#combatcontrol

I am back again talking aboutpararescue and combat controllers at the combat dive school in Florida.  So far I have talked about the first week and the first test that you go through in combat dive school.  I have also talked about the one-man competency test as well as the 90 foot open ocean dive that you have to do.  I am finally going to wrap up the rest of the combat dive school this week and talk about the final mission that you have to do to pass the combat dive school. The pararescue candidates have already completed the course and now it is just the combat controllers.

           The reason why pararescumen are finished before the combat controllers is because PJ’s only have to learn their equipment for rescues but combat controllers are deployed with SEAL (sea, air and land) teams and Special Forces teams so they have to be able to go wherever they go which would be deep under water.  When you are on those missions you have to be able to use special equipment so the combat controllers have to specialize in new equipment that they haven’t learned in the previous weeks.

           With the last week in the course, the combat controllers need to learn stealth underwater system and tactics, this will be the finally part of the course.  The combat controllers learn advanced SCUBA system called “closed circuit” which complex rebreather equipment.  These draeger rebreathers cycle oxygen so no bubbles can be seen from the surface.  This makes the operator much harder to detect and when you are a special operator, stealth is key.

           Now I am sure each mission varies from class to class but I will tell you the example that I have seen.  The class was given a mission to infiltrate by water and gain access to a container ship.  The ship then would be searched for a briefcase containing critical intelligence. They must do this entire mission undetected.  Their plan was to go 2000 yards by zodiac and then swim 1000 yards and finish the last 1000 yards subsurface to the target.  Then they will board the ship from the side and search the boat.  One team searches while the other team holds security.  In this class the instructors had a navy black hawk helicopter fly over while the team was swimming their first 1000 yards.  They did this to indicate they the team could be compromised so the team went subsurface early to stay out of sight.  The team made it to the ship, boarded the ship and then searched the ship for the briefcase.  They ended up finding the briefcase and safely made it back into the ocean to retrieve their gear and went home without a scratch.  They all graduated the next day and then they are on to the next school.