NSMRL Divers Take Part in Boston Navy Week

by Emily Swedlund

10 July 2024 BOSTON – U.S. Navy divers from Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory (NSMRL) engaged with Boston Navy Week attendees during a diving exhibition over the 3rd and 4th of July.

Chief Navy Diver Christopher Cobb, Navy Diver 1st Class Cameron Duffy, and Navy Diver 1st Class Connor Houtchens spent two days supporting the Navy Recruiting Command Dive Tank Exhibit on the pier outside the USS Constitution, one of the oldest commissioned naval ships in the world. They were joined by two divers from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard dive locker.

Throughout the two-day event, divers interacted with Navy Week attendees by challenging them to underwater games through a window in the dive tank. The exhibit also featured a modern Navy dive helmet (KM-37) that the public could try on.

“It’s always fun to interact with the general public, and playing underwater tic-tac-toe with the kids was a highlight,” said Cobb, “It gets kids thinking about how they could have fun opportunities like this in their own future.”

NSMRL divers also had the opportunity to talk with families about the many job opportunities that Navy diving offers, and specifically highlighted their work at NSMRL’s scientific laboratory.

“Working at NSMRL is unique to our field,” Cobb added, “it gives us an opportunity to see why and how specific diving procedures and gear that divers use are developed, and then we can take that back into the field after we leave and share the importance of these things with other divers and with the general public.”

Boston Navy Week is one of 15 Navy Weeks in 2024, which brings a variety of assets, equipment, and personnel to a single city for a weeklong series of engagements designed to bring America’s Navy closer to the people it protects. Each year, the program reaches more than 140 million people - about half the U.S. population.

NSMRL, part of Navy Medicine’s Research & Development Enterprise, and based out of Groton, Connecticut, sustains the readiness and superiority of undersea warfighters through innovative health and performance research.

Story originally posted on DVIDS: NSMRL Divers Take Part in Boston Navy Week