Capt. Debra Bodenstedt qualified as a scuba, surface-supplied, and mixed gas diver in 1983. In 1984, she became the first woman to qualify as a submarine rescue chamber operator, and was the first woman to command the Consolidated Divers Unit in San Diego from 1998–2000. Bodenstedt worked on the Space Shuttle Challenger recovery in 1986 and dove on the salvage expedition of USS Monitor (an ironclad warship built for the Union Army during the Civil War) in 2001. She was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2002.

Last Updated: 29 March 2023