Gray’s Reef, Great Week

FORCE BLUE kicked off its 2026 “Tour of Duty” with a week-long visit to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, the first of three National Marine Sanctuaries our team will be visiting this year to commemorate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding. While the weather played games with our schedule for much of the week, our team was able to get out onto the reef for a few days of diving, conducting surveys to help the GRNMS staff identify focal fish and invertebrate species present in the area.

We also had the chance to visit the newly renovated Gray’s Reef Ocean Discovery Center in downtown Savannah, where our veterans received instruction in the pervasive problem of microplastics.

The week culminated at the Chatham County Aquatic Center and the Gray’s Reef Southeast Regional MATE ROV Competition. There, our veterans splashed alongside nearly a dozen submersible ROVs constructed by high school and middle school students from across the state. All in all, a great week and an amazing start to our 2026 Tour of Duty!