The following was submitted to The Laker News by the RCN as part of their Hometowner series
CONSTANTA, ROMANIA: Sailor First Class (S1) Chris Betts and members of the Operation REASSURANCE Black Sea Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Task Force from Fleet Diving Unit (Atlantic) conducted diving operations in Constanta, Romania April 1-11, 2025.
S1 Betts, from Enfield, Nova Scotia is a graduate of Hants East Rural High School who joined the Canadian Army in 2017 as a Combat Engineer.
In 2019, he successfully completed the Combat Diver Course and later transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in 2021 to become a Clearance Diver.
He wanted to put his passion for fitness and teamwork into practice, and he’s doing just that supporting an important mission as an elite RCN Clearance Diver and Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) operator while deployed overseas.
“I played a lot of hockey growing up and always enjoyed being part of a successful team,” said S1 Betts. “This is the best team I’ve been on yet.”
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He is a part of an approximately 15-person team sent to Romania as part of Operation REASSURANCE – MCM Black Sea Task Force. His team’s mission is to increase interoperability with regional allies and to develop and share best practices for countering the drifting sea mine threat in the region.
His job as a Clearance Diver and EOD operator involves executing complex operations that integrate helicopters, surface craft, and both sea and ground based autonomous and remotely operated vehicles such as drones and robots to locate, identify, and safely neutralize sea mines, either by disarming or detonating them to eliminate the threat.
The inherently dangerous task of disarming explosive devices becomes even more challenging when carried out underwater, often at significant depths and in conditions of near zero visibility.
“When we’re tasked to either investigate or to disarm an explosive device, the years of hard training really kick in,” he said.
“We can deal with a wide variety of targets in a safe and effective way.”
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The team uses high tech sonar equipment and intelligence data to find the location and identify the type of mine that’s been detected, or other unexploded munitions (UXO) which often wash up on beaches.
The divers are then transported to that area by helicopter, small boat or ground vehicle, where they then neutralize the threat, using high explosives of their own in a highly choreographed operation.
“It’s a huge team effort, and the people that make up this unit are a bunch of beauties,” S1 Betts said.
The CAF is contributing to the MCM Black Sea Task Force as part of the broader Operation REASSURANCE, Canada’s commitment to NATO deterrence and defence measures in Central and Eastern Europe.
Working together with Allies reinforces the CAF’s dedication to interoperability, demonstrating an important capability that will enhance regional partners’ ability to clear waters of sea mines and contribute to overall Alliance security.
