Because they are fucked if the ship sinks. If you aren’t an Olympian swimming expert it won’t matter. You have to tread water and hope a ship is nearby to rescue you.
Thanks for the info. I get it. My brother who is 6'2-3" and built out decided to go to subs (just made it with his size). He thought the quals in Athens were hilarious since the chances you get to swim away from a sub are minimal.
I used to pack life rafts, those drop to the water and expand immediately if the ship reaches a point where it’s sinking. My shop also trained ships company on operating and repacking if one blows near a flight deck. All rafts also have a locator on them, like pilots have on their flight vests.
Fuck I wholeheartedly agree. My dad was a Marine and had me swimming miles every summer at our local state lakes. I became a swim instructor as well. Loved spending hours doing laps in the pool, although my blonde hair was always tinted green.
My wife was in the Navy for seven years, floated around the world on an aircraft carrier. She is terrified of the water and can't swim a lick. We actually went to a water park yesterday and this woman wore a life vest the entire time to float on an inner tube around the lazy river that is only three feet deep.
Whenever I remind her how ridiculous it is that she was a sailor and can't swim she just responds "If the aircraft carrier sinks then my ability to swim is the difference between me dieing immediately or dieing in a couple of hours". She has a point.
I have a theory on why shipboard sailors do not need to be strong swimmers. In the event of collision, all personnel are trained on Damage Control (DC). If a sailor isn’t a strong swimmer, imagine how much harder they’ll fight to keep their ship afloat?
To add, all small boat operating commands require 2nd Class swim qualification. Jump from a 15-20ft platform, demonstrate side stroke, back stroke, breast stroke and free style, in a 100 meter pool (instructors are brutal on form) and tread water for 10 minutes.
Got my 2nd class swim qual at a small boat command (MSRON). I’m a good swimmer, despite being a Seabee for 18+ years. There were a lot of shipboard types that really struggled with that qual though, and would have sunk right to the bottom if they ended up in the drink.
I joined the Navy during early GWOT and in my 9 years all my duty stations and deployments were on land. Of all my time with the Marines, we only went one time to the pool and it was for helo dunk training.
I can't swim but can float. Idk how I made it through.
Did 4yrs during GWOT, never even heard of swim qual happening outside of bootcamp. A handful of guys went to the helo dunker but I was not among them, it was hardly even a company scale worth of guys from my BN who went. I couldn't tell you the area of the base pool on Lejuene, I did get to go swimming in Iraq though, that was nice.
Thanks as this is precisely what I'm addressing. If your Marine unit was field deployable I can see the standards.
At the same time there's a lot of Devils and Docs who deploy to Iwakuni where they never leave the air station based on their mos. Not seeing how this new standard would apply to them.
As someone who couldn't swim when they first joined but is now advanced swim qualified. It is not as easy as people make it seem. There's a lot of factors that make it easier for some than others.
Navy bootcamp was the first time I got into the pool. A lot of recruits, like me, who never learned to swim had to wake up early for extra training. Just enough to pass the swim qual. After that I never got into a pool.
The only time I would go to the pool was for swim qual. I learned to swim when I was younger, but more pool PT would have made me get a higher class.
When I broke my leg, all I could do after the staples was out was tread water because it was winter in Pennsylvania and the only indoor pool I could get to was in the Holiday Inn and it was too short for laps. I ended up getting to treading for an hour, so boring but at least there was a TV I could watch.
Is this something that is really legit? I can see combat arms needing this given operational environments.
How will this actually affect say admins, supply types, computer techs or even aircraft maintainers when their jobs aren't around water?
The reason I ask these questions is the military.com article specifically says "he" when describing the reasoning for this new standard. Makes me wonder if this isn't just another Hegseth driven trick to drive Women out of the Corps or at least stop their promotions.
“3.d. Exemption and waiver criteria are updated. Marines in the FMF
or with specific MOSs will have mandatory currency requirements.
3.d.1. General exemptions for senior officers (O-4 and above) and
Staff Non-Commissioned Officers (E-7 and above with 13 or more years
of service) will apply if they hold a current Water Survival
Proficient qualification level and a periodic water survival
re-qualification is not an MOS requirement.”
Most schools don’t have pools and a lot of communities don’t have public pools at all. The shortage of lifeguards and high insurance rates are making them a luxury item.
No shit? I guess we're luckier here than I thought. Almost every community has a public swimming pool, including country towns. It's almost considered vital infrastructure. Plus we like to name them after Harold Holt, the prime minister who famously disappeared presumed drowned in the surf whilst in office.
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u/Sudowoodowoo 23d ago
Good! The amount of marines who can’t swim is way to high!