Diving Badge

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The Diving Badge is a military qualification badge of the United States armed forces which is awarded to those service members who have obtained qualifications as military divers. The Diving Badge was originally a patch which was worn by Navy divers on the upper left sleeve of a service uniform. The Diving Patch was first created during the Second World War and became a breast badge in the late 1960s.

The current Diving Badge is issued by both the U.S. Army and United States Navy, and is provided in several different degrees of issuance. Members of both the Coast Guard and Marine Corps are eligible to receive the Navy version of the Diving Badge. The United States Air Force does not issue any sort of a Diving Badge, however personnel are permitted to wear the Diving Badge of other services if proper training and qualification was obtained.

[edit] Navy/Marine Corps/Coast Guard

The naval diving badges are issued in several degrees to members of the Navy and Coast Guard. In the Marine Corps the Scuba Diver Badge, known as "the Bubble," was the only authorized diving badge. This badge is now considered to be obsolete and has been replaced with the new Rebreather Badge. The Rebrather badge (not shown) is similar to the Scuba badge but is gold in color and decorated with an oak wreath.

The first degree of the naval diving badges is the Scuba Badge, issued for qualification as a Navy Scuba Diver. The Scuba Badge was previously issued in two degrees, one being for officer divers and the other for enlisted personnel. The Scuba Officer Badge was phased out by the Navy in the 1990s, (although it is still used by the Coast Guard), and the Scuba Badge is now issued as a silver pin for all qualified Navy scuba divers.

The remaining Navy Diving Badges are awarded for deep sea dive qualifications and are issued in the degrees of Second Class, First Class, and Master Diver. An Officer Diving Badge also exists for those who attended Basic Diving Officer course. The Master Divers are the most qualified divers in the Navy and must first be a Chief Petty Officer before applying to become a Master Diver. Diving Medical Officer Badge is presented to medical doctors who have qualified as both divers and medical response personnel to diving medical emergencies it is gold in color like the Diving Officer badge but with the caudeus. The silver badge with the caudeus shown is that of the Diving Medical Technician. These are Navy Corpsman who have completed the Deep Sea Dive school.

Like the Enlisted Surface, Submarine, and Aviation specialty marks, enlisted personnel who are dive qualified place a term after their rating. If Boatswain's Mate Second Class Jones is a qualified diver, he is referred to in writing as BM2(DV) Jones.

[edit] Army

The Army Diving badge is very similar to the Navy design, however there is not an officer version of the Diving badge nor is there a Medical Diving badge. The Army also maintains the Salvage Diver Badge which is a standard Diver badge annotated with an engraved “S”.

On July 2005, the Army Scuba Diver badge was renamed the Special Operations Diver badge. Along with the renaming and redesign of the badge was the creation of an additional skill level known as the Special Operations Diving Supervisor badge.