New Army Combat Diving School In Key West

[RickI]

Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School makes its mark on Key West | Article | The United States Army

The facility is used for various training courses including the six-week Combat Diver Qualification Course. "The course, which is offered five times per year, sees about 36 to 42 soldiers per session. Prerequisites include having a specific military specialty such as being an Army Ranger, as well as passing a maritime assessment course, a 10-day test that is a mixture of land and pool measures, including surface swims."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Special_Forces_selection_and_training


"A typical day in the school is rigorous. Soldiers start around 4:30 a.m. prepping gear, then do about 90 minutes of physical training before eating breakfast and diving into four hours of training in the pool. After lunch, there are academic classes and surface swims in the afternoon. As the course progresses, soldiers get into night dives, which can last anywhere from 7 p.m. to midnight." "The six-week course includes open- and closed-circuit diving, pool exercises and time in the open water, which includes search dives and underwater navigation dives."

"“To drown-proof combat divers, we make them pass out underwater from lack of air,” said Master Sgt. Chuck Tandory, an instructor at the school. “Mentally, it’s the most important part of the SCUBA course. ‘I Can’t Breathe’ sums it all up.” I tried to find out a more detailed description of how this is done. It seems similar things may be done in special training for the SEALS and Marines which may involve the instructor holding the diver candidate underwater until he passes out.
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Continued at:
New Army Combat Diving School Comes To Key West - FKA Kiteboarding Forums

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[THRASH]

WOW!! As a veteran myself, hats off to our great military and for all that our men and women do for our country and freedom. I enjoyed reading this. The sacrifices that are made that we know about is probably even outnumbered by the ones we the public, don't know about.

I am sure this course is an absolute beast and one that sees what used to be, or maybe still is, called a high wash out rate. I would love to read more or even have a special forces diver participate on the forum. Thanks for this post!

I forgot to add, I was not special forces, but got the opportunity to work beside a few. One guy who was a combat controller told me some stories. One included a recollection about how there group was out on a training run. Their instructor pointed to a group of woods about 3/4 of a mile away. Said "sprint over to those woods, find a tree, climb it, and shimmy out onto a strong branch." When the instructor walked down to the woods, he began counting out loud for them to do pull ups. Another story he told was what he referred to as "meeting the wizard." This was their phrase for staying under water knowing you were going to pass out/drown, but if you came up you would fail. So you stayed under and "met the wizard," knowing the instructors would pull you to safety and revive you. He said you would just stay under and continue attempting to accomplish the assigned task until things started to narrow and get darker and the next thing you knew, people were standing around you and you awoke choking.

 

[Jlpskydive]

That school has been in Key West a long time. Not sure what's new about it???

---------- Post added August 25th, 2015 at 01:00 PM ----------

Drown-proofing requires swimmers' hands and feet to be bound with Velcro straps. First, swimmers must bob up and down in 10 feet of water for five minutes. If they break the straps or touch the sides of the pool, they fail.

Swimmers must maintain a rhythm while doing this portion of the test. When they bob up to the surface and take in a breath of air, it must be a controlled breath. Taking in too much air will make them too buoyant, causing them to descend slower to the bottom of the pool, meaning they'll run out of air.

Furthermore, if they push off the bottom of the pool too strongly, they run the risk of breaking their restraints, which cadre says is a salient form of panic.

Next, swimmers must float on the surface for two minutes, followed by a 100-yard swim around the pool. All of these activities are in succession, and hands and feet remain bound.

Once the swim is complete, students must perform a front flip and back flip underwater in the deep end of the pool, without touching the bottom or sides for assistance. Swimmers must be careful to not deplete themselves completely, as the toughest portion of the test still remains.

As soon as candidates have completed the flips, they must grab a face mask located on the floor of the pool -- with their teeth. Once the face mask has been secured, swimmers must perform five more bobs while holding the mask in their teeth. Dropping the mask, breaking their restraints, touching the sides of the pool, or not completing the five bobs appropriately means failure.

 

[Wookie]

The current class set up the Vandenberg on Thursday to do their deep (130 foot) dive on Friday. Sadly, a big, fat liveaboard was sitting right on their course (mooring 6) with divers in deco. The cadre asked me politely to move, I explained that we were already in the water, with divers in deco. But that I trusted them, if they wanted to drop their divers on top of my divers, they would be welcome to. Which they did. My ladies took great pleasure pinching the ranger butts as they descended past, 24 divers and 6 cadre members. There were some very surprised looks as the students filed down the line and got their butts pinched.

 

[RickI]

The building has been there for many years, the Army Combat Diver School is far more recent, 2012 and has been getting some recent publicity. I too read about drown-proofing procedure, the document is linked in the article. What I was unable to find and perhaps you can help out with is the procedure through which they are compelled to blackout underwater. Blackouts happened fairly commonly in competitive free diving training, it isn't that hard to do, at least the "technical" BO variety. Actually, it can be hard to avoid in static and dynamic apnea and there are procedures in place to help manage the tendency and consequences. This is a far cry from being held under until BO however. Staying fairly calm through the process is one of the criteria they look for I believe.

Great story Capt. Frank, thanks for passing it along. You took us to the same wreck for the dive scooter races, see below. What sort of breathing gear were they using for the Vandenberg dive?

[video=vimeo;42549988]https://vimeo.com/42549988[/video]

 

[Jlpskydive]

The School has been there since the 60's or 70's the course changed in 2012 from 6 weeks to 7 weeks I think. I was a Engineer not a Ranger so don't have this first hand.

Special Forces Underwater Operations School Marks 50 Years | Military.com

 

[Wookie]

They use double 80's with a single post manifold. Same rig used at the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab.

 

[Jlpskydive]

Also, they really frown on anyone going unconscious in any military school for pretty much any reason. That quote that you got was from "Duffle Blog" the military version of the "Onion".

 

[Allison Finch]

The School has been there since the 60's or 70's the course changed in 2012 from 6 weeks to 7 weeks I think. I was a Engineer not a Ranger so don't have this first hand.

Special Forces Underwater Operations School Marks 50 Years | Military.com

Yup, they have been training in Key West for over 30 years. I remember kayaking around the island. I was paddling at night and accidentally paddled into the middle of a SF night swim. I was surrounded by guys swimming in full gear in the dark.

 

[RickI]

The U.S. Naval School Underwater Swimmers (UWSS) was established on Fleming Key off Key West in 1954 but was closed in 1973? I believe things kept going there but perhaps just under a different name for the SEALS and other services. The Army seems to have formally taken the place over as of 2012.

Thanks Capt. Frank, those rigs remind me of some old Navy aluminum 90 cft tanks I bought off of a former SEAL when I was in high school. This was before aluminum tanks were commonly available to the public in the U.S.. Does anyone know what the normal max depths for closed circuit gear are in the Combat Diver training? I would have thought they might have used rebreathers on the Vandenberg unless they use open circuit gear for the deeper stuff in training not wanting to mess with the higher tech gear at depth at this level. Or, are they planning another dive out there with the Spree? Thanks!