Frogman

A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater. The term often applies more to professional rather than recreational divers, especially those working in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, combatant diver, or combat swimmer. The word frogman first arose in the stage name the "Fearless Frogman" of Paul Boyton in the 1870s and later was claimed by John Spence, an enlisted member of the U.S. Navy and member of the OSS Maritime Unit, to have been applied to him while he was training in a green waterproof suit.

The term frogman is occasionally used to refer to a civilian scuba diver, such as in a police diving role.

In the United Kingdom, police divers have often been called "police frogmen". Some countries' tactical diver organizations include a translation of the word frogman in their official names, e.g., Denmark's Frømandskorpset; others call themselves "combat divers" or similar.

Scope of operations

Tactical diving is a branch of professional diving carried out by armed forces and tactical units. They may be divided into:

Combat or assault divers.

Special mission work divers (called "clearance divers" in the British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy), who do general work underwater.