TACOMA — Think of it as an underwater amusement park ride that requires you to find your way out while upside down.
And blindfolded.
That’s the stress a group of Army pilots from Joint Base Lewis-McChord felt this week when they traveled to a special Navy training facility for a refresher course on how to survive a helicopter crash at sea.
It could have been the chlorine headache speaking, but the pilots emerged from the pool saying they felt more confident in their ability to survive an accident.
“It was tough. There’s no substitute for being put in the dunker and being turned upside down and having water up your nose and then having to find your way out,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Chris Muir, 40, of JBLM’s 16th Combat Aviation Brigade.
That he and nine other Army pilots were tested with Navy survival equipment served as an acknowledgement that JBLM’s helicopter squadrons might see more work over the Pacific Ocean in coming years. It’s a reflection of JBLM’s role in the Defense Department’s shifting of more resources to East Asia since it started reducing its footprint in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The biggest thing is, we want to be ready” for assignments with the Navy and Marines in the Pacific, said 16th Combat Aviation Brigade Deputy Operations Officer Maj. Keith Benoit. “What we don’t want is to try to rush everybody through” survival training in an emergency.
Technically, Army pilots are supposed to take an over-water survival course every few years on a schedule similar to their counterparts in the Navy and Coast Guard.
But the demands of keeping robust Army aviation crews in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and other places have combined to make the water training a lower priority. Most pilots at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island this week hadn’t participated in a water-based course since they graduated from flight school.
Even if the Army doesn’t send them to Hawaii or Japan, pilots said the training was helpful in the event local training flights take JBLM crews over Puget Sound.
“Seattle has some of the busiest airspace in the country. Eventually you’re going to be over the water. This makes you more comfortable,” said pilot Chief Warrant Officer 3 Shawn Witt.
He and his teammates swam in a warm pool at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island with coaching from expert Navy divers, doctors and corpsmen.
Normally, the pool is full of sailors assigned to the fleet of Navy electronic warfare jets and maritime patrol planes at Whidbey air base. Army and Air Force Special Operations teams are regulars, too.
“We’re giving them survival skills. God, you hope they never have to use it, but if they do, they have it,” said Lt. Cmdr. David McEttrick, the director of the Aviation Training Survival Center at Whidbey Island.
The Army crews wore full flight suits in the water and worked through increasingly complex challenges, such as opening a window under water. Later, they were asked to do the same tasks while wearing dark goggles that limited their vision.
Each of them went into the dunker at least five times. The longest time a soldier spent underwater was about 20 seconds.
