Underwater diving is one of mankind’s greatest inventions that allowed us to go beyond our natural abilities. It enabled humans to discover the depths of the world’s oceans, which make up 71% of the Earth’s surface. From diving bells, to surface supplied diving suits, it all culminated in 1942 when Jacques Cousteau, nicknamed the father of scuba diving, played a huge role in the development of modern scuba diving, designing the first successful and safe open-circuit scuba, known as the Aqua-Lung.
Since then, the rest is history. Underwater diving began to be used recreationally, commercially, and brought a new element of warfare to the battlefield.
Present day, every branch of the United States military, aside from the Space Force, has its hand in the underwater diving world. Each branch has its own diving communities, and each community brings something unique to the table. But why so many divers? What do they all do? What’s their purpose? How many communities are there? Keep reading and these questions will all be answered in our breakdown of the Divers of the United States Military.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: DIVING GEAR
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: NAVY DIVERS
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: ARMY DIVERS
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: MARINE CORPS DIVERS
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: AIR FORCE DIVERS
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: COAST GUARD DIVERS
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: CONCLUSION
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: DIVING GEAR
Before we jump into each of the branches’ military divers, let’s go over some of the equipment that divers in the military have at their disposal. Combatant divers use the MK 25 Draeger Rebreather, which allows them to infiltrate undetected. Other dive rigs that the military affords to its divers are the MK16 which is used for long, deep dives, and other general purpose dives. Then there’s the KM37, which is used for underwater construction. There’s also the MK20, which is used for construction and simple dives. An up and coming rig is the MK29, which is going to be used as a special purpose rig for when the MK16 can’t be used. And how could we forget.. SCUBA rigs! SCUBA is used for short, generic dives.
The technology and advancements that led us to these rigs is quite astonishing. However,despite the advancements in diving technology and knowledge, we’re still learning about dive science to this day. There’s a unit, called the Navy Experimental Dive Unit, that researches and develops new technology to advance warfighting and technical efforts in military diving.
Alright, now that you have a basic understanding of the equipment that the various divers of the United States military uses, let’s get into who is actually operating those dive rigs.
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: NAVY DIVERS
The Navy essentially runs the dive manual of the United States military, and runs many of the diving schools that various divers of the U.S. military attend.
The United States Navy has a plethora of communities and jobs that can be divers. There’s even a rate called “Navy Diver”, which shows you how prominent it is in the branch. But it goes further than that. Due to the large scope of diving in the Navy, there are several needs that have to be met across a multitude of specialties and professions. Typical Navy divers will do ship husbandry, underwater salvage, experimental diving, you name it. But then there’s the need for underwater construction, combatant diving, dive medicine, underwater explosives, the list goes on. The Navy has communities that work in all of those facets in the world of diving. With that explained, we’re going to give you a little knowledge on what each of those communities are.
There’s the Navy Divers, which we already mentioned. Aside from their normal duties, they can be involved in search and rescue missions, and often support SOF units when needed. They’re a part of the Naval Special Operations community.
Then there’s the Dive Medical Technicians and Dive Medical Officers, called DMT’s and DMO’s, respectively. These are the sailors who deal with all aspects of dive medicine. Diving is dangerous, and a lot of medical issues can occur if a dive goes wrong. And.. we’re human beings, we need air to live, so being surrounded by water isn’t exactly the safest position you can put yourself in. DMT’s are hospital corpsman, and DMO’s are medical doctors who are specially trained to render care in diving incidents.
The sailors who specialize in underwater construction are the seabees. Make no mistake, not all seabees can become divers, but it is an excellent opportunity for them. It’s ironic because the seabees are one of the biggest land based jobs in the Navy, with many of them never touching the water, yet there are some that deal with the water more than sailors on ships. Seabees who dive are in Underwater Construction Teams. They have responsibilities such as battle damage repairs and underwater demolition. This opportunity is available to motivated seabees in every seabee rate.
And speaking of underwater demolition, there’s underwater explosives out there. Who renders those safe? Navy EOD technicians. Navy EOD is a big part of the Naval Diving community, and specializes in underwater explosives. It’s actually the only EOD branch that dives in the U.S. Military, making them a unique and capable fighting force. Despite what you may think, EOD divers are not trained in combatant diving.
That’s what the Navy SEALs and Navy SARCs are for. Those are the only two communities in the Navy that have the opportunity to be trained in combatant diving, because that’s in their job description. “Sea” in SEAL and “Special Amphibious” in SARC speak for themselves.
Another diving community exists in the submarine community. Select submariners can get sent to dive school and get SCUBA certified. They’re responsible for maintaining the security and maintenance of the boat. Not every submariner can get afforded this opportunity, but it does exist.
One of the more unknown rates in the Navy that can get dive qualified is Mass Communications Specialists. These are the public relations personnel of the Navy, who take photos, write stories, and act as journalists. Someone’s got to be there taking these awesome pictures of divers, and a select few can get trained to do just that. They’re placed in Underwater Photography Teams.
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: ARMY DIVERS
It should come as no surprise to you that the Army, a land-based branch, has a much smaller diving community than the Navy. Some of you might be surprised that the Army even has divers.
The Army has two classifications of divers: engineering and special operations.
The Army Diver MOS is 12D. Most Army Divers deal with the engineering side of the house, like underwater construction, which means most of them dive more shallow and have a more limited scope than their Navy counterparts. Some of them still do deep sea diving. Think of Army Divers as the Army’s equivalent to the Navy’s UCTs.
Army Divers also conduct reconnaissance, demolition, and salvage underwater. They can also assist in special warfare and EOD.
The special operations divers in the Army are afforded to the Army Rangers and Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets. These two communities can be trained in combatant diving, and must pass the Special Forces Combat Diver Qualification Course, which is their own school. Since these communities are combatant divers, their scope is much more limited than that of Army Divers.
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: MARINE CORPS DIVERS
The Marine Corps’ scope in military diving is rather small. It’s really only limited to combatant diving. In fact, it’s so small that the Navy runs their dive lockers for them.
Two communities can attend the Marine Combatant Diver Course, Recon Marines and MARSOC. Oh, and remember the Navy SARCs we mentioned earlier? They attend this course too, because they’re intertwined in both of these communities. Bottom line, if you want to be a diver in the Marine Corps, you’ll have to do combatant diving, and you only have two options to choose from. Their pin is pretty cool, too.
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: AIR FORCE DIVERS
Like the Marine Corps, the Air Force doesn’t have much of a slice of the military diving community. Most of their diving personnel are combatant diving trained.
The communities that have the ability to put their fins on and get wet are Special Recon, Combat Controllers, PJ’s, and a select few TACP’s. Diving is built into the pipelines of SR, CCT’s, and PJ’s, but it is only afforded to TACP’s who are embedded in AFSPECWAR.
Their dive school is very similar to the Marine Corps’ combatant dive course, but it is more job specific to the duties that the AFSPECWAR personnel execute.
In addition, certain Air Force SERE specialists have the opportunity to attend the Navy’s dive course, but they do not do combatant diving like their specwar counterparts.
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: COAST GUARD DIVERS
While the Coast Guard isn’t as big as the Navy, it’s still a maritime based branch, which means that its divers are afforded a lot more opportunities. Like the Navy and Army, the Coast Guard has its own rating for divers, which is DV. However, you cannot join the Coast Guard right off the bat as a diver. This opportunity is only available to you if you qualify for it as an E-4 or E-5, so there’s no guarantee that you’ll be a diver if you join the Coast Guard.
The missions of Coast Guard divers vary widely. They deal with coastal security, search and rescue, ice operations, and drug interdiction. Speaking of drug interdiction, the coast guard is currently under the DHS since its peacetime, meaning coast guard divers have many opportunities to work alongside law enforcement. Coast Guard divers receive mostly the same training as Navy divers and then move on to do the same line of work with arguably less funding, so they do more with less. Some describe them as the Swiss army knife of diving, they go where needed and to a little bit of everything that’s subsurface.
U.S. MILITARY DIVERS: CONCLUSION
Maybe one day the Space Force will have divers, but right now it’s looking more like they’ll be using space suits, not wetsuits!
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