I thought some of you might be interested to know what I'm doing for the Navy these days. (If you're not, no worries, just move on. But this is some interesting stuff, I think.)

I am currently enrolled in high-intensity, high-attrition training to be part of my ship's VBSS team. The class has an over 50% drop rate. Most people that drop fail from one of 3 things.

1) Gun range: Trainees complete a course designed to demonstrate tactical movement skills and marksmanship abilities. Has to be completed in designated time with specific accuracy (20 out of 24 shots on target). Requires that trainees demonstrate proficiency in shooting while moving (those of you that have never done this, it's not as easy as one might think). Most people fail for missing too many targets, not completing the course in the required time, or committing a safety violation.

2) Climbing: Trainees must climb stacked conex containers using climbing equipment (harness and VBSS ladder (note the ladder, but ignore the girl climbing it. that picture's clearly staged, as you don't use your hands on the ladder and it doesn't look like that at all) and Petzl I'D), and open, enter, and inspect them. Also includes rappelling back down. All the climbing is done while wearing fully weighted VBSS gear (note the vests, belt with holsters and ammo pouches, (we use training weapons and ammo that simulate the appropriate weight). People apparently fail this too, but I'm not sure why, cause I thought it was pretty damn easy.

3) Swim: Not sure what's involved with this, cause we haven't done it yet, but it includes dropping off 3 meter and 10 meter platforms and completing various swim maneuvers, as well as being able to tow a partner through water, while wearing full uniform and gear (including boots). I'll let you know how it goes when I get to it. Apparently people have trouble with it too.

Other than that, we are learning various combative techniques (hand to hand strikes, takedowns, etc), as well as tactical movement techniques.

I was initially worried that our military was teaching people to write some hybrid of Visual Basic.

I am relieved.

I thought it was about a star destroyer

That's pretty cool. Looks like a fun challenge. Wearing full gear and towing a ragdoll also wearing full gear seems like it may be difficult.

yeah though it won't be a ragdoll. it'll be another trainee. :p But they will be acting as if they're unconscious. (maybe that's what you meant though)

Uh, I shoot from the hip all the time in CS mr. navy man.

Are you dragging a person on top of assault packs? If you are, all they have to do is get them under them and you can almost hang off of them and just chill out.

But keep in mind your rifle is like, the only thing you carry that doesn't float.

Good luck!

It sounds extremely difficult to swim while wearing boots and carrying heavy gear. Good luck with that.

well the good thing is that the vest is a flotation device. But I don't know about going anywhere with heavy water-logged boots...

Swim was completed today. It was not terribly difficult, but I'm super exhausted now. The tactical vest held me up in the water pretty well with the water sitting about mid way up my neck. Some work was required to keep me oriented correctly (otherwise, I'd have gone forward a bit and gotten my face in the water). Moving around in the pool wasn't terribly difficult, though I didn't exactly move very fast. And pulling my partner around was the same story. It was incredibly tiring, and kinda slow going, but not difficult to actually perform.

Anyway, that's the last major hurdle in this class, so as long as nothing goes wrong, I should be graduating Friday. Tomorrow and Thursday we'll be running some mock boardings.. It's still possible to get dropped from the class if I screw anything up there, but hopefully all that goes well.

Hopefully you discovered that your boots do in fact float for a significant amount of time!

Good luck with the rest of your school!

Maybe they'd float on their own.. but they definitely weren't buoying my feet... Though I didn't really seem to notice them dragging my feet down either. They did make it a little more difficult and less effective to kick though.