2 Navy Dive Leaders Charged in APG Drowning Deaths

Two leaders of a Navy dive unit have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and dereliction of duty in  two February drowning deaths of Navy divers at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

The two people charged were not identified in a WBAL Radio report, but a Navy spokeswoman told the AP they were "senior leaders" in Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two, the unit Navy Diver 1st Class James Reyher of Caldwell, OH, and Navy Diver 2nd Class Ryan Harris of Gladstone, MO, belonged to when both drowned in February.

An investigation will be held at the Naval station in Norfolk, VA, on May 21 to determine whether the two unit leaders will be court-martialed, according to the report. The spokeswoman told WBAL that neither of the two was the divers' commanding officer, and neither name will be released until the hearing.

Reyher and Harris drowned while working at APG's Super Pond underwater testing facility on Feb. 26, less than a month after a civilian technician died in the same facility.

The facility was shut down after the deaths of the two divers, and an official said in March that complete investigations into the deaths could take months.