Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Nave Bloodsaw | NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, July 17, 2025 – Navy Diver 2nd Class Austin Good, assigned to...... read more read more
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NAVAL STATION NORFOLK — Navy divers, assigned to units of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), conducted vital underwater ship husbandry work on USS George H.W. Bush and USS Iwo Jima, July 7-11, ensuring the fleet remains safe, ready, and mission-capable.
The divers, with experience in underwater ship husbandry, are integrated with the MARMC team based at Naval Station Norfolk and Norfolk Naval Shipyard. MARMC’s mission is essential to maintaining submarines, surface ships, and aircraft carriers through a series of complex underwater repairs and maintenance tasks.
“This effort is critical to enabling safe and timely completion of vital repairs that keep the fleet operational,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Josh Amberger, MARMC Diving Officer. “Our divers work around the clock, often in challenging conditions, to ensure ships can return to the water quickly and safely.”
Among the key operations they supported are emergency repairs, such as the single-boundary cofferdam installation aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) and the
rudder bearing repair on the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7). These time-sensitive underwater projects require precise coordination and skilled diving to allow ships to remain on schedule for deployments.
Underwater ship husbandry, the maintenance and repair of ships below the waterline is a key
part of sustaining naval readiness and a core competency of Navy divers. The skilled divers who perform these tasks play an important role in preserving the safety and effectiveness of the fleet’s vessels.
The work aligns with broader Navy maintenance efforts, including a simultaneous deployment of divers to Norfolk base supporting blade seal repairs on guided-missile destroyers, as well as
ongoing support for other fleet areas of responsibility through extended dive team rotations.
USS George H. W. Bush is the tenth and final Nimitz-class supercarrier of the U.S. Navy and is named for the 41st President of the United States and former Director of Central Intelligence George H. W. Bush, who was a naval aviator during World War II.
USS Iwo Jima is a landing helicopter dock ship, named after the Battle of Iwo Jima of World War II. The ship was commissioned in 2001 and recently shifted its homeport to Norfolk.
Established in 2002, EODGRU-2 traces its legacy to the Navy’s earliest mine countermeasure and salvage units. Today, the command oversees more than 1,200 Sailors and civilians specializing in explosive ordnance disposal, salvage diving, unmanned systems, and logistics support. Its forces operate at the leading edge of maritime security, homeland defense, and integrated deterrence.
For more information, visit https://www.necc.usff.navy.mil/eod/
| Date Taken: | 07.17.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.05.2025 13:30 |
| Story ID: | 544416 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 113 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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