Submarine rescue was a primary reason for the forma- tion of the NEDU and served as its first objective. Two tragic submarine accidents followed the 1915 sinking of the F-4: the sinking of the USS S-51 (SS-162) in 1925 and the USS S-4 (SS-109) in 1927. Both events saw a loss of life because of a lack of trained divers and specialized rescue equipment. This was untenable, and the NEDU was tasked with finding ways to safely rescue the survi- vors of submarine disasters. On May 23, 1939, a series of events came together that
allowed the NEDU to put to the test its experimental submarine rescue technology and research on safe deep- water ascent. The USS Squalus (SS-192), commissioned March 1, 1939, experienced a catastrophic valve failure during a test dive off the Isle of Shoals, near the coast of New Hampshire. Partially flooded, the submarine came to rest at a depth of 240 feet; 33 survivors (32 crew mem- bers and one civilian) huddled in the forward sections of the sub, awaiting rescue. As luck would have it, NEDU equipment already was on the docks at Portsmouth, N.H., very close to where the Squalus had gone down. The equipment was loaded aboard the USS Falcon (ASR-2) May 24 and taken to the crash site. The newly developed McCann rescue cham- ber, a revised version of a diving bell developed by Navy Cmdr. Charles Momsen, was used to raise all 33 survi- vors to safety over a period of 13 hours. It was one of the Navy’s most successful rescue operations up to that time and confirmed the lifesaving value of the NEDU’s ongoing research.
Invaluable assistance Now based in Panama City, Fla., the NEDU has been involved in many other “big news” events over the years, says senior engineering technician Jack Schmitt. For example, NEDU divers were called in to recover debris when the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff over the Atlantic Ocean Jan. 28, 1986, and they searched numerous lakes when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during reentry Feb. 1, 2003. Divers stationed at the NEDU also participated in
the recovery of TWA flight 800, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off East Moriches, N.Y., July 17, 1996; Egyptian Air flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the Massachusetts coast Oct. 31, 1999; and the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishery high school training
PHOTOS: ABOVE RIGHT, JOHN H. CORNELL/AP; TOP, AP JULY 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 53
Workmen are shown in the rescue diving bell (below) that was used to pull 33 crewmembers of the USS Squalus (SS-192) to the surface after the sub ex- perienced a valve failure, and eventually sank, during a test dive near the coast of New Hampshire in 1939. Divers stationed at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) participated in the recovery of the Boe- ing 747 from TWA Flight 800 (bottom) that crashed into the ocean in July 1996.
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