A United States Navy diver may be a restricted fleet line (Engineering Duty) officer, Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) officer, Medical Corps officer, an Unrestricted Line Officer who is qualified in Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Warfare (1140) or an enlisted (ND or HM rating) who is qualified in underwater diving and salvage. Navy divers serve with fleet diving detachments and in research and development. Some of the mission areas of the Navy diver include: marine salvage, harbor clearance, underwater ship husbandry and repair, submarine rescue, saturation diving, experimental diving, underwater construction and welding, as well as serving as technical experts to the Navy SEALs, Marine Corps, and Navy EOD diving commands.
The U.S. Navy is the lead agency in military diving technology and training within the U.S. Department of Defense. The foundation of the Navy diving program consists of the Navy Diver (ND) rating for enlisted personnel who perform diving as their occupational specialty in the Navy.
History through World War II The US Navy began employing divers in the middle of the 19th century; these were primarily swimmers and skin divers using techniques that had not been altered for hundreds of years. Duties included the salvage and repair of ships, construction work and military operations, and the Battle of Mobile Bay during the American Civil War. Preparations for the battle included the sending of swimmers to clear mines from the path of Admiral Farragut's ships, that had been planted by Confederate States forces to prevent entrance to the bay.
In 1898, Navy divers were briefly involved in an international crisis when the second-class armored battleship was sunk by a mysterious explosion while anchored in the harbor at Havana, Cuba. Navy divers were sent from Key West to study and report on the wreck. Although a Court of Inquiry was convened, the reason for the sinking was not found.
As American technology expanded in the early 1900s the US Navy developed an interest in submarine warfare. However, throughout the period of 1912–1939, the development of the Navy's F-class, H-class and S-class submarines was marred by a series of accidents, collisions, and sinkings. As a result of these submarine disasters a corresponding growth in the Navy's diving capability was developed.
Until 1912, US Navy divers rarely went below 60 FSW (feet of seawater). There is little documentation that the Navy had a diving program prior to 1912.Navy Divers, Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin, All Hands, September 1944, pp. 26–30, Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, Indiana In that year, Chief Gunner George D. Stillson set up a program to test Haldane's diving tables and methods of stage decompression. A companion goal of the program was to develop improvements in Navy diving equipment. Throughout a three-year period, first diving in tanks ashore and then in open water in Long Island Sound from , Navy divers went progressively deeper.
The publication of the first US Navy Diving ManualUS Navy diving manual Revision 7, SS521-AG-PRO-010 0910-LP-115-1921, COMMANDER, NAVAL SEA SYSTEMS COMMAND, U.S. GPO, Washington DC in 1916 and the establishment of a Navy Diving School at Newport, Rhode Island were the direct outgrowth of experience gained in the test program and the salvage. When the United States entered World War I, the staff and graduates of the school were sent to Europe, where they conducted a number of salvage operations along the French coast.
On 24 May 1939 four divers would earn the Medal of Honor rescuing 33 men off the sunken . When the Squalus went down twelve divers from the Experimental Diving Unit were part of the rescue. Those directly involved in the most dangerous aspects of the rescue received the medals.
WWII brought with it an expanded need for divers that began immediately after the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. By afternoon on the 7th nine divers from Destroyer Repair Unit 1 at San Diego were on a PBY being flown to Hawaii.I San Diego, Descent into Darkness, Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Rd, Annapolis, MD, 1996, p. 12 Their first priority was to save lives, despite considerable effort they only found dead. They were attached to the Naval Salvage and Repair Unit created at Pearl Harbor where divers logged over 16,000 hours under diving officer Commander Haynes.Navy and Marine Corps Medal: Howard E. Haynes, Hall of Valor: The Military Medals Database website, 2021 Because of the shallow working depth the divers had no diving time limitation leading to fourteen hour days seven days a week. The Salvage Unit list of work included , , , , , and .Diving Seabees, IV USS West Virginia, Decent into Darkness, Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Rd, Annapolis, MD, 1996, p. contentsSalvage Diary from I March-1942-15 November 1943 pdf, Industrial Department War Daiary Collection, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in San Bruno, California They were assisted by the divers off and .Salvage Begins: II USS Nevada, Decent into Darkness, Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Rd, Annapolis, MD, 1996, p.29 Soon after the 16th Naval Construction Battalion arrived in Pearl Harbor her divers were tasked to the recovery of USS Oklahoma as well.16th Naval Construction Battalion, Seabee Museum Archives, Port Hueneme, CA., p. 7 Two steelworkers from CB 3 had previously been certified to dive with the Salvage and Repair Unit on USS West Virginia, however they were recalled because their commanding officer objected to the pay they received. This led to no more volunteers from outside the Salvage Unit being trained to dive with the Salvage Unit. At Pearl Harbor the diving assignments were split civilian/military with the civilians outside the vessels and USN inside. The divers from Destroyer Repair Unit 1 are credited with creating the arc-oxygen underwater cutting torch.Diver's Ingenuity: II USS Nevada, Decent into Darkness, Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Rd, Annapolis, MD, 1996, p.32 A diving task at Pearl Harbor was the recovery of bodies.Pearl Harbor Navy salvage diver Ken Hartle dies at 103, Navy Times, January 28, 2017 It was a gruesome task that was eventually stopped as bodies would simply come apart when disturbed, from being submerged too long.Recovery of Bodies: USS Arizona, Decent into Darkness, Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Rd, Annapolis, MD, 1996, p. 82-5
The creation of Naval Construction Battalions to build advance bases in the Pacific Theater put more diving assignments in front of the Navy, enough that the Seabees had a school of their own to qualify 2nd class divers. CBs would put men in the water from the tropics to the Arctic Circle. In the Aleutian Islands Naval Construction Battalion 4 had divers doing salvage on the Russian freighter SS Turksib in water.Naval Construction Battalion 4 records, Navy Seabee Museum Archives, Port Hueneme CA, p. 6 In the tropics Seabee divers would be sent close to an enemy airfield to retrieve a downed Japanese aircraft. At Halavo on Florida Island, divers from the 27th CB recovered a Disburser's safe full of money plus changed 160 props on vessels of all sizes. The 27th Naval Construction Battalion logged 2,550 diving hours, with 1,345 classified as "extra hazardous". Seabees would also blur the definition of diver with the development of the Underwater Demolition Teams. Another historic note to the Seabees is that they had African American divers in the 34th CB. Those men fabricated their diving gear in the field as instructed at diving school. For depths less than a modified USN Mk III or MK IV gas mask was considered acceptable and preferred by the men of the 27th CB. Twice, while at Milne Bay, the 105th CB sent special diving details on undisclosed missions. Divers in the 301st CB placed as much as 50 tons of explosives a day to keep their dredges productive.301st Naval Construction Battalion cruisebook, U.S. Navy Seabee Museum Archives, Port Hueneme, CA, 2020-01-22, p. 60, 61 However, the divers of CB 96 used 1,727,250 lbs of dynamite to blast of coral for the ship repair facility on Manicani Island, as an element of the Naval Operating Base Leyte-Samar.CEC Bulletin, Vol. 2 February 1948 No. 15, Lt jg. Cushing Phillips, p. 45 Their primary diving gear was modified Navy Mk III and Navy Mk IV gas masks.
The war itself produced an unending demand for underwater ship repair and salvage. In New York, capsized at the dock leading to the Navy creating a Salvage school right there to deal with the issue. For the next year the Navy had 75 divers working on her salvage. Each of the fleet's repair ships had divers. Six of them from were put to the test using the new technology of underwater cutting and welding. The stern was nearly completely blown off . They removed three propellers and stabilized ship structure enough so that she could be towed to a drydock. Divers from were there too with their underwater cutters working on USS New Orleans. Their salvage work in combat zones got a fleet tug a Battle Star. Two divers plus their support teams were put aboard in response to a secret dispatch from Commander South Service Force Pacific. Each of the submarine rescue ships had divers assigned too. was sent to Kiska Harbor after divers off confirmed the Japanese submarine I-7 was lying on the bottom in of water. Seven divers off the Florikan salvaged intelligence materials from the sub. Earlier in the year, at Kamimbo Bay, USS Ortolan divers recovered a pile of documents off the partially sunk Japanese submarine I-1 that was turned over to intelligence. The clearance of Manila harbor was a huge project where divers led by master diver Joseph S. Karneke from repeated the action. There they salvaged code books, maps of Japanese fortifications on Luzon plus 500,000 yen; it was a major intelligence coup.Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II, John Prados, Naval Institute Press, 2001Navy Diver, Joseph S. Karneke, Ace Publishing, January 1, 1962 When Chanticleer first left the States part of its mission was to provide diver training to the fleet based out of Freemantle, Australia. The US Navy out of Australia sent divers down to recover intelligence off the Japanese submarine I-124 in just of water.
When the Japanese took the Philippines a couple of the prisoners were USN divers, one was Robert Sheats. The Japanese quickly learned of what the Philippine Treasury had done with the silver that had been in the vault on Corregidor.Corregidor Treasures, Philippine Sailor, Karl-Wilhelm Welteke, July 2018 Millions of dollars in silver coinage had been dumped in Caballo Bay, an inlet on greater Manila Bay, to keep it from falling into Japanese hands. The Japanese forced USN pow divers to retrieve the coinage. They did recover some of the treasure. However, the U.S. Army and Navy put together a hard hat diving unit in August 1945 that recovered millions of Pesos off .