Combat Diving

Combat Diving

A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity which includes combat. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, or combatant diver, or combat swimmer.

"Combat swimming" is often used to mean "combat diving", but, according to some, strictly speaking means surface swimming without a breathing apparatus for coastal or ship infiltration. Such actions are a historical form of "frogman" activity and an important feature of naval special operations.

The term '"frogman" is often popularly used to refer to a civilian scuba diver. The word arose around 1940 from the appearance of a diver in shiny drysuit and large fins. Though the preferred term by scuba users is "diver", the "frogman" epithet persists in informal usage by non-divers, especially in the media and often in reference to professional scuba divers such as in a police role. Some sport diving clubs include the word "Frogmen" in their names.

In the U.S. military the United States Intelligence Community, divers trained in scuba or CCUBA who deploy for tactical assault missions are called "combat divers". This term is used to refer to the Navy SEALs, operatives of the CIA's Special Activities Division, elements of Marine Recon, Army Ranger RRD members, Army Special Forces divers, Air Force Pararescue, Air Force Combat Controllers and the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units.

In Britain, police divers have often been called "police frogmen". The first British police diver was a policeman who, needing to search underwater for evidence of a body, did not use a drag but went home and fetched his sport scuba gear.

Some countries' frogman organizations include a translation of the word "frogman" in their official names, e.g. Denmark's Frømandskorpset and Norway's Froskemanskorpset; others call themselves "combat divers" or similar. Others call themselves by indefinite names such as "special group 13" and "special operations unit".

Many nations and some irregular armed groups deploy or have deployed combat frogmen.