Army special training centre puts combat divers through final water tests

Taiwan's Army Aviation and Special Forces Command special operations training centre ran final skill tests for its combat diving course in Taichung, Military News Agency and Youth Daily reported on 6 and 7 November. Eight trainees who had already passed harsh screening took the end-of-course water board, according to those reports and a Yam News pickup of the same Military News Agency dispatch.

Military News Agency said the scored blocks included underwater bound flips, knot work in the water, stripping and refitting kit underwater, open-circuit scuba buoyancy drills and an eight-kilogram weighted side swim. Instructors stayed in the water to guard and grade each serial while trainees worked through the list in order.

Youth Daily identified the class as the 115-2 combat diving course and said it ran for eight weeks before yesterday's graduation, with a colonel commanding officer presenting certificates. The paper said academic checks sat alongside the water tests so trainees had to show both dive knowledge and physical control under time pressure.

Both outlets said bound flips and knot work force calm breathing when movement is limited, while underwater kit changes check whether a diver can clear fouled gear and go back down. The weighted side swim is framed as a straight test of endurance and kick rhythm with fins after the crisis drills.

Youth Daily added that trainees also completed assigned knots and open-circuit buoyancy work at about three metres depth, keeping accuracy and speed in the same pass criteria as the surface serials. Photograph captions with the report show open-circuit kit assembly and mask-fin-weight changes underwater.

The training centre said combat divers are meant for underwater infiltration, beach assault and water reconnaissance. Trainees must pass every skill block under a strict wash-out rule before they can graduate and receive the combat diving badge that marks them as ready for those tasks.

Course work earlier in the eight weeks covered open-water deep dives, closed-circuit scuba, underwater navigation and over-the-beach infiltration, the reports said, before the final board shifted to crisis drills, out-of-air self-rescue and equipment fluency in a controlled pool and water-combat range.

Taken together, the 6 November final board and 7 November graduation close one small but concrete special-operations pipeline: a washed-out combat diving class cleared for water infiltration tasks after a scored, instructor-supervised water exam reported the same day across Military News Agency, Youth Daily and syndicated pickups.

Youth Daily's graduation write-up stressed that only trainees who cleared the full board left with certificates, presenting the badge as evidence that the centre will not pass divers who fail a single water skill under the published wash-out rule.