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Senior Chief Navy Diver demoted after deaths of two sailors during training

Posted at 6:59 PM, Jan 20, 2014
and last updated 2014-01-20 18:59:17-05

Senior Chief Navy Diver James Burger was found guilty of negligent dereliction of duty for his role in the dive where two of his sailors died, according to the Navy Times.

Navy Diver First Class James Reyher and Navy Diver Second Class Ryan Harris were members of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two, based at Joint Expeditionary Little Creek Fort Story.

They were training for deployment at the Super Pond at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in February of last year.

They were training to locate a helicopter that went down at 150 feet.

The two divers never came up.

The training isn't that farfetched for the team.

Right now, Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two is helping to recover the H-53E Sea Dragon that crashed off the coast of Virginia Beach, killing three sailors over a week ago.

Before he was sentenced, the Navy Times reports Burger spoke to the panel thanking them for finding the truth.

He also spoke to the families of the divers that were killed apologizing and saying there's not a day where the two men aren't on his mind.

Related: 

Four Beach-based Navy divers charged with dereliction of duty after Super Pond deaths

Four more sailors to face court martial in the death of two Navy divers

Supervisor on Navy divers’ deaths: ‘Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong’

Navy divers who died during training exercise remembered at JEB Little Creek

No court martial for two Navy supervisors after deaths of Beach-based divers