|
A Romanian EOD diver in USA
From Quantico to Fort Bragg
SEAL. Sea, Air, and Land. The three environments where the respective soldier must thrive in. A SEAL is tough and rough, ready for any mission, anytime, anywhere. Armed only with a knife and his skills, always among his team mates, a group of elite men, same as himself.
The experience of lieutenant-commander Marin Marian, the commander of the Romanian Explosive Ordnance Disposal Divers Group (Force SEAL/EOD of the 39th Naval Divers Center) is revealing and seems to match the legend of the lonely SEAL.
Marin Marian started his commando experience in 1994. At that time, he was sent by the Romanian Armed Forces at a commando training session of the Royal Marine Commandos. It had been several years since the fall of the Iron Courtain, and now Romania was starting its first military cooperation programs with the West.
Between june and august 1994, Marin Marian was a part of those programs, participating at an exercise with the former "enemy".
Reconaissance training, small unit operations, ambushes and other such exercises were conducted by some of the RMC's during those months. The exercises were conducted in a forrested area of the UK, a foggy hill surrounded by large marshes. At the end of the training session, all the graduate officers were to be integrated according to their domains, in their countries' commando forces. The base where Marin Marian trained was a selection base for the British Green Berets. Here, british officers who were already licensed as commando's were participating at a special development course which lasted a year and a half.
Before this first training session in a foreign country, lt. Marian was already a combat diver in the 39th Center for 2 years, and he was familiar with some of the basic missions that the Scouts were conducting.
After returning home, he was transfered to the Incursion divers section of the 39th center, who's missions are closer to the commando/SEAL skills that he has aquired abroad than the ones of his former EOD collegues. Shores, maritime platforms and ships incursions are the usual missions of the Incursion divers.
Lt. Marian also participated at a training course together with the USMC officers, course which took place in Quantico, Virginia. Since the English language was a hobby for him since a long time ago, communicating with the Americans was easy. In Quantico he learned new things about mission planning, and after that, between july of 1999 and may 2000, lt. Marian took a Special Forces training module in Fort Bragg. There, at the Special Forces Training Center of the US Marines, he also took the selection course for combat divers of the SF.
Ceremony of the establishment of the Naval Operations Command
Constanta, 31st of March 2003
The minimum requirements here were minimum experience in commando/SEAL operations and a lot of winning desire. The Special Forces Combat Divers belong to the US Marine Corps, while the SEALs belong to the US Navy's Department for Special Naval Warfare. The course that lt. Marian took was the Marines' one, however the standards there were the same as the ones of the SEALs.
Moreover, the SEAL course starts from scratch, as the people taking it are former civilians. But the sessions here at the USMC's facility are harder, due to the fact that the applicants are already familiar with Special Forces, and therefore the instructors start from the idea that if you're there, you're already a qualified combat diver, and you have to finish this course as an improvement of your capabilities.
The instructors warned the applicants before the start of the course, that many times the course ended with no graduates! Even more, the instructors themselves have abandoned it several times when they were in the applicants' position, before becoming instructors. An oxygene mask and an ambulance were present near the facility at all times.
All ranks can apply for this course. Lt. Marian discovered that the Americans have lower physical strength requirements than the Romanians, but they put more accent on team work. The key of success is concentration and a closely-knit link between willing and having the capacity to act.
A diving exercise conducted jointly by Romanian naval divers and US Navy SEALs from Ars Grapple
Constanta, 1998
During the training the applicants were encouraged to stay underwater for as long as possible, even until the loss of consciousness there. This way, they would learn not to fear anything.
Lt. Marin Marian was the only foreigner in the course, because this course is extremely difficult and no countries are willing to send their men there, in fear of failure..
You have probably read a lot of articles and websites where various special forces from around the world are bragging that their men finished the US Army Rangers selection course, and that is why they are like this and like that. But those countries send a single individual, once every few years, to the USA, to finish the selection course, not even to participate at a training session. Furthermore, their individual is sent to attend the Army Rangers selection course, while it is known that Rangers are not considered "special forces", like the Green Berets, SEALs or the USMC Combat Divers. There are reasons why those countries send their operatives to such courses instead of others. First of all, due to the fact they lack operatives qualified or fit enough to take more advanced courses. Second, because sending an operative to an advanced course would most likely result in failure, which would then become an embarassment to the native country on the international arena. It is easy to state that your country's special forces are "the best in the world", right after your men got slaughtered by terrorists, but it takes a real professionist to finish several renowned international courses in a row.
Even so, out of the applicants who subscribe for this course, most leave during the first day.
The underwater environment is not healthy for anybody, and the instructors and psychologysts were helping the applicants to understand that. It was a unique experience for lt. Marian, where every minute of sleep mattered in an exercise where sleep was a luxury seldom permitted by the instructors.
All the standards of the Americans were about team work, and the instructors insisted about that. Any mistake of imperfection was punished by the instructors, who sanctioned the entire team. The applicants were trying to prolong for as long as possible their stay underwater, and they got to a point where each member knew when his own body was starting to fail.
Divers from the Combat Incursion division recovered from a mission
Asked what was the nicest moment spent at this course, lt. Marian answered that it was the moment when they realized that they all passed the high standards, in a team [the ones that were still there at the end]. The toughest moments were the ones where someone had to quit because of medical reasons.
|
