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Navy EOD - Diver Training  

"Clearing the Way"

Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and Navy Diver are two separate professions within the Navy Special Operations community; however, if you are Navy EOD you will also be Navy Diver qualified.  A description of the Navy Special Operations community is:

Naval Special Operations: 

EOD (Navy Diving and Explosives Ordnance Disposal) dismantle and render safe unexploded ordnance to include underwater mines, land mines, and IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices)

Navy Diver Deep Sea Diving and Salvage Operations and Training - These skilled divers are specialists in recovering and/or repairing Navy ships and equipment.

Navy EOD personnel are experts in explosives, diving, parachuting, as well as tactical skills of a combat fighter.  The men and women of Navy EOD are capable of rendering safe all type of explosives to include conventional, improvised, underwater, chemical, biological, and nuclear.  Navy EOD personnel are tasked to work with elite units within SOCOM, Federal Law Enforcement, Secret Service, other agencies within the Homeland Security Department as well as our foreign allies around the world.  EOD units military wide are also experts in post- blast investigation using intelligence to create bomb maker folders with respect to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in areas where US and Allied troops fight.

Below are the steps required to becoming an enlisted member of the Navy Special Operations community:

Step 1: Choose a Spec Ops Source Rating

Go to a Navy recruiter office.  You will have to sign up for a regular Navy Source Rating to join the Delayed Entry Program.  However, once you pass the standards of the Navy EOD / Diver Physical Screening Test (PST), you will be given a new designation.  The new ratings are the following:

      EOD: (EOD)

Diver: (ND)

Ask your local recruiter about the Navy Special Warfare / Special Operations Mentor in your area.  These former SEAL, EOD, Divers are mentors for recruits and their duties are to help recruits prepare for training by giving regularly scheduled PSTs.

Step 2: Boot Camp Training

All recruits will report to Great Lakes Illinois to attend basic military training.  During Boot Camp, you will be required to take and pass the Special Warfare / Operations PST again.  If you pass at Boot Camp you are officially in the pre-training community - meaning you will get orders to either the Navy EOD and/or Diving School.

Step 3:  Pre-Training

Your job is to learn about the Special Operations Communities as well start an extensive physical training program for 3-4 weeks after Boot Camp in Great Lakes.  The Pre-training program is to help candidates get into better shape as Boot Camp does not properly prepare a SEAL, EOD tech or Diver for their advanced training programs.

The Pre-training instructors are not interested in weeding anyone out at this point.  The goal of this training is to teach candidates that they will not survive the next phase of training if they strive for the minimum standards in the PST.  Below are the minimum and recommended standards for the PST and success in these programs:  (note - this is the same test of the Navy SEAL PST - for programs to ace this see Navy SEAL PST Fitness

PST Event	Minimum Standards	Competitive Standards
500 yd swim	12:30	9 minutes
Pushups	50	80-100
Sit-ups	50	80-100
Pull-ups	6	15-20
1.5 mile timed run	12:00	9-10 minutes

You still have to show up to boot camp in above average shape and it is recommended being able to hit all of the above recommended scores prior to boot camp to ensure a proper physical foundation.

STEP 4:  Training Cycle:

Basic Navy EOD Dive School - 9 weeks of diving training in Panama City FL where EOD candidates will learn basic diving as well as advanced re-breather diving using the MK16.

Basic EOD Training - 42 weeks, Joint Service EOD School (NAVSCOEOD), at Eglin Air Force Base, FL - All military services attend this EOD Training Program after military personnel have passed their branches basic / advanced training programs within their service's EOD community.  The Navy EOD will have an extra school compared to the other branches as they will focus on underwater explosives such as torpedoes, unexploded underwater ordnance, and underwater search techniques.

Basic Parachute Training - 3 weeks at Fort Benning GA at the Army's Basic Airborne Course where students will learn static line parachute skills.

EOD Tactical Training - The final 3 weeks are spent in Coronado CA where EOD students will learn tactical skills needed to deploy with Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, and Special Operations Forces.