page_title: United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit
section_title: Washington Navy Yard
hierarchical_section_title: United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit / History / Washington Navy Yard
caption_attribution_description: English: Navy File Photo -- USS V-5 (SC 1) crewman A. L. Rosenkotter exits the submarine’s escape hatch wearing the "Momsen Lung" emergency escape breathing device during the submarine’s sea trials in July, 1930. The emergency breathing device was named for its inventor, U.S. Navy submarine rescue pioneer Cdr. Charles "Swede" Momsen. The submarine V-5 was later renamed USS Narwhal (SS 167).
context_page_description: The United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit is the primary source of diving and hyperbaric operational guidance for the US Navy. It is located within the Naval Support Activity Panama City in Panama City Beach, Bay County, Florida.
context_section_description: NEDU was established in 1927 at the Washington Navy Yard.
  Early developments for the unit involved evaluation and testing of the Submarine Escape Lung (Momsen lung) and the McCann Rescue Bell. This work was done by Charles Momsen and Allan McCann. In 1929, Momsen received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for personally testing the device at a depth of 200 feet (61 m). Techniques used for the rescue of submariners aboard the USS Squalus were developed by Momsen and McCann in their time at NEDU. This work lead to the rescue and recovery of 33 crewmen. Momsen and McCann received a Letter of Commendation from President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Squalus effort.
  The first medical staff were introduced to the facility in the mid-1930s when Charles W Shilling, Albert R Behnke, and OE Van der Aue began work. Their early work improved the prevention and treatment of decompression sickness with the inclusion of oxygen rather than air.
  Through World War II, work continued on decompression and oxygen toxicity.
  Through the 1950s NEDU tested equipment and further refined procedures for divers including the US Navy 1953 decompression table.
  From 1957 to 1962 was the beginnings of saturation diving under the leadership of Captain George F. Bond of the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory and the Genesis Project. Genesis D was performed at NEDU in 1963. Bond then went on to head the SEALAB I saturation project in 1964.
  Robert D. Workman published a novel method to calculate decompression schedules in 1965 that involved estimating the limiting values of excess tissue supersaturation.
  Work continued in deep saturation dives, equipment testing as well as thermal protection and physiology research throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
caption: A Momsen lung in use during training
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1906", "Image ImageLength": "2100", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "030808-N-0000X-001\nNavy File Photo -- USS V-5 (SC 1) crewman A. L. Rosenkotter exits the submarine\u0150s escape hatch wearing the \"Momsen Lung\" emergency escape breathing device during the submarine\u0150s sea trials in July, 1930.  The emergency breathing device was named for its inventor, U.S. Navy submarine rescue pioneer Cdr. Charles \"Swede\" Momsen. The submarine V-5 was later renamed USS Narwhal (SS 167).  U.S. Navy photo.  (RELEASED)", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:01:19 14:51:50", "Image Artist": "U.S. Navy photo", "Image ExifOffset": "708", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "858", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10331", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1906", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2100"}