The students of the Marine Combat Instructor Water Survival Course tread water in formation while carrying the rifle at port arms as part of water aerobics at the Camp Schwab Aquatic Center June 14. Water aerobics sessions are part of the conditioning and strengthening portion of the course and consisted of swimming different strokes above water and underwater, strength-training activities in the water and exercises along the edges of the pool.

More than 20 Marines and sailors each swam 27 miles, escaped from the clutches of staff noncommissioned officers who wanted to drag them underwater, and passed written and practical application exams to earn their Marine Combat Instructor Water Survival qualification at the Aquatic Center July 12-28.

Upon completion of the MCIWS course, the service members were certified to administer swim qualification for their unit.

Not only is it practical to hold an MCIWS swim qualification, but prestigious as well according to Gunnery Sgt. Tim Sisson, the director of water survival for the Expeditionary Warfare Training Group, Pacific.

“It’s been told, and I fully believe, that (the MCIWS course) ranks in the top five of the most physically demanding courses in the Marine Corps,” Sisson said.

Marine Combat Instructor Water Survival Course students perform a dragon boat exercise during a water aerobics session at the Camp Schwab Aquatic Center July 19. Water aerobics sessions are part of the conditioning and strengthening portion of the course and consisted of swimming different strokes above water and underwater, strength-training activities in the water and exercises along the edges of the pool.

“The only easy day was ‘yesterday,’” agreed Lt. j.g. J.D. John, an MCWIS student and liaison officer for 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment. “Every day just gets harder and harder.”

The challenge begins before the course starts. Prospective students are required to be Water Survival Qualified and complete a pre-test demonstrating their level of fitness in the water.

The pre-test includes a 500-meter swim in less than 13 minutes, 25-meter underwater swim and a 50-meter brick tow. The brick tow requires a person to carry a ten-pound brick out of the water while swimming a designated distance.

Twenty-six students passed the pre-test and were admitted in the course, although not all of them completed the training.

Lance Cpl. Brennan Dalton emerges from a 13-foot descent to the bottom of the pool at the Camp Schwab Aquatic Center July 19. Marine Combat Instructor Water Survival Course students were instructed to retrieve their rifles from the bottom of the pool and then emerge holding them at port arms keeping the muzzle of their rifles out of the water. Dalton is an electro-optical ordnance repairer with Headquarters and Services Company, Combat Assault Battalion.

The first week of the course is focused on conditioning, swimming fundamentals and rescue techniques, but the toughest part of the course was training day five according to Sisson. On this day the students are required to save a simulated frantic drowning victim who drags them underwater. The student must demonstrate pressure point applications to relieve themself of the drowning victim and then swim the victim to safety. If a student does not pass this practical application testing, they are refreshed on the techniques and allowed one more opportunity to show proficiency before being dropped from the course.

The second week of the MCIWS course was devoted to the teaching aspect of the course. Students learned cardio respiratory resuscitation and rescue breathing, additional types of rescues for drowning victims and furthered the skills they learned during the first week of class. This includes rescuing a drowning victim with the additional burden of all their combat gear.

The final week consisted of evaluations, including showing proficiency in the water with their hands or feet tied together. This technique is designed to instill confidence in the students and in the methods they learned during the course, Sisson said.

“It shows them that if they use the fundamentals we teach they can survive in the water even if they’re tied up.” Sisson said.

To graduate and earn the MCIWS swim qualification, students must also give a 20-minute lecture on a swimming topic of their choice, show proficiency of different strokes in the pool and perform other specific tasks to prove their competency in the water.

“My goal was to come out here so I could train Marines and sailors to be fighters,” John said. “So they could live to fight another day and then go back home to their families.”