<p>I was looking at the Plebe Summer swimming requirements on the usna.edu site and it includes a 5 minute drown-proof -- can someone please explain what that entails? The top of the page says that it is for the 2003-2004 academic year but since it has not been updated I am assuming it is still the standard. Thanks.</p>
<p>Well, that depends...</p>
<p>In the SEALs and other similar communities, "Drownproofing" is a technique where they bind you hand and foot and toss you into a pool. You exhale slowly, sink to the bottom, push up with your legs, break the surface, breath, and repeat.</p>
<p>Unless things have radically changed that is NOT what they do at USNA (would be nice, though).</p>
<p>IIRC, we had to tread water for five minutes or so WITH OUR HANDS OUT OF THE WATER (a lot tougher than it sounds, let me tell you). Perhaps that's what they meant?</p>
<p>I'm trying to remember if anything else was timed for five minutes, and nothing occurs to me.</p>
<p>Oh, wait! There was one test where you had to jump off the 10-meter board (a LONG way down, man!), swim underwater to the wall, pop up, then tread water, but I don't remember for how long.</p>
<p>Wish I could be more helpful, but it will be something along those lines.</p>
<p>No bondage, though! ;)</p>
<p>ETA: Forgive me, I missed the Plebe Summer part.</p>
<p>It will probably be a five-minute tread-water exercise, perhaps in whiteworks. You'd be surprised just how long five minutes is in the water, and how many people will either blow it or completely freak out. If you know how to swim, and are even remotely comfortable in the water, you should be fine.</p>
<p>They're not going to drown you before your first academic year starts. ;)</p>
<p>drown proofing is very simple and I actually like it.</p>
<p>In about 10-12 feet of water, you have your hands (behind your back) and feet bound together. You simply exhale to sink to the bottom, then 'jump' off to get back to the surface.</p>
<p>The part that makes it difficult is that when you get to the surface, you can only grab a very quick and very short breath before you begin to go down again. You just repeat this bobbing up and down for however long they require.</p>
<p>The whole point of the exercise is for you to get comfortable in the water. Having your hands and feet bound in deep water can be kinda scary at first, but if you just relax you'll do fine.</p>
<p>The exercise was first implimented into BUD/S when, during Vietnam, a SEAL POW was being transported by VC on a river when they were attacked. The boat was sunk, and because he was tied up, he drowned. Now it's a fairly common exercise in various training commands.</p>
<p>Dang it, Z...</p>
<p>OK...I guess they don't do the SEAL version of drown-proofing at USNA. I wasn't aware there is more than one version.</p>
<p>Jumping off the 10-meter platform is a graduation requirement, so don't get worried about having to do that right away. I think most of the plebes jumped off the 7-meter platform during Sea Trials at the end of Plebe Year.
DMeix, did your ROTC friends go on grey hull cruises this summer? How does that work for NROTC? What is their summer training over three years?</p>
<p>No, actually my classmates will be going to CORTRAMID (the exact same thing as USNA's PROTRAMID cruise...don't ask my why it's the same thing with a different name) in the beginning of July.</p>
<p>ROTC is kinda set up differently when it comes to summer cruise.<br>
3/c summer you go to CORTRAMID in San Diego, </p>
<p>2/c you do a grey hull/sub/aviation cruise (Navy option) or Mountain Warfare school if you're Marine option,</p>
<p>1/c cruise is pretty much the same as 2/c, but what you do is based on your choices from service selection, so you have a pretty good idea what you're going to be doing after graduation. Marine Options do 6 weeks of OCS (a living hell based on what i've heard from guys who did it last summer).</p>
<p>Navy options had a lot more choices as to what they can do over the summer. MOs are pretty much forced to follow the CORTRAMID, MWS, then OCS route.</p>
<p>Well, I take that back.</p>
<p>Marine Options can do a few other things besides Mountain Warfare as the 2/c cruise. I'm not sure exactly what the options were, as I was a Navy Option, but nearly all the MOs in the unit chose to do MWS because it's supposed to be pretty hardcore.</p>
<p>Going out on a limb, I'm saying that Plebe Summer drown-proofing might be like what they did at NASS last summer. Like D said, we had our hands behind our back and our feet together. We let out our breath and sank to the bottom, pushed off with our feet, took a quick gasp of air, and repeated that until they said we were done (5 minutes). We also did what Z said--treaded water without our hands for a while, jumped off a platform, swam to the edge, and treaded more water. I'm by no means a good swimmer, but I don't freak out in the water either and I did fine.</p>
<p>USNA's version is different...</p>
<p>Kind of hard to explain...but you will see soon enough!</p>
<p>In PI we had a different type of drown proofing qual. With troop handlers on the deck (boxing gloves tied to the end of long aluminum poles) and t**ds in the pool with boots, utility trousers, web belt and tee. You hit the water; unlace your boots; take off your Us; tie U legs into knots; grab Us waistband and legs together; lift yourself and the Us as far out of the water as possible and at the same time snap the Us- like making your rack. When you come down and re-hit the water you got yourself a nifty PFD. 1 hour of threading water while laying your head on the trouser PFD. If you couldnt hack that procedure- and the troop handlers did not make quitting easy- you had to swim underwater for 200 yd. with an M-14 slung around your neck. Old fashion USMC drown proofing. :D:</p>
<p>that would be enough to give me a panic attack! (not that I get them, but I think having my hands and feet bound underwater would be enough to do it!) </p>
<p>so please end my nightmare and tell me: what DOES happen if a mid gets in trouble with this??????</p>
<p>...........</p>
<p>You die.</p>
<p>navy's version of "drownproofing"...totally different than this hands-tied business. much easier. you'll see when you get there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The exercise was first implimented into BUD/S when, during Vietnam, a SEAL POW was being transported by VC on a river when they were attacked. The boat was sunk, and because he was tied up, he drowned. Now it's a fairly common exercise in various training commands.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Source, please, as I have heard that no SEAL has ever been captured. Even the poor guy who fell off the back of the helo in Afghanistan went down firing his pistol (his primary weapon was still in the chopper).</p>
<p>
[quote]
so please end my nightmare and tell me: what DOES happen if a mid gets in trouble with this??????
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Midshipmen are normally given a few tries at any swimming evolution. It's a lot like the PRT: if you fail, you go on remedial until you pass.</p>
<p>I had one classmate who FROZE at the top of the 10-meter board. Stood up there for over an hour. She didn't jump that day, but she did later after some creative motivation provided by her friends.</p>
<p>OTOH, I had a classmate and good friend in my company who was a Physics major with a minor in Russian, pulling a 4.0. He couldn't swim. Period. Got separated his 2/C year. How he got through the first two years is anyone's guess. If you tied a rope to his waist you could use him as an anchor.</p>
<p>When I went through eons ago in CG, we had to do the 5-minute hands-free treading, 10 meter cross-your-heart dive, and the simulated swimming under a surface oil fire (swimming under water and flapping like chicken you break the water surface then back under.) In another exercise, we also had to remove our shirt and pants in the water and turn them into floation devices (that was pretty cool). and float atop the water for a loooong period of time while learning stuff to slow down hypotherma.</p>
<p>
[quote]
OTOH, I had a classmate and good friend in my company who was a Physics major with a minor in Russian, pulling a 4.0. He couldn't swim. Period. Got separated his 2/C year. How he got through the first two years is anyone's guess. If you tied a rope to his waist you could use him as an anchor.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>are you saying it's impossible for someone to go into USNA and suck (really suck) at swimming and survive (me).</p>
<p>Z:</p>
<p>The Warrior Elite, by Dick Couch. I did a little bit of research, and found that you are right: No SEAL has ever been captured, detained, or held as a POW.</p>
<p>I know the book mentioned an incident like the one I stated earlier, but it must not have been a SEAL. It's been a few years since I read it, and shouldn't have made the assumption. I apologize for the inaccurate statement.</p>
<p>dbluecap, I started out in floaties at NAPS to passing my 200m plebe swim test (doing freestyle!) this spring. It's possible!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Z:</p>
<p>The Warrior Elite, by Dick Couch. I did a little bit of research, and found that you are right: No SEAL has ever been captured, detained, or held as a POW.</p>
<p>I know the book mentioned an incident like the one I stated earlier, but it must not have been a SEAL. It's been a few years since I read it, and shouldn't have made the assumption. I apologize for the inaccurate statement.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Oh, hey! No foul! No apology necessary! :)</p>
<p>If I had a dollar for every time I've been wrong, I wouldn't have to work! :D</p>