Article on Combat Divers

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104324,00.html

Some soldiers who have already served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and other difficult missions are diving in to serve their country at a deeper level.

At the Special Forces Underwater Operations School (search) in Key West, Fla., Army and Air Force Special Forces undergo one of the most challenging courses in the military to become a combat diver (search).

"We train for infiltration purposes," said Air Force Mst. Sgt. Brian Bailey, an instructor at the dive school. "It's another method for getting to the job because our job isn't diving. This is just one vehicle to get us to our job and to sneak in, hopefully undetected, and that's the whole idea."

The training takes guts and stamina -- 25 percent of those who attempt the five-week training course fail to make the grade.

And it's not just failure that's at risk. In the school's 40-year history, several students have died during the dangerous training.

But the gains outweigh the risks, said one student. "I think it makes us a better asset to our teams," said Sgt Cameron Weatherbee, a combat student who recently returned from serving in Iraq. "The more experience you have, you become more versatile and it builds your confidence."

For security purposes, the Army won't comment on past deployments of the program's graduates, except to say that combat divers are called upon for only the most difficult operations.

"The graduates of this school are picked for the most challenging missions,'" said Major David Hsu, the dive course commander. "No one comes here because they want an easy day."

The skills of combat dive school graduates are widely respected, said Bailey. "A lot of commanders and a lot of people within our community take a look at the Special Forces diver graduates and say these guys, physically, can meet any challenge. If they can't do it possibly no one can."

Hooyah...

lookgin at the pictures..... what masks do they use? standard issue...?

Most of the time we (Army Engineer divers) would issue US diver, Maui is one... They are in the miltary stock system.

Now units can purchase what ever they want from local vendors so it is pretty wide open...

The ones in the photo lok like US Divers...

Jeff Lane

I saw a short news story on them. 25% don't make it. These guys are already special forces of one type or another. It must be one tough course. They have fatalities-while TRAINING.

If they have fatalities in training, my feeling is that someone in the instructor ranks has screwed up mightily. There is no excuse for fatalities in training, unless it has to do with an aircraft, for instance, crashing. But there should be no diving-related fatalities in training.

SeaRat

The article does not mention a specific instance, and there are none I am familiar with in recent memory.

They may be discussing near drownings.

Fatalities have occured in the past in military dive training, one I recall was due to an AGE during a submarine lock-out / blow and go.

This training has been revised since.

More likely than not the reporter is embelshing myths that surround military diver training, one poular one is they drown students during training.

Although accidents are quite rare they do occur this in large part due to the nature of the training. I have seen both instructors and students become victims.

To give it some perspective though we are discussing over 1000 students a year at NDSTC alone, some diving nearly every day for courses lasting up to six months in length. Decompression diving, surface decompression, mixed gas, re-breathers, working and combat divers...

The news blurb had one of the instructors stating that they had two fatalities in the last two years. They could have been medical, these guys are definitely pushing the physical limits.. The Navy swimmer school has had a few over the years but they have cleaned up their act and have had no recent ones.

What is the Navy swimmer school?

Hmm, I wonder if they were diving accidents or not. I had not thought about other than diving injuries.

Could have been PT also...

No doubt, these guys are intense.

My wife's nephew is with an SF unit out of Bragg. When he was home on leave, his Dad asked him why he didn't try for the dive school, the nephew laughed and said that he wasn't tough enough for the school.

Then he went out and ran 15 miles......