Only thirteen men remain on the course and the training is about to get even more severe.
Now, the surviving recruits face the nightmare of Maritime Tactical Operations where sleep will become a distant memory.
Clearance Divers must be able to carry out clandestine recognisance operations behind enemy lines. To achieve this they use a special re breather or bubble free diving set and conduct their operations under the cover of night.
During this module the men must reach new levels of fitness. They must also prove they are a team tight enough to face the potentially fatal consequences of operating behind enemy lines.
It means around the clock diving, brutal fitness sessions and debilitating sleep deprivation. The aim is “To Get them tired, get them week… to break their bodies down and then teach them to still use their heads”, says Petty officer Barnes.
Teamwork will be the key to their success. The oldest man on course by ten years, ex rugby league footballer Gareth Foye, knows age makes him the weakest link and he is worried, “I feel like a rhinoceros in quicksand”
On top of an already fierce training regime the instructors penalise any mistakes with team push?ups. They add them to an ongoing tally that can reach the hundreds by the end of the day. Push?ups not completed by mid?night are carried forward.
Clearance Diving is a young man’s game. At thirty?four years of age this is Gareth Foye’s last chance to make it, “In the past my wife didn’t want be to do this. Then as time has gone on and waters gone under the bridge it’s something that she feels I needed try and succeed at.” But as the intensity ramps up Gareth is running out of steam.
At their lowest point the men are asked the impossible. Because of poor performance and sleep deprived mistakes the men have tallied up an incredible one thousand, seven hundred push?ups. They are now ordered to complete them immediately in one gruesome session. The men are clearly at their breaking point, “There isn’t one of us here who doesn’t want to belt an instructor”, says trainee Harrison.
However, it is the older wiser Gareth Foye who keeps his head, steps up and takes charge of the men. But is his maturity enough to get the men over this incredible hurdle?
Even if it is, they then face the most complex and dangerous operation yet: a full?scale clandestine night mission that will be their toughest test yet and one they are not afford to fail. It will be the closet they come in their training to real combat.
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