Tag Archives: Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 1

Keeping up the search for the lost, but never forgotten

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A recovery team aboard U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command’s USNS Salvor (T-ARS 52) completed an excavation, on Feb. 25, of multiple aircraft losses shot down in 1944 near Ngerekebesang Island, Republic of Palau.

Although remains potentially associated with the losses were recovered by the team, the identity of those remains will not be released until a complete and thorough analysis can confirm positive identification and the service casualty office conducts next of kin notification.

The project was headed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which deployed an Underwater Recovery Team (URT) comprised of U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force service members and Department of Defense civilians that were embarked aboard the USNS Salvor.

“It’s very labor intensive work and they’ve had a large amount of bottom time making this operation successful,” said Lt. Cmdr. Tim Emge, 7th Fleet Salvage Officer. “The Mobile Diving and Salvage Company 1-6 divers for this job have been pulling more than 12-hour-days for the past two months. The URT spent weeks excavating the area using a variety of archeological tools and meticulously inspecting the bottom sediment in their search and recovery of the missing personnel from World War II.”

More here.

Diving for history

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Chief Navy Diver Kevin Chinn performs a training dive off the pier of the Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 compound. MDSU-1 deploys combat-ready, expeditionary warfare capable, specialized dive teams to conduct harbor and waterway clearance, emergent underwater repairs, and salvage operations in all environments.

Chief Navy Diver Kevin Chinn performs a training dive off the pier of the Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 compound. MDSU-1 deploys combat-ready, expeditionary warfare capable, specialized dive teams to conduct harbor and waterway clearance, emergent underwater repairs, and salvage operations in all environments.

The Navy is investing time and money in the hunt for lost aircraft in far off waters to save a piece of history and remember the aviators left behind.

From the presser

Sailors from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 1 Company 1-5, embarked USNS Safeguard (T-ARS-50) and began an 80-day mission Jan. 31 to document World War II aircraft crash sites in waters around Papua New Guinea.

The Navy divers and Safeguard’s crew of civilian mariners are conducting dive operations using a side-scan sonar system to gather information for a potential excavation of a B-24 Liberator that crashed off the coast of Kawa Island.

Additionally, the MDSU team is using their capabilities to search for remains of U.S. airmen at a separate Grumman TBF Avenger crash site in the area. The operations are in support of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

“The sites are very remote and access to the dive sites is challenging,” said Lt. Mark Snyder, MDSU 1 Company 1-5 officer in charge. “A dive and salvage platform like Safeguard provides us the capability to access sites like these.”