SUN STREAK PROJECT 0765 SESSION NUMBER: 01 SOLO VIEWER: 052
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP96-00789R001200080009-2
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
S
Document Page Count:
5
Document Creation Date:
November 4, 2016
Document Release Date:
July 1, 1998
Sequence Number:
9
Case Number:
Publication Date:
March 21, 1990
Content Type:
REQ
File:
Attachment | Size |
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Body:
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W NOFORN
PROJECT SUN STREAK:
WARNING NOTICE: INTELLIGENCE SOURCES AND METHODS INVOLVED
PROJECT NUMBER:
0765 (Tng)
DATE OF SESSION:
21 MAR 90
DATE OF REPORT:
23 MAR 90
START:
1 356
END:
1402
METHODOLOGY:
'O G d
VIEWER IDENTIFIER: 052
1. (5/SK) MISSION: To describe the target site (Combat diver's school)
in Stage 1 terminology, working solo.
2. (S/SK) VIEWER TASKING: Target site number only.
3. (S/SK) COMMENTS: No Physical Inclemencies. 052 correctly
determined the ?: major gestalts of the site on the first full. lAB sequence.
No incorrect or minor gestalts were found.
4. (S/SK:) EVALUATION; 3
5. (S/SK) SEARCH EVALUATION: N/A
HANDLE VIA SKEET CHANNELS ONLY
....... OFORN
CLASSIFIED BY: DIA (DT)
DECLASSIFY: OADR
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news
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CPYRGHT
Clockwise from top left: Flutter kicks are a part of
nearly every day's training. ? Halfway through a set of
crossovers, students hang on the wall, gulp in air and
prepare to go back under. ? During a morning pool
session, class members poke their heads under to
watch a demonstration.
their mouths would be off, forcing
them to hold their breath repeatedly.
Bobbing requires the diver
being tested to stand in the pool's shal-
low end facing one side. On an instruc-
tor's command, he begins working his
way to the deep end by descending and
rising in a saw-toothed pattern. At the
pool's deep end, he drops to the bottom,
puts his swim fins on his hands and
begins bobbing straight up and down
for two minutes. After that, he bobs
back to the shallow end.
Crossovers, the more dreaded of
the two, look and sound even simpler.
Divided into two groups, the stu-
dents face each other from both sides
of the pool's deep end. When the whis-
tle blows, both groups duck under and
cross to the other side. To avoid a colli-
sion, one skims along the bottom, the
other just under the surface. A few sec-
onds after surfacing on the other side,
the whistle blows again, and the exer-
cise repeats itself. Depending on the
width of the pool being used, the exer-
cise can continue for up to three
minutes.
The crossovers and bobbing
exercises the students go through dur-
ing the first two days of training are
freebies. If a student gives up during a
bob or refuses to get off the wall on a
crossover, there is no penalty. On day
three, however, such an infraction
would mean immediate dismissal.
For the most part, students who
balk during the exercises do so for psy-
chological reasons, explained Ray-
mond Sears, a retired Special Forces
master sergeant and one of the school's
two civilian instructors. "An average
person can hold his breath for 60-90
seconds," Sears said. "Put that same
person on the bottom of a pool and he'll
come up gasping after 30 seconds. Out
of the water, he knows all he has to do is
open his mouth when he needs to. It's
different under water, and some peo-
ple just aren't made for that type of
stress. It's a little like climbing moun-
tains. Some people are good at it, some
aren't."
SFC Bill Wheeler, a Special
Forces weapons NCO from Fort Lewis,
Wash., and the student class leader,
agreed. In his opinion, crossovers are
the hardest part of the course. "The
trick to controlling the urge to panic is
relaxing," Wheeler said. "We're
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SOLDIERS
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CPYRGHT
Thorns began to falter during the
morning's fourth crossover when he
surfaced halfway across the pool. He
managed to get to the wall, but when
the whistle sounded, he wouldn't
budge.
While he hung there gulping in
air, several instructors converged on
him yelling, "Off that wall, mister!"
Several times, Thorns managed
to let go before the three required
warnings could be given. Each time, he
only made it a few feet before surfac-
ing and thrashing back to the wall.
Finally, Casteel ordered the instruc-
tors to get him out. It was over, and
Thorns knew it.
After working his way to the
pool's shallow end, he stood and
watched his classmates continue with
the exercise. Before it was over,
another student would join him.
Those who make it past the
stress exercises begin open-water
dives during the second week. At this
point the failure rate drops sharply as
the students, now comfortable operat-
ing under water, begin to study the
finer points of combat diving.
During the last three weeks,
Clark said, students learn to navigate
under water, exit and enter different
types of watercraft, conduct ship-bot-
tom searches and move toward a target
in 12-man teams.
Because of the diverse missions
of units sending students to the school,
Above, 2nd Lt. Justin Thorns (left) listens to
Instructors during voluntary remedial
crossover training. ? Top, Thorns gasps for
air during the next day's exercises.
little time is spent covering beach-side
operations. That training, Clark
.pointed out, comes once the graduate
returns to his unit.
"Scuba diving is simply a means
of infiltration - a way to get some-
where you're not supposed to be," he
said.
,,The dive team's mission could
be to recon and secure a beach, to take
out a communications or air-defense
site, or to find and establish a para-
chute drop zone close to the shore.
"It's a lot like airborne and air-
mobile operations. But of all of them,
it's the most difficult. Airborne opera-
tions are over in minutes and you're
pretty much delivered by an aircraft
that can get you right over where you
need to go.
"Scuba missions require more
planning and practice because more
can go wrong," Clark continued. "They
also require several delivery vehicles,
such as an aircraft, a boat that is para-
chuted into the water along with the
team, and finally, the body. There's no
way we can teach a guy everything
there is to know about scuba opera-
tions in just four weeks."
Although the school's graduates
may not know it all when they leave,
the silver diver's badge is still a cov-
eted thing around special operations
units.
The way Clark sees it, the badge
signifies an elite status within an
already elite circle.
For class leader Wheeler, earn-
ing a badge simply meant getting some
good specialized training and improv-
ing his chances of getting into one of
his unit's scuba detachments. At 32,
Wheeler was too old to go around chas-
ing the badge just so he could say he
had it. He had been dropped from a
course earlier this year because of a
stress exercise the first week, and he
was determined it wouldn't happen
again.
"Compared to how I felt at this
point last time, I'm a lot more tired, but
mentally I'm a lot more confident," he
said. "I think I'll make it this time."
As for his earlier failure,
Wheeler didn't point the finger at any-
one but himself. As class leader, he
dealt with both the instructors and the
students on a regular basis. "Nobody
here wants to see someone else flunk,"
he said. "The students have a lot of
cohesion. The only way to make it
through this is to help and motivate
each other. The instructors are good,
too. They may yell at us, but we know
there's always a point to it - they have
to put us under stress sometimes. But
when we have a question or see them
-one-on-one, they treat us with the
respect and dignity accorded a fellow
soldier."
Although he didn't earn one last
summer, Thorns recognized what the
badge represented. Like Wheeler, he
can come back and try again. "I want
that badge," he said. "To me, it stands
for the toughest school in the Army,
and it says a whole lot about the guy
wearing it." ^
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