Mary Bonnin is a former Master Chief in the United States Navy. She retired from her position in 1996. She had been with the United States Navy for 20 years, graduating at the top of her class in both air and gas surface-supplied diving. She then became the first woman Master Diver, [1] and later she would be one of the first women to enter the Women Divers Hall of Fame.
Mary Bonnin | |
---|---|
Born | Baraboo, WI |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | Navy |
Years of service | 20 |
Rank | Master Chief |
Awards | First Female Master Diver |
Mary Bonnin enlisted in the United States Navy in 1976. She graduated top of her class, and later became the first enlisted female diver certified in both air and gas diving. During her tour she trained over one-thousand divers, and worked in various posts around the ship. She also served as the leading diver safety authority. Mary Bonnin eventually retired from the Navy in 1996. [2]
Over the course of her military years, she has won many awards and honors. She was added into the Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDHOF) in 2000. [3] The WDHOF was designed originally to give tribute to the most notable divers, however it quickly developed into a tribute of women that helped the exploration of the sea. Many notable women have been inducted into the WDHOF such as: Dr. Eugenie Clark, U.S. Chief Scientist Kathy Sullivan, and many others. [2]
Audrey Mestre was a French world record-setting freediver.
Mandy-Rae Cruickshank is a world champion free-diver and record-holder from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Aileen Muriel Riggin, also known by her married name Aileen Soule, was an American competition swimmer and diver. She was Olympic champion in springboard diving in 1920 and U.S. national springboard diving champion from 1923 to 1925. After retiring from competitions, she enjoyed a long and varied career in acting, coaching, writing and journalism. She was a swimming celebrity in Hawaii and the United States and an active ambassador of women's swimming well into old age.
Gao Min is a female Chinese diver who won gold medals in the springboard event of the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games.
Lotte Hass was an Austrian underwater diver, model and actress. She was the second wife of the Austrian naturalist and diving pioneer Hans Hass (1919–2013), and worked as a model and actress in several of his underwater natural history films. She was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame and the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in 2000.
Rosalia (Zale) Parry is an American pioneer scuba diver, underwater photographer and actress.
A United States Navy diver refers to a service personnel that may be a restricted fleet line officer, civil engineer corps (CEC) officer, Medical Corps officer, or an enlisted who is qualified in underwater diving and salvage. Navy divers serve with fleet diving detachments and in research and development. Some of the mission areas of the Navy diver include: marine salvage, harbor clearance, underwater ship husbandry and repair, submarine rescue, saturation diving, experimental diving, underwater construction and welding, as well as serving as technical experts to the Navy SEALs, Marine Corps, and Navy EOD diving commands.
Jane Fauntz, also known by her married name Jane Manske, was a national champion swimmer and diver, and a member of the United States Olympic teams in 1928 (swimming) and 1932. She was the bronze medalist for springboard diving at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Maxine Joyce "Micki" King is an American former competitive diver and diving coach. She was a gold medal winner at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the three meter springboard event.
Megan Neyer is an American former competition springboard and platform diver. Neyer was a member of the ill-fated 1980 U.S. Olympic team, the 1982 world champion springboard diver, a fifteen-time U.S. national diving champion, and an eight-time NCAA champion.
Karen Kohanowich is a retired U.S. Naval officer and ocean research and technology program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER). She was NOAA's Acting Director of the National Undersea Research Program (NURP) from 2006 to 2009, and served in various roles at OER, including Acting Deputy and Undersea Technology director, until retiring in 2018. In July 2006, she became an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 10 crew.
Divers Academy International is a private, for-profit technical educational institution in New Jersey that offers training in commercial diving and underwater welding.
Andrea Marshall is a marine biologist known for wildlife conservation and research on large marine animals like manta rays & whale sharks. Marshall is co-founder and a principal scientist of the Marine Megafauna Foundation, where she leads many of MMF’s projects around the world.
Catherine "Cathy" Church is an American marine biologist, SCUBA diver, underwater photographer and educator.
Esther Tan Cheng Yin is a Singaporean former naval diver and adventure racing athlete who was the first woman to serve in the Naval Diving Unit (NDU). She retired from the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) in 2017, with the rank Major.
Donna M. Tobias was an American diver. She was the United States Navy's first female deep sea diver.
Dottie May Frazier was an American diver, designer, and dive shop owner. Her life is chronicled in her autobiography, Trailblazer: The Extraordinary Life of Diving Pioneer, Dottie Frazier. She was the first female scuba instructor and the first female dive shop owner.
The Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDHOF) is an international honor society. Its purpose is to honor the accomplishments of women divers, and their contributions to various fields of underwater diving. Full membership is restricted to nominees who have been found to meet the WDHOF's criteria, which include being an underwater diver and having contributed to diving in ways recognised as being significant.
Pamela "Pam" Sue Balash-Webber (1953-2020) was an American diving instructor and ocean conservationist.
Sherry Anne Reed was an American marine biologist. She served at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Link Port for over 36 years as a research specialist, station manager, and dive safety officer. Reed is known as the first female scientific diving officer in the United States.