Sue entered the Navy in 1978. To ensure an at-sea assignment, she became the first female diving officer and the first female mixed gas diver to graduate Naval School, Diving and Salvage, Washington Navy Yard. Later while at Navy Experimental Diving Unit she became the first female saturation diving officer. For most of her career she was the only female diver assigned to her command. During her Navy career Sue was a ship husbandry diver, experimental diver, salvage diver, diving safety officer and hyperbaric diver.