Mary Bonnin Closes her Dive Locker

EMCM/MDV (Ret) Mary J. Bonnin has passed in an accident on dry land, near her home in Panama City, at age 63. Wisconsin-born Mary joined the Navy in 1976, finished “A” school to become an Electrician’s Mate (EM), and became one of the first women (following Donna Tobias in 1975) to complete Navy Second Class Dive School in Little Creek in 1977 (with a 200-pound dive rig), graduating at the top of her class, the Honorman position. After service on a dry dock, in 1982, she completed First Class diving school in Panama City, becoming the first enlisted female diver certified in both air and gas diving (with a 300-pound hard hat rig). Finishing tours with USS Samuel Gompers (AD-37) working on ships husbandry, she became an instructor training at the Second Class Dive School at NAB Coronado for three years, then shipped out as Master Diver on the salvage ship USS Grasp (ARS-51), having made MD in 1990 by unanimous decision of the Board. Keep in mind that of the 7,750 dive-certified…