Kent Johnson
Master Chief Navy Diver
Naval Sea Systems Command
U.S. NAVY
five years ago, we all converted to the new Navy Diver
(ND) rating. The people going though the dive school
now leave as NDs. I completed the master diver [evalu-
ations] in 1997, and went to Mobile Diving and Salvage
Unit One in Hawaii in my first tour as a master diver.
When I was at Submarine Development Group Five,
I went into saturation diving, [a method that allows
divers to operate in deep water for extended periods
while avoiding the potentially deadly effects of decom-
pression sickness]. So the majority of my time that I’ve
been a diver in the Navy, I’ve been a saturation diver.
Everybody has their own realm: some divers like
ship’s husbandry, some like salvage, some like special
warfare. As a diving community, we’re highly involved
in [explosive ordnance disposal] and supporting
SEALs. I’ve recovered several aircraft, including one
from the Vietnam War. We recovered the plane and
actually found bone fragments of both of the pilots. It’s
very rewarding.
I’ve been diving now for well over 25 years. I’ve been
pretty much everywhere there is to go. A good chunk of
my career is classified. The best part of the job in the
diving community is the people — the camaraderie
with the divers, a close-knit group. I’m more of a hands-
on kind of guy. You go out and you put your hands on
things and you accomplish things. It gives you a real
sense of accomplishment after you get through it,
whether you’re out there doing a salvage job, ship’s hus-
bandry job, whatever the diving job is. When you
recover something, “Hey, I did something.”
The people below you, as they come into the Navy,
they’re looking at you to lead them and put them on the
right path. As a master chief master diver, I try to give
them a good example of what they should stress or
achieve. They can do anything they set their minds to. ■
I’m originally from Dillon, S.C. I’ve been in the Navy now for 27 years, and it was more of an opportunity-
type thing that I wanted to get out of that small town. I
was watching the Oakland Raiders and the [Washington]
Redskins playing in the Super Bowl [in 1984] and there
was a commercial that came on the TV about joining the
Navy, and so, I thought, “Hey, I’m gonna do that.”
My first unit was a DDG [Arleigh Burke-class
destroyer] out of San Diego. I was walking down the
side of the ship one day and I’d seen these guys over
the side of the ship doing some ship’s husbandry job. I
started talking to the diver and I said, “Hey, how do I
get from here to there?” We talked for a little while and
that started me on my route to becoming a diver.
I was a bosun’s mate, one of 13 different rates in the
diving community that they could draw from. About
“I’m more of a hands-on kind of guy. You go out and you put your hands on
things and you accomplish things. It gives you a real sense of accomplishment after you get through it, whether you’re out there doing a salvage job,
ship’s husbandry job, whatever the diving job is. When you recover something, ‘Hey, I did something.’”
