History

On 25 June 1946, seven officers, 24 enlisted, and 40 civilians became plank owners of the Medical Research Laboratory, a new and separate activity of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and what would later become the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory (NSMRL). Under the direction of CAPT Charles Shilling, MC, USN, the first Officer-in-Charge, the mission was three-fold: select personnel for training in the Naval Submarine School, instruct hospital corpsmen and medical officers in submarine medicine, and research medical aspects of submarine service and diving. The activity became part of the new Naval Submarine Medical Center in 1964, and since 1974 has functioned as a separate command under its present name, the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory.
  NSMRL’s historical accomplishments and contributions to the Submarine Force and to our nation’s defense are far-reaching and start well before 1946. NSMRL can trace its roots to 1942, when the medical research section of the Submarine Base Dispensary was established. In March 1944, the medical research section separated from the dispensary and became the Medical Research Department of the Submarine Base.

NSMRL’s earliest research efforts focused on submarine sound and auditory acuity of submariners, night and color vision, human engineering, and personnel selection methods. Some of the initial sound work led to the development of tests and techniques to select Sailors for sound listening duties on submarines, which resulted in The Medical Research Laboratory’s first published report, “The Development of Methods for the Selection of Sound Listening Personnel.”

NSMRL’s early work on vision in submariners provided evidence that performance was not affected adversely when Sailors had visual acuity of less than 20/20, leading to a relaxation of the standard to 20/30.
 
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Project Genesis explored the feasibility of saturation diving. NSMRL installed a multi-person hyperbaric chamber that was the site of some of the Genesis experiments. These studies ultimately resulted in the landmark 1963 report which concluded that “that men could live/work in a hyperbaric chamber at 200 feet for two weeks with no untoward consequences,” and paved the way for the operational phase of this research: SeaLab I, a habitat located 200 feet in the open ocean near Bermuda.
 
In 1960, NSMRL’s psychological research aboard USS TRITON as it circumnavigated the globe lead to the establishment of the mission duration for SSBNs. In the late 1960s, the lab initiated studies to determine the underwater hearing abilities of humans. Work in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in a modification to periscope eye guards to allow the insertion of a refractive correction into the periscope optics. This allowed a significant enlargement of the pool of potential submariners without compromising the submarine mission. NSMRL’s epidemiology work began in the 1970s with examination of medical conditions of the Polaris submarine patrol crews.

Also in the 1970s and 1980s, NSMRL developed in-air and underwater hearing conservation guidance and explored submariner work and rest schedules to optimize performance. These efforts continue today, and NSMRL’s work with sleep schedules contributed to the Navy’s adoption of a 24-hr based watchstanding schedule in 2015. In 1986, NSMRL implemented SUSBCREEN, a psychological assessment that became the primary method to screen prospective submariners for psychological suitability for submarine duty.

The Submarine Atmosphere Health Assessment Program (SAHAP) was established in the 1998 as a Program of Record that provides long-term, passive monitoring for defined atmospheric compounds of concern while underway and guidance on the effects of evolving technology that could affect the submarine environment.

In the 2000s, NSMRL studies on second-hand smoke exposure of submariners helped lead to the smoking ban on all U.S. Navy submarines, and in the 2010s, NSMRL researchers explored the integration of women into submarine crews.

Other NSMRL accomplishments that have had significant operational and scientific impacts include: demonstrating that submariners can tolerate and perform well in an atmosphere with elevated carbon dioxide and low oxygen levels, identification of International Orange color for visibility during air-sea rescues, development of the Farnsworth Color Lantern Color Vision screening test, studies of nitrogen narcosis, and development of many of the U.S. Navy saturation diving and decompression tables in use today.