Just read this on the news,here.

Maastricht,The Netherlands

A 29 year old US soldier drowned after the canoe he was in with other soldiers had capsized.
The soldier couldn,t swim.

 

That is sad, but I find it confusing. My son is a Marine and they have to go through one hell of a tough basic training regimen. This includes a pretty rigorous swim/water section. They have to know how to swim in full pack or they don't proceed. I would find it hard to believe all branches would not require the same. There must have been more involved.

 

nope no swimming requirements for the army.
the one thing they made us do was be able to tread water for 5 min wearing full uniform, no pack. even that we only did once in 4 years, and after having already been in for nearly 2 years.
terry

 

Don,t know if they were on duty or not.
Maybe they had a day off and were making some fun.
In the newspaper this morning there was this same message about the drowning.Only, soldier was 36 in stead of 29.
Cause of the accident was not mentioned.

 

That is sad to hear. No the Army doesn't have any kind of swimming training in basic. I only had to do a little bit when I got to Fort Drum NY they made us go into the pool and and use our shirt or pants I don't remmeber and make a flaoting device by slaping air into them and that was about it for the training.

 

yeah, in the Army is was called "drown-proofing" class..

we took the class once a year, and did as described in the previous post with our BDUs..

 

In bootcamp we had to jump off a 25 ft. platform, tread water for a couple of min. and swim about 50 yards. That is all I have been required to do since joining the Navy about 5 years ago. If you couldn't do it than you had to take a remedial swim class which was a joke. I know numerous people in the Navy who can't swim. Which is kind of stupid being that we spend most of our time in the water.