Under the Seas
One class shows what it takes to be a Navy SCUBA Diver
06 May 2014
Navy Divers handle most of the underwater jobs in the Navy, but there is a small group of Sailors from other rates who get the opportunity to qualify as Navy SCUBA Divers.
Eligible Sailors, primarily from the submarine community, volunteer for the program and go to the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Florida, to attend the five-week course. The Navy SCUBA Diver Course puts its students through a rigorous daily regimen of long hours in the classroom punctuated by intense physical workouts.
The classroom time covers topics like dive physics and dive medicine. The workouts are designed to build strength, but they are also built to test the students' commitment and their abilities to remain calm in uncomfortable situations. Sailors who complete the SCUBA course earn the Diver (DV) designator. They go back to their commands and perform their commands' SCUBA operations along with the normal duties of their rate.