Did you know this was in Key West?

A safety boat takes the students to the dropoff point for a navigation dive.

Wow I missed posting in June and ALMOST missed July!  In my defense, I've been posting straight to Facebook and I'm also studying for the E-6 exam.  O.M.G. there's so much to study.  Almost all of my free time is spent making flash cards for the Sept. 3 exam.  Yep, studying since the beginning of June.

I spent a week in June doing a story on an Army special forces dive school in Key West.  It's located on Naval Air Station Trumbo Point. I had no idea the Army had anything like that.

They don't have a website but you can check out more about them here. The video I produced hasn't released yet but I'll post it here when it does.

Our team was myself as video, MC3 Tim Haake as photo and Amaani Lyle as writer.

MC3 Tim Haake is ready for the arrival.

We spent a week following the students around.  They were mid level officers and enlisted personnel.  Seasoned operators getting their asses kicked in the water.

This was a pinpoint navigation exercise.  The students are dropped off further out in the water and must swim along the bottom, navigating to a target on the beach.

These two guys didn't know they hit the bulls eye until they surfaced.

 

Look real hard and you can see Green Berets kayaking.  They weren't relieving stress.  It was part of the training.  Yes, there are special forces kayaks.

 

Amaani Lyle interviews an instructor.  I told him we were like media special forces.

You know those cool shots where the SEALs come up out of the water in unison?  That's what these guys are training to do right now.  There's quite a bit of logistics that happens under the water before they come up.  It's all about shifting from travel mode to fight mode.

No I'm not pointing at my tattoo.  I'm signaling to Haake to take my photo.

This what two hours in the pool gets you.  It's also what I'll look like naturally in a few years.