SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

UNITED STATES

08.18.2016

Story by Pfc. Lauren Ogburn 

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

Service members from the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marines trained together in the course. Among the trainees was Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Cosper, the JTF senior enlisted leader. Upon course completion, trainees obtain certification to wear a law enforcement belt equipped with what is similar to an inflatable life jacket. The equipment is the only flotation device authorized to be worn in conjunction with the Coast Guard’s ballistic plate carrier, said Chief Petty Officer Jordan Gere, a JTF GTMO Coast Guard Trooper and water survival training course trainer. The course goes through a crawl, walk and run phase, said Gere. The participants begin with a swim test that includes different basic swim
strokes. Afterwards, the participants learn how to jump into the water properly and practice using the equipment in the shallow end of the pool.
After practicing the removal of gear in the shallow end and the deep end, the final three jumps take place from the top of a 10 foot platform, said Gere. Participants remove all their gear, inflate the flotation device manually and swim to the stairs leading out of the pool. The risk level of the training was high, and each time a trainee conducted a jump, there was at least one master swimmer and one water survival responder in the water, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Carla Galland, a JTF Coast Guard
Trooper and course trainer. “I make sure the trainees, who are participating in the program, don’t drown in the process of getting qualified,” Galland said. “Our job is to be there as a reassurance to the trainees, and also in case of an emergency.” By the end of the course, the instructors built participants’ confidence in survival while in a body of
water, said Cosper.
“The training was just unbelievable,” Cosper said. “There was nothing,
but professionalism from the Coast Guard. I couldn’t be happier with their professionalism, and for them allowing me and the JTF deputy commander to come down and train with them. I used to consider myself a strong swimmer, but after the physical portions of this, I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was.”
The Coast Guardsmen assigned to JTF enjoy having other branches of service attend their training because it allows every service to build relationships with one another, said Gere. “We invited other members from other branches because we continually want to train and work with
the other branches to increase the interoperability between crews,” Gere
said. “It also gives other branches an idea of the equipment that is being
used in a different branch of service.”

• Date Taken: 08.18.2016
• Date Posted: 08.23.2016 07:35
• Story ID: 207612
• Location: US