- LT Jon Vanderweele
- Diving Medical Officer
U.S. Navy
I was born in Erie, PA but grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska after my family moved there until I joined the Marine Corps in 1991. I spent 5.5 years in the Corps at various duty stations and specialties in the U.S. and overseas including being deployed on the USS Belleau Woods, Okinawa, Yemen, and Switzerland as an embassy security guard.
After my experience in the Marines I entered college in 1996 at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA for sports medicine, and then I was accepted at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) for my medical degree in 2000. I joined the Navy in 2001 and completed my internship year at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, VA. Following my internship I attended the Diving/Undersea Medical Officer course at NUMI in Groton, CT where I was trained as a Navy diver and DMO.
Diving has always been a passion of mine and the opportunity to combine my work as a physician with my love for diving in the Navy was a natural choice. This has enabled me to support operations such as the NEEMO 10 where I can bring my life experiences to the table in support of this unique undersea mission.
I am currently assigned to the Navy Submarine Medical Research Laboratory at the Sub base in Groton, Connecticut. Most of my work is in support of the submarine survival systems and undersea medicine department where I work in diving and research missions such as projects involving obstructive sleep apnea, underwater acoustics, and vitamin D/calcium metabolism in submariners at sea.
