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The following was submitted to The Laker News by the RCN as part of their Hometowner series<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n CONSTANTA, ROMANIA: <\/strong>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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He wanted to put his passion for fitness and teamwork into practice, and he\u2019s doing just that supporting an important mission as an elite RCN Clearance Diver and Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) operator while deployed overseas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI 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\u2019ve been on yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”2″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”78″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n He is a part of an approximately 15-person team sent to Romania as part of Operation REASSURANCE \u2013 MCM Black Sea Task Force. His team\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we\u2019re tasked to either investigate or to disarm an explosive device, the years of hard training really kick in,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can deal with a wide variety of targets in a safe and effective way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”115″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”190″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team uses high tech sonar equipment and intelligence data to find the location and identify the type of mine that\u2019s been detected, or other unexploded munitions (UXO) which often wash up on beaches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a huge team effort, and the people that make up this unit are a bunch of beauties,” S1 Betts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CAF is contributing to the MCM Black Sea Task Force as part of the broader Operation REASSURANCE, Canada\u2019s commitment to NATO deterrence and defence measures in Central and Eastern Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Working together with Allies reinforces the CAF\u2019s dedication to interoperability, demonstrating an important capability that will enhance regional partners\u2019 ability to clear waters of sea mines and contribute to overall Alliance security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”67″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”92″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”87″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [adrotate banner=”111″] [adrotate banner=”218″] 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[965,12],"tags":[8548,390,8549,1198,206,8550,1065,8551,8552],"class_list":["post-55944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-hants","category-featured","tag-black-sea","tag-enfield","tag-fleet-diving-unit-atlantic","tag-hants-east-rural-high","tag-herh","tag-operation-reassurance","tag-royal-canadian-navy","tag-s1-chris-betts","tag-sailor-first-class-chris-betts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}