Troops to train in 'dunker'

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Ditching! Ditching! Ditching!

Trainers Don Hensley, left, and Rudy Rana, in full combat gear, were part of a demonstration of the Modular Amphibious Egress Trainer, or "dunker," at the Marine Corps Base swimming pool in Kane'ohe. The device simulates a helicopter that has crashed in water. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Down becomes up when a big chopper overturns and starts to sink, creating a dangerous confusion in which troops have but seconds to escape.

They'll be hearing a lot more of that warning at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i at Kane'ohe Bay with the arrival of a more than $2.5 million pool trainer intended to better prepare Marines and other service members for the possibility of a crash at sea. It is known as the Modular Amphibious Egress Trainer, or the "dunker."

Okinawa received the first dunker, and Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., are among others bases getting the trainers.

The aluminum-framed trainer, which has removable side panels, can be configured to replicate the cross-section and seating of a number of helicopters, including the CH-46 Sea Knight, and CH-53.

Four squadrons of CH-53D Sea Stallions are based at Kane'ohe Bay.

"It's a primary means of insertion and extraction, and training and real-world operations," said base spokesman Maj. Chris Hughes.

Last week, instructors in full combat gear demonstrated the dunker for military brass, including Marine Corps base commander Brig. Gen. Jerry C. McAbee and other commanders.

With four service members belted in and heads hunched to their knees, the pre-dunk warning was given: "Divers ready? Ditching! Ditching! Ditching!"

With that, the trainer was lowered into the deep end of the base pool by cables from an overhead gantry.

As it sank to the rooftop, motors spun the cabin upside down.

After a few seconds, those inside made their exit through hinged side doors and escape hatches replicating those found on a CH-53.

"Two clear, three clear, four clear," called out one of the poolside instructors as the gear-laden passengers popped to the surface.

Officials with Survival Systems Inc. out of Groton, Conn., which provides the dunker, said the 1999 crash at sea of a Marine Corps CH-46E helicopter, in which six Camp Pendleton Marines and a sailor were killed, highlights the need for the program.

As the big helicopter approached the USNS Pecos 14 miles southwest of Point Loma in California, its landing gear became ensnared, and it rolled into the sea.

Survivors later said down was up and up was down in the darkened waters inside the chopper, which remained afloat for about 40 seconds.

Navy hospital-man 1st Class Fernando Santos, who participated in last week's exit demonstration, said as a Navy diver, one of his first instincts would have been to try to swim out of a downed helicopter.

The training taught him otherwise.

"If you attempt to swim and you have all these tons of water coming in, guess what, you are going to be pushed, twirled, you have all your gear — everything is all over the place," Santos said.

Instead, students are taught to recognize reference points and to grab a series of handholds to pull themselves out.

Survival Systems' Chad Copeland, who is organizing the training for the Marines, said service members are taught to stay right like they are after a crash.

"We tell them to stay upside down, ease yourself along the seats, find your exit and escape and get out while you're still upside down because that's the safest way to do it," he said.

Two days of classroom study cover the basics, including what to do when crash survivors reach the surface.

A shallow-water trainer consisting of a chair inside a metal cage with buoyancy devices on either side provides individual training and instruction on how to use the aircrew breathing device — essentially a tiny scuba tank the size of an aerosol can that provides a few minutes of air.

Copeland said the dunker advances that training to a more realistic level.

"Now you are in something that looks like a helicopter and exits like a helicopter," he said. "It drops in the water, it's big, and it's intimidating."

In actuality — unlike a crash — the dunker makes a soft landing and rolls fairly quickly as it goes under.

But Copeland said the impact isn't the greatest concern. "It's the disorientation," he said, "when people roll over and their Eustachian tubes start rolling around their head — they don't know which way is up anymore."

Copeland said the program slowly works up to the dunker, building confidence and skills as it goes.

But there are always a few students who have a hard time being strapped in a helicopter seat in full combat gear and being turned upside down underwater.

"The thing is to detect it at the earliest stage," Copeland said. "So if you see somebody's eyes get as big as saucers and you know they are about to panic, you just go ahead and unsnap them and bring them up."

As many as 10 troops can be loaded in the back of the trainer and two in the cockpit, but Copeland said for safety, four in the back — with three safety instructors — is the usual number. And two safety divers are usually poolside.

"So you've got five people watching those four (students)," Copeland said.

Although there is a cockpit, the focus of the training "is on the young infantryman in the back of that bird," said Hughes.

The crash survival course is being offered to other services, and so far, the aviation brigade of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) and the Navy's SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One have scheduled training.