Female clearance divers have simultaneously graduated into both the New Zealand and South Korean navies for the first time
The two women joining the men of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN)’s HMNZS Matataua littoral warfare unit are Able Diver Petra Dye-Hutchinson and Lt Bethany Ward, who completed the Defence Divers course alongside eight males at Devonport Naval Base in Auckland.
The five months of training covers military diving equipment and techniques, mine counter-measures, underwater maintenance and battle-damage repair, demolition, explosive ordnance disposal and search techniques.
Women had completed the course before but none had gone on to become full-time clearance divers.
“The significance of Lt Ward and Able Diver Dye-Hutchinson’s achievements is considerable,” said Cdr Trevor Leslie, HMNZS Matataua’s commanding officer. “But it’s now business as usual for these two divers as they undertake consolidation training and deploy on operations with their shipmates at HMNZS Matataua.”
Able Diver Dye-Hutchinson, 28 and from Auckland, joined the Army in 2015 and became an emergency responder, but transferred to the Navy after starting the Defence Divers Course. “I’d never done a dive before, but by halfway through the course I was just loving it,” she says.
Originally from Plymouth in England, 26-year-old Lt Ward had served in the Royal Navy before completing an exchange with the RNZN as a watchkeeper on HMNZS Canterbury – swapping one Devonport base for another.
“I wanted to be a diver in the Navy since I was 16,” she says. “I saw the divers training in the UK and asked: ‘Are girls allowed to do that?’ They were like: ‘Yep, we have female divers’.
“We have long days and are put in uncomfortable situations. A lot of the time we don’t know what’s coming next, especially dealing with tide and weather changes. You really have to go with the elements, but I love how versatile the trade is.
“I like the fact it’s a community of people working to really high professional standards, the variety of day-to-day work and that it’s a challenge physically.”
“The best thing about learning something that’s hard is you feel like a child in that moment, then all of a sudden something clicks and you get it right,” said Able Diver Dye-Hutchinson.
“Especially under water, it’s the moment in the team when it all comes together and you solve the problem. Then things that were really difficult become second nature.”
Breakthrough in South Korea
In the Republic of Korea, meanwhile, the Navy’s Sea Salvage & Rescue Unit (SSU) has just admitted its first female scuba diver. The country’s military is actively seeking to deploy women more widely because of concerns about the country’s low birth-rate, and in 2022 it relaxed its former policy to allow them to join submarine crews.
Following an intensive 12-week training course, Lt Jg (Junior Grade) Mun Hee-woo has just completed a further qualifying course alongside 63 other students of Haenan Rescue Battalion and become a Deep Sea Submarine Investigator, deemed to have the strength and skills required to carry out underwater rescue missions.
“I felt confident that I could complete the training,” she told Korean press. “I don’t think anyone would have known I was a woman unless someone told them so, since I cut my hair short.”
Lt Jg Mun said it was age rather than gender that had increased the challenge for her – at 27 she was eight years older than her youngest colleague, which she found made it tougher to recover quickly during physical training.
The first half of the course concentrates on basic stamina and swimming ability with some seven hours of practical training daily, including running up to 9km and gymnastics.
During the third and fourth weeks candidates are expected to swim 5.5km in the sea without thermal protection plus another 7.5km with fins and mask to boost swimming endurance and marine survival skills, interspersed with rescue theory and exercises.
On the second half of the course, divers develop their stamina by running 10km a day and physical exercises, along with RIB operations and scuba training. Weeks 8 to 11 concentrate on scuba to around 40m, plus breathing techniques, emergency escapes, personal aid and search training.
Lt Jg Mun had majored in physical education and marine studies at college and joined the Navy two years ago, serving as a sailor on the escort ship Daegu, then as a planning manager with Naval Education Command – but always with the dream of becoming a diver. She had applied for the course this April.
“I feel proud to be a member of the rescue squad with the highest level of sea rescue capabilities in the world,” she said. “I will always strive to protect the lives of citizens and soldiers and contribute to the development of naval rescue operations.”
Her next challenge is a 14-week follow-up course that includes diving to 90m using surface-supplied systems.
Also on Divernet: Irish Navy passes first woman diver, MBE for top Navy diver, Royal Navy’s DTXG: Revolutionizing clearance divers’ capabilities, Navy divers detonate WW2 bomb off Guernsey
