NEDU Earns Eighth Meritorious Unit Commendation
NEDU NEWS RELEASE #26-002
NEDU Earns Eighth Meritorious Unit Commendation
By NEDU Public Affairs
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — The Navy Experimental Diving Unit received its eighth Meritorious Unit Commendation for achievements in experimental diving research and operational support from Aug. 1, 2020, through Aug. 31, 2024.
Supervisor of Salvage and Diving CAPT Clint Lawler presented the award during a ceremony at NEDU on Sept. 16, 2026. The Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao signed the commendation. According to the citation, NEDU personnel distinguished themselves by providing critical research, development and procedural support to Navy diving forces during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a very special day,” said Lawler. “Based on the work, you all have certainly earned this award. What an honor it is to have Secretary Cao sign this out for us.”
Among the unit’s major accomplishments, NEDU completed 240 manned dives to validate new surface-supplied helium-oxygen decompression tables for the U.S. Navy Diving Manual. The updated procedures are expected to reduce the risk of decompression sickness from as high as 100 percent under certain profiles to approximately 2.3 percent. NEDU also planned and conducted the first rapid immersed compression dive to 600 feet of seawater without observed high-pressure nervous syndrome. The capability doubled the operational depth attainable by surface-launched divers and expanded options for subsea and seabed warfare missions.
The command conducted 12, 72-hour saturation dives to develop procedures for rescuing sailors from disabled submarines and transferring them to recompression chambers for lifesaving treatment. The research produced expeditionary oxygen-treatment methods now available to the submarine force.
NEDU’s Saturation Detachment deployed to Papua New Guinea in support of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, helping recover the remains of eight U.S. service members missing since World War II.
The detachment also partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on a 20-day saturation-diving mission to restore deep-sea habitats damaged by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Divers collected biological samples, removed marine debris and reduced invasive species. The operation marked NOAA’s deepest human-diving mission conducted for science and natural-resource restoration.
“One of NEDU’s tenants is to always be ready in today’s dynamic environment. NEDU continues to prove its ability to solve complex problems, and this award recognizes your dedication to always being ready,” said NEDU Commanding Officer Cmdr. Nicholas Artabazon. “This is very special for me, too, because I was here as a lieutenant, lieutenant commander when this work was being performed and now, I am here to see the unit recognized for this work.”
Additional work supported U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Naval Special Warfare, submarine forces, the U.S. Coast Guard, interagency organizations and international partners. NEDU personnel also tested the Coast Guard’s water-immersion survival model to improve search-and-rescue planning.
“By their truly distinctive achievements, unrelenting perseverance and unfailing devotion to duty, the officers, enlisted personnel and civilian employees of NEDU reflected credit upon themselves and upheld the highest traditions of the United States naval service,” the citation stated.
NEDU was established at the Washington Navy Yard May 12, 1927. In 1972, the unit began its move to Panama City, Fla. On May 23, 1975, NEDU dedicated the Ocean Simulation Facility (OSF) and began what would become 50 years of experimental testing in Bay County, Fla. The OSF is the only facility available in the United States that offers a manned experimental diving facility co-located with an unmanned test and evaluation facility. The OSF is a pressurized facility certified to simulate open-water dives to 2,250 feet of seawater.
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