Deb has been a United States Navy diving and salvage officer since 1983. Shes been a commanding officer of a diving unit responsible for underwater ship repair and a diver during the salvage of the space shuttle Challenger. Deb also was the first woman to qualify as a submarine rescue chamber operator and the director of the Atlantic Fleet Diving School. She has dived on the historic USS Monitor at a depth of 240 feet and is a qualified scuba and surface-supplied mixed-gas diver.