Precision Under Pressure – U.S. Navy Divers Showcase Expertise in Afloat Salvage Operations

Afloat Salvage Exercise 24-2, previously named Expeditionary Battle Damage Response Exercise, was designed to train and evaluate Navy Divers’ and EOD technicians' ability to access and assess shipboard damages and repair them in a simulated wartime environment, improving the Navy’s ability to respond to combat damage control and to increase salvage effectiveness.

“Navy mobile diving and salvage companies and EOD platoons maintain readiness to conduct afloat salvage and render safe procedures aboard Navy and joint assets anytime, anywhere,” said Cmdr. Garrett Pankow, commanding officer, MDSU 2. “Our training aboard NAVSEA 21 INACT ships in Philadelphia, PA provided EOD Group 2 forces a controlled shipboard environment for our sailors to simulate damage and explosive hazards on vessels afloat and exercise our capability to mitigate shipboard damage and explosive hazards. This was our third iteration of training in Philadelphia, and we continue to improve our warfighting readiness to support the Fleet.”

During the exercise, several different training objectives were met, such as damage control assessment, anti-terrorism force protection dives, render safe procedures on inert ordnance, damage surveys in the ship’s flooded ballast tanks, patch building and dewatering, and salvage of the ship’s damaged spaces while simulating an at-sea vessel.

Historically, the U.S. Navy has suffered ship damaging events such as the devastating attack on USS Stark (FFG 31) by an Iraqi F-1 Mirage fighter jet in 1987, and the terrorist attack on USS Cole (DDG 67) by suicide bombers in the Aden Harbor, Yemen, on Oct. 12, 2000. These events caused significant flooding and shipboard damage and took the ships out of the fight.

When faced with conducting damage control operations at this magnitude, a ship’s necessary systems and manning to repair such damages may be limited or exhausted. This is where Navy Divers and EOD technicians can provide unique support to the Fleet.

In 2000, when Navy Divers from MDSU 2, detachment Alpha, were rapidly deployed to the scene of the attack on USS Cole, they were immediately faced with the deadly and tragic aftermath of the bombing.

“Our first glimpse of the ship that night will be forever fixed in our minds,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Frank Perna, in the first days of their salvage operation of Cole.

“Get in the water,” Perna thought. “Get the Cole back.”

They had a mission at hand, and brothers and sisters in arms to help. So, that is exactly what they did.

24 years later, Navy Divers from the same diving and salvage unit, MDSU 2, are training for a similar mission in the footsteps of Warrant Officer Perna.

“Taking lessons from recent events such as the damage incurred from the missile strikes to USS Stark (FFG 31) in 1987, the mine strike of USS Samuel B. Robert (FFG 58) in 1988, and the attack on USS Cole (DDG 67) in 2000, I did not want to just teach our Navy Divers about the responses to those casualties through lectures or tabletop exercises,” said Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin Carroll, MDSU’s salvage engineer. “Personally, I learn best through on-the-job and hands on training. What better way to learn and expand our capabilities to best support the Fleet than to create actual damage scenarios that enable our [Sailors] to hone their skills in afloat salvage techniques?”

Afloat salvage capabilities are a critical mission Navy Divers and EOD technicians are training toward in order to significantly enhance the U.S. Navy’s, as well as NATO Allies’ and partners’, capability to keep vessels operational while in a forward deployed status. The main goal is minimizing damage and ‘keeping our ships in the fight’ after sustaining casualties.

At this exercise, Navy Divers from MDSU 2 had the chance to access, patch and dewater spaces after a simulated missile attack where ordnance failed to detonate, causing major flooding and damage to bulkheads on the ex-USS Fort McHenry.

Flooded ballast tanks with imposed bulkhead penetrations simulated the type of real world scenario Navy Divers may be tasked to respond to in the future.

Before adressing repairs, EOD technicians and Navy Divers had to methodically disarm and render safe an inert rocket shape in the ballast tank. After safely removing the rocket shape, Navy Divers constructed three patches for the affected bulkheads. Once the patches were in place, they dewatered 40,000 gallons of water from the space.

“This was a great opportunity to teach younger divers that diving is not always going to be in warm, sunny and flat seas in Florida,” said Navy Diver First Class Robert Brookins, leading petty officer of MDSU 2 Co. 2-4. “This training event was an eye opener to the gravity of these kind of real-life scenarios that we could be faced with. I’m glad we were able to flex our capabilities and show that our team can work in tight spaces and passageways which restrict the normal dive operations we routinely conduct.”

This exercise also offered a platform to integrate Navy EOD mobile units and Navy Diver companies into one team with one mission, allowing them to exchange skills and tactics with a common objective.

“Working together presents us [EOD technicians and Navy Divers] as a package, capable of fixing more than the normal task at hand,” said Lt. Brent Lawson, training officer of EODMU 6. “It’s a force multiplier for us to be working together to solve these problems. Navy EOD is standing by to support the fleet in these types of emergencies.”

These valuable learning experiences between the diving and EOD communities will further enhance MDSU 2’s afloat salvage mission sets, changing the way the Navy can operate in combative environments which have the potential to present these types of casualties that could require salvors and EOD technicians to integrate with and support ships’ crews in wartime.

Afloat salvage capabilities will enable Navy Divers and EOD technicians to repair damage to a vessel on the battlefield and allow ships the opportunity to reach forward repair sites during conflict. This training event was one of the first of its kind for the Navy special operations community to develop and train on the tactics, techniques, and procedures involved in shipboard damage control and salvage.

EODGRU 2 operates as part of Navy Expeditionary Combat Command and provides skilled, capable, and combat-ready deployable Navy EOD and Navy Diver forces around the globe to support a range of operations.

For the full collection of photos from Afloat Salvage Exercise, and news about U.S. Navy Divers and Navy EOD and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2, visit https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/EODG-2.