Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Harris, a member of a joint Coast Guard-Navy dive team deployed aboard Coast Guard Cutter Healy, holds a Coast Guard ensign during a cold water ice dive off a Healy small boat in the Arctic, July 29, 2017. The joint dive team successfully completed the first shipboard Coast Guard dive operations in the Arctic in 11 years. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class David Bradbury.

Diving in: A new chapter at the top of the world

For the first time in 11 years, after the tragic deaths of Lt. Jessica Hill and Petty Officer 2nd Class Steven Duque, divers returned to the icy Arctic waters in support of the 2017 Coast Guard Research and Development Center Arctic patrol of Coast Guard Cutter Healy.

During the patrol, the team conducted cold water ice dive operations from both the small boat and a dive platform that was lowered from the Healy. A total of 18 dives were performed with a maximum depth of 38 feet and subsurface time of 18 minutes.