In 1974, the world of Navy Sea Divers in the United States was very different. Women were not permitted to become Navy divers, due to gender rules, tradition, and equipment. For over a century, Navy divers were exclusively male. Dive equipment designed for men was heavy and oversized for female divers.
In 1973 a woman named Kati Garner successfully completed the scuba course, becoming Navy’s first female scuba diver.
Hull Technician, Firewomen Donna Tobias made history as the Navy’s first female deep-sea diver when she graduated from the Navy’s Deep Sea Diving School in March 1975.
Donna Tobias was born in Los Angeles, California on May 22, 1952, to parents Elmer and Marie Tobias. Her father was a former bomber crewman and POW during WWII. Tobias, who grew up in a low-income family, became a school bus driver and later worked for the police department after graduating from high school.
When she enlisted in the Navy in March 1974, she asked a recruiter about the possibility of becoming a diver. She was denied entry due to her gender and instead chose to specialize in shipfitting and hull technician. While working for the Navy as a shipfitter and hull technician, she applied for a waiver to attend dive school. Before being assigned to training in Norfolk, she had to obtain permission from The Pentagon. She applied to the Navy 2nd Class Diving School at the age of 21 and was accepted two days before the program began in January 1975. She was required to dive while carrying more than 200 pounds of gear in dark, cold, or turbulent water during her training. Despite this, Tobias graduated from the Navy Deep Sea Diving School as the first woman and went on to work with the Navy’s search and salvage operations. Her gender, however, continued to limit her opportunities.
She was unable to join sea duty billets, so she accepted a position as an instructor at Submarine Naval Base in New London’s Submarine Escape Training Tank. (Connecticut) Tobias also worked in the hyperbaric chamber, treating divers with embolisms and civilians with carbon monoxide poisoning and gangrene. According to retired Master Diver Steven Lechner, Tobias was the first woman to teach in the escape tank. Her brother Gary also joined the Army, and she was his instructor at the base diving school.
Tobias left the Navy in 1980 to pursue a degree in education and a master’s degree in psychology after being inspired by her time teaching at the escape training tank. She put both to good use as a special education teacher who passionately advocated for her special needs students.
On September 21, 2010, Tobias committed suicide due to depression at the age of 58.
In 2018, the Naval Submarine Base New London dedicated a dive locker to Tobias.
Donna Tobias was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2011.