Petty Officer 1st Class Chris Hall and Rear Admiral John Nadeau at the bottom of the pool at Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla. (U.S. Coast Guard file photo by DV1 Michael Garst)
LITTLE FALLS, Minn. – U.S. Coast Guard personnel will be leading a joint-service Cold Water Ice Diving course from Jan. 31 through Feb. 11 at Camp Ripley.
This intensive, high-risk training course will include students from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and U.S. Coast Guard, and was previously held in Seattle and Lone Butte, British Columbia, Canada.
The CWID course trains and prepares military divers for diving operations in high-latitude environments. During the 11 training days, students will receive training specific instruction for diving in cold water and ice environments. Students will practice emergency procedures and gear familiarization, culminating in under-the- ice dives where students will have certain tasks to execute that challenge their critical-thinking, dexterity in extreme cold, and skill as a diver.
“There were a variety of reasons that the course was moved, but the primary motivating factors included cost, safety, and better collaboration with other military divers,” said. Lt. Nicholas Pavlik, Training Division, Coast Guard Special Mission Training Center. “Camp Ripley’s training resources and accommodations are state of the art and were key factors in the Coast Guard’s decision to move the CWID course.”
The development of the CWID course was a direct result of the 2006 diving mishap in the Arctic Ocean where two Coast Guard divers from the Coast Guard Cutter Healy lost their lives during a training dive.
The Diver Rating in the Coast Guard is one of our newest, formally being established in 2015, and falls under the command of our Special Missions Training Center in Camp Lejeune, N.C. The Coast Guard has used divers since WWII, but prior to the official designation in 2015, it was a collateral duty for members onboard cutters. Coast Guardsmen who pursue the dive profession attend the U.S. Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla.
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