Guildford Royal Navy Sailor Completes Diver Training

Published on: 8 Sep, 2017
Updated on: 12 Sep, 2017

Able Seaman Diver Sean Grogan-Edwards receiving his certificate from Rear Admiral John Clink CBE.

Able Seaman Diver Sean Grogan-Edwards, 25, from Guildford has just completed specialist clearance diver training at the Defence Diving School (DDS) in Portsmouth. He received his certificate and diving badge from guest of honour Rear Admiral John Clink CBE, Flag Officer Sea Training.

Sean, originally from Guildford where his parents Annie and David still live, joined the Royal Navy (RN) because he wanted a challenging new career.

The former St Peter’s Catholic Comprehensive School pupil enjoys football in his free time and has played in the Combined Services Cup during his time with the Royal Navy.

He also represented the navy during the London poppy day collections and was a flag-bearer at an England football game at Wembley.

Sean considers the highlight of his career, so far, is undergoing the deep diving phase of his training and he is now looking forward to diving in the Gulf. Speaking of his course he said, “I’m very happy and proud to have passed as a Royal Navy Clearance Diver.”

Navy divers are currently serving in a variety of theatres including Afghanistan. As newly trained clearance divers they will initially be employed in either MCM1 based in Scotland (Faslane) or MCM2 in Portsmouth and will deploy in a MCMV as required to support worldwide operations.

Thereafter they join either an area diving team based in Scotland, Portsmouth or Plymouth to conduct underwater engineering tasks and to support military aid to civil powers (MACP) providing explosive ordinance disposal in a conventional sense and, after further training, improvised explosive device disposal.