Polar Star is the U.S.’ solely heavy icebreaker. Polar Star’s major mission is to help scientific analysis at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, by breaking ice and retaining the ocean channels clear for provides to maneuver out and in.
The Navy and Coast Guard divers have been available to offer emergency underwater ship’s husbandry companies. Through the deployment, Coast Guard and Navy divers carried out medical coaching and coaching on all facets of recompression chamber operations.
“For dive operations, we’re required to have the ability to attain a recompression chamber inside six hours, whether or not that’s by helo or at a neighborhood hospital,” mentioned Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brian Korte, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Space’s dive drive supervisor. “The Coast Guard doesn’t at present have a chamber in order that’s why we accomplice with the Navy divers to carry that functionality onboard Polar Star. We couldn’t have executed the mission with out them.”
The Coast Guard expects to amass the identical kind of recompression chamber the Navy has early subsequent 12 months.
“The time that they didn’t spend diving, was spent on qualification coaching with the junior Coast Guard divers, exhibiting them find out how to use the chamber and practising procedures below stress,” mentioned Korte.
The joint dive crew carried out 72 navy dives totaling about 1,198 minutes of backside time as deep at 45-feet.
Joint missions like Operation Deep Freeze are alternatives for the Navy and Coast Guard to innovate new techniques and enhance present capabilities in a difficult atmosphere.
“Diving in 29 diploma water, there’s lots of challenges,” mentioned Korte. “A tear within the dry go well with or frozen gear provides threat to what can be a routine dive.”
The U.S. is an Arctic nation with sovereign territory and maritime claims. Regardless of containing the world’s smallest ocean, the Arctic Area has the potential to attach practically 75% of the world’s inhabitants.
As a part of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group ONE, EODMU-3 gives expert and combat-ready deployable forces across the globe to help a spread of operations in any atmosphere.
