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**Pete** · 02-17-2005, 16:56

SF can infiltrate an area by land, sea or air. Each way has many variations and techniques but they all get the team on the ground in the right place and ready to do the job.

In 1975 the Special Forces Under Water Operations (SFUWO) course was run down on Fleming Key at Key West, Florida. The site was just a couple of one story block buildings for the students, a couple more for the instructors, a boat house and a small dirt and wood pier for loading students into the boats.

The military still owned a bunch of property and the Navy was running the O.T. school on the other side of Key West but most of the buildings and facilities were vacant and run down. The 50' tower and mess hall were over by the O.T. school. The Navy still ran an airfield at the next key over and that's where our C-130s would fly in and out of.

At the time the Army was still using the Emerson rig as it's closed circuit, C/C, underwater rebreathing rig. These things appeared to have been the original ones made and to us they seemed to be on their last leg. Nobdy was making repair parts anymore and it was all the instuctors could do to keep enough rigs up and running for the class. The canvas bags could blow out or one of the many O rings fail at any time. That made for real interesting swims.

The workings of the machine were fairly simple. The back pack was a small black rectangle about the size of a small suitcase made from plastic and it held the barrel lyme container that scubbed the air, the O2 bottle and various hoses and pipes. The front was a canvas yoke that went around your neck and down each side of your chest. You breathed through a double rubber hose assembly that had a mouthpiece with a "DIVE"/"SURFACE" position lever. When you put it all on it kind of looked like a modern B/C & Tank set up.

It was a pure O2 system that worked fairly well if everything was new but the ones we had were old. If you had any underwater emergency with the system you immediately put the mouthpiece on surface otherwise you'd get a mouthfull of lyme water and that stuff burned. An emergency would be caused by generally one of three things. The first was a blown bag, you knew right off when that happened, a loud BOOOSH, lots of bubbles and no air. The second was a blown O ring on the barrel lyme container. That was a loud gurgle followed by the sound of water in the hoses. Better get that mouth piece on the surface position PDQ. The last was a slow leak somewhere that started to flood the system. While you were swimming you were trying to calculate which would come first, the rig flooding out or your swim team hitting the beach.

I never saw an Emerson rig after graduation from the SFUWO course and within 3 years the Army was in transition to the CCR 1000 or as the Army liked to call it the Mk 15. The new system used Soda Sorb (sp?) and that did away with the lyme problem.

Pete

02-17-2005, 16:56	#1
Pete Quiet Professional Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Fayetteville Posts: 13,080	Sfuwo SF can infiltrate an area by land, sea or air. Each way has many variations and techniques but they all get the team on the ground in the right place and ready to do the job. In 1975 the Special Forces Under Water Operations (SFUWO) course was run down on Fleming Key at Key West, Florida. The site was just a couple of one story block buildings for the students, a couple more for the instructors, a boat house and a small dirt and wood pier for loading students into the boats. The military still owned a bunch of property and the Navy was running the O.T. school on the other side of Key West but most of the buildings and facilities were vacant and run down. The 50' tower and mess hall were over by the O.T. school. The Navy still ran an airfield at the next key over and that's where our C-130s would fly in and out of. At the time the Army was still using the Emerson rig as it's closed circuit, C/C, underwater rebreathing rig. These things appeared to have been the original ones made and to us they seemed to be on their last leg. Nobdy was making repair parts anymore and it was all the instuctors could do to keep enough rigs up and running for the class. The canvas bags could blow out or one of the many O rings fail at any time. That made for real interesting swims. The workings of the machine were fairly simple. The back pack was a small black rectangle about the size of a small suitcase made from plastic and it held the barrel lyme container that scubbed the air, the O2 bottle and various hoses and pipes. The front was a canvas yoke that went around your neck and down each side of your chest. You breathed through a double rubber hose assembly that had a mouthpiece with a "DIVE"/"SURFACE" position lever. When you put it all on it kind of looked like a modern B/C & Tank set up. It was a pure O2 system that worked fairly well if everything was new but the ones we had were old. If you had any underwater emergency with the system you immediately put the mouthpiece on surface otherwise you'd get a mouthfull of lyme water and that stuff burned. An emergency would be caused by generally one of three things. The first was a blown bag, you knew right off when that happened, a loud BOOOSH, lots of bubbles and no air. The second was a blown O ring on the barrel lyme container. That was a loud gurgle followed by the sound of water in the hoses. Better get that mouth piece on the surface position PDQ. The last was a slow leak somewhere that started to flood the system. While you were swimming you were trying to calculate which would come first, the rig flooding out or your swim team hitting the beach. I never saw an Emerson rig after graduation from the SFUWO course and within 3 years the Army was in transition to the CCR 1000 or as the Army liked to call it the Mk 15. The new system used Soda Sorb (sp?) and that did away with the lyme problem. Pete
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