By Roy York

A figure in dripping fatigues shuffles toward the edge of the diving platform 30 feet above the water. A wool cap pulled low over his eyes turns clear morning to midnight, and the cadet is expected to take one giant blindfolded step into nothingness with only a seven-pound rifle to hold. Adrenaline pumps through the body. The smell of chlorine fills his nose. Time slows as he falls toward the water. Rushing wind replaces cheers. The stomach finds a new home in the throat. Then the splash.

Water erases the ability to determine up from down. The rifle and soaked fatigues suck him toward the bottom of the pool. Panic tightens the chest. A few short kicks take him to the surface, he is dragged from the pool and it is over.

Sixty-seven ROTC cadets made this jump on Wednesday as part of the Combat Water Survival Training designed to teach survival techniques and equipment protection while in the water. The training was held in the Lancaster

Aquatic Center at 6 a.m. and consisted of four stations: a 25 meter rifle swim, unexpected entry, an equipment ditch and five minutes of treading water.

The rifle swim tests a cadet’s ability to keep the barrel of a replica M4 rifle above water while swimming 25 meters.

Chris Peterson, an international studies senior, said keeping the barrel above water was especially important because firing the weapon with water in the barrel could cause the gun to explode.

Unexpected entry involves cadets being blindfolded, spun in circles to become disoriented and then being led to the edge of a 30-foot platform where they are expected to jump into the water.

The equipment ditch tasks cadets with shedding their equipment while underwater to avoid sinking and drowning. Coupled with treading water for five minutes, the training gives cadets the necessary tools to survive in an aquatic environment.

Kyle Beverly, a civil engineering freshman, said jumping was the most exciting part of the training.

“It’s fun,” he said. “You don’t know what’s going on. You take a risk and you jump.”

Brennan Parker, a political science junior, said the training gives cadets the confidence to survive any situation.

Parker said he hoped none of the training would ever be necessary for a real-life situation, but in the event of a plane or helicopter crash, he was confident the cadets would be prepared.

The training is mandatory for those wanting to enter the armed forces as officers. ROTC members who fail to meet the requirements of each station are given the chance to improve and repeat the training. The ROTC offers swimming lessons at the YMCA for weak swimmers and practice sessions at the Lancaster Aquatic Center, Peterson said.

Mary Awoniyi, a second-year law student, struggled with the rifle swim but completed the task because of her practice.

“On land I can hang in there but in the water it takes it out of me,” she said. “Cadets should take the initiative to practice on their own.”

To keep the cadets safe, the ROTC took a number of precautions. Weak swimmers were identified and every cadet was given a safety briefing before the training. Eleven senior cadets supervised the training from inside and outside the water.

Peterson said the cadets’ gear could weigh as much as 17 pounds when wet, and getting in and out of the water can take a toll on a cadet by lowering his or her body temperature.

Many cadets freeze on the diving platform, Peterson said, because they are scared of heights or nervous about being blindfolded.

“You have to keep doing it,” he said. “If you’re frightened doing your job, you have to get over it. You have to complete your mission.”