The USMC Combatant Diver Course is taught at the Navy Diving and Salvage Training Center,

Naval Support Activity Panama City Naval Support Activity Panama City (NSA PC), is a military shore installation of the United States Navy located in Bay County, just outside Panama City, Florida. Among its various tenant commands, it houses the Naval Surface Warfare Center Pan ...

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn Ha ...

. Both of the

Marine Air-Ground Task Force Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF, pronounced MAG-TAF) is a term used by the United States Marine Corps to describe the principal organization for all missions across the range of military operations. MAGTFs are a balanced air-ground, combined ar ...

reconnaissance assets, FMF Recon and MarDiv Recon, widely use combatant diving. During this eight-week course, trainees are introduced to

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and closed-circuit diving (using the Dräger LAR-V

rebreather A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's breathing, exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantially unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. ...

diving physics Diving physics, or the physics of underwater diving is the basic aspects of physics which describe the effects of the underwater environment on the underwater diver and their equipment, and the effects of blending, compressing, and storing breathin ...

and medical aid. Most of the training in combatant diving is done at night. The course provides underwater tactical training and the skills needed to successfully conduct underwater navigation for infiltration and exfiltration. The candidates negotiate long distances in open water, infiltrating by surface and sub-surface, learning to deal with the hazards of a

surf zone As ocean surface waves approach shore, they get taller and break, forming the foamy, bubbly surface called ''surf''. The region of breaking waves defines the surf zone, or breaker zone. After breaking in the surf zone, the waves (now reduced in ...

tangle and simulated equipment malfunctions. The combatant divers course combines lecture, demonstration, and practical application in

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

charging procedures using the USMC Oxygen Transfer Pump System, or USMC OTPS. Upon the completion of this course, the Marines (of any MOS that attends) are given the Special "B"

MOS MOS or Mos may refer to: Technology * MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor * Mathematical Optimization Society * Model output statistics, a weather-forecasting technique * MOS (filmm ...

0324 Reconnaissance Man, Combatant Diver Qualified (NMOS) ormerly 8653 Diver Badge (USN)

History

The Combat Swimmers Course was previously taught at the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

's Amphibious Reconnaissance School, Troop Training Units (TTU)s at either Expeditionary Warfare Training Group (EWTG); Pacific (EWTGPAC) or Atlantic (EWTGLANT). It was first formed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to teach selected reconnaissance Marines and sailors the fundamentals of advanced swimming. They were located on both of the United States' coasts, at the naval amphibious bases NAB Little Creek and

NAB Coronado Naval Amphibious Base Coronado (NAB Coronado) is a US naval installation located across the bay from San Diego, California. The base, situated on the Silver Strand (San Diego), Silver Strand, between San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean, is a maj ...

.Bruce F. Meyers, ''Fortune Favors the Brave'', (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2004). By the late 1980s, some combatant swimming courses were taught using the Marine Corps's own infrastructure, by experienced Marine combat divers. Because of the lack of facilities on Marine Corps bases, the Navy continued to provide the necessary training grounds for such training activities. The USMC Combatant Divers Course was established in 1993 at the Navy Diving and Salvage Training Center (NDSTC) in Panama City, FL.

Notes

References

{{Underwater diving, trareg

Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

United States Marine Corps schools Armed forces diving