small boat except for what has already been posted.
We dive from a private boat and either take a bubble watcher non-diver with the boat or do one set of divers down while the other set takes their surface interval, a round robin of sorts.
In as much of diving lakes many of the the state parks in Pennsylvania allow scuba diving with registration at the park office, and a few rules. Usually there’s not much to see. I would check your local area for the rules.
There are many lakes and quarries such as Dutch Springs http://dutchsprings.com/scuba.html here is PA. that have been converted to SCUBA parks. These are great places to hone your skills in a relatively controlled and safe environment.
Good luck
john