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Approved For Release 2000/08/08
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Approved For Release 2000/08/08
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Approved For Release 2000/08/08
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CPYRGHT
Clockwise from top
left: Flutter kicks are a part of
nearly every day’s training. • Halfway through a set of
crossovers, students hang on the wall, gulp In air and
prepare to go back under. • During a morning pool
session, class members poke their heads under to
watch a demonstration.
their mouths would
b,e off, forcing
sion, one skims along the bottom, the
master sergeant and one of the school’s
them to hold their breath repeatedly.
other just under the surface. A few sec-
two civilian instructors. “An average
Bobbing requires
the diver
onds after surfacing on the other side,
person can hold his breath for 60-90
being tested to stand in the pool’s shal-
the whistle blows again, and the exer-
seconds,” Sears said. “Put that same
low end facing one side. On an instruc-
cise repeats
itself. Depending on the
person on the bottom of a pool and he’ll
tor’s command, he begins working his
width of the pool being used, the exer-
come up gasping after 30 seconds. Out
way to the deep end by descending and
cise can continue
for up
to three
of the water, he knows all he has to do is
rising in a saw-toothed pattern. At the
minutes.
open his mouth when he needs to. It’s
pool s deep end, he drops to the bottom,
The crossovers and bobbing
different under water, and some peo-
puts his swim fins on his hands and
exercises the students go through dur-
pie just aren’t made for that type of
begins bobbing straight up and down
ing the first two days of training are
stress. It’s a little like climbing moun-
for two minutes. After that, he bobs
freebies. If a student gives up during a
tains. Some people are good at it, some
back to the shallow end.
bob or refuses to get off the wall on a
aren’t.”
Crossovers, the more dreaded of
crossover, there is no penalty. On day
SFC
Bill Wheeler, a Special
the two, look and sound even simpler.
three, however, such an infraction
Forces weapons NCO from Fort Lewis,
Divided into two groups, the stu-
would mean immediate dismissal.
Wash., and the student class leader!
dents face each other from both sides
For the most part, students who
agreed. In his opinion, crossovers are
of the pool’s deep end. When the whis-
balk during the exercises do so for psy-
the hardest part of the course. “The
tie blows, both groups duck under and
chological reasons, explained Ray-
trick to controlling the urge to panic is
cross to the other side. To avoid a colli-
mond Sears, a retired Special Forces
relaxing,” Wheeler
said. “We’re
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SOLDIERS
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
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CPYRGHT
Thoms began to falter during the
morning’s fourth crossover when he
surfaced halfway across the pool. He
managed to get to the wall, but when
the whistle sounded, he wouldn’t
budge.
While he hung there gulping in
air, several instructors converged on
him yelling, “Off that wall, mister!”
Several times, Thoms managed
to let go before the three required
warnings could be given. Each time, he
only made it a few feet before surfac-
ing and thrashing back to the
wall.
Finally, Casteel ordered the instruc-
tors to get him out.
It was over, and
Thoms knew
it.
After working his way to the
pool’s shallow end, he stood and
watched his classmates continue with
the exercise. Before
it was over,
another student would join him.
Those who make
it past the
stress exercises begin open-water
dives during the second week. At this
point the failure rate drops sharply as
the students, now comfortable operat-
ing under water, begin to study the
finer points of combat diving.
During the last three weeks,
Clark said, students learn to navigate
under water, exit and enter different
types of watercraft, conduct ship-bot-
tom searches and move toward a target
in 12-man teams.
Because of the diverse missions
of units sending students to the school,
Above, 2nd Lt. Justin Thoms (left) listens to
Instructors during voluntary remedial
crossover training. • Top, Thoms gasps for
air during the next day’s exercises.
little time is spent covering beach-side
operations.
That
training,
Clark
.pointed out, comes once the graduate
returns to his unit.
“Scuba diving is simply a means
of infiltration — a way
to get some-
where you’re not supposed to be,” he
said.
“The dive team’s mission could
be to recon and secure a beach, to take
out a communications or air-defense
site, or to find and establish a para-
chute drop zone close to the shore.
“It’s a lot like airborne and air-
mobile operations. But of all of them,
it’s the most difficult. Airborne opera-
tions are over in minutes and you’re
pretty much delivered by an aircraft
that can get you right over where you
need to go.
“Scuba missions require more
planning and practice because more
can go wrong,” Clark continued. “They
also require several delivery vehicles,
such as an aircraft, a boat that is para-
chuted into the water along with the
i
team, and finally, the body. There’s no
way we can teach a guy everything
there
is to know about scuba opera-
tions in just four weeks.”
Although the school’s graduates
may not know
it all when they leave,
the silver diver’s badge is still a cov-
eted thing around special operations
units.
The way Clark sees it, the badge
signifies an
elite status within an
already elite circle.
For class leader Wheeler, earn-
ing a badge simply meant getting some
good specialized training and improv-
ing his chances of getting into one of
his unit’s scuba detachments. At 32,
Wheeler was too old to go around chas-
ing the badge just so he could say he
had
it. He had been dropped from a
course earlier this year because of a
stress exercise the first week, and he
was determined
it wouldn’t happen
again.
“Compared to how I felt at this
point last time, I’m a lot more tired, but
mentally I’m a lot more confident,” he
said. “I think I’ll make it this time.”
As
for
his
earlier
failure,
Wheeler didn’t point the finger at any-
one but himself. As class leader, he
dealt with both the instructors and the
students on a regular basis. “Nobody
here wants to see someone else flunk,”
he
said. “The students have a
lot of
cohesion. The only way to make
it
through this
is to help and motivate
each other. The instructors are good,
too. They may yell at us, but we know
there’s always a point to it— they have
to put us under stress sometimes. But
when we have a question or see them
-one-on-one, they treat us with the
respect and dignity accorded a fellow
soldier,”
Although he didn’t earn one last
summer, Thoms recognized what the
badge represented. Like Wheeler, he
can come back and try again. “I want
that badge,” he said. “To me, it stands
for the toughest school in the Army,
and
it says a whole lot about the guy
wearing it.”D
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soldier*