Week 10: Day 3

0700 PT. We did the combat challenge in full gear while wearing SCBA.

We then went out to the burn pad to do more dressing drills, emergency SCBA operations, confined space, etc. I've learned my way around the maze and what to do, so it isn't nearly as bad as it was initially. The pace has changed quite a bit though....now when we go through, instructors disconnect our air, unstrap our air packs, unclip our helmet, sound our alarm on the air pack, shut off the tank, etc....sometimes all together and sometimes just one thing at a time. You have to remain calm and go through emergency procedures to check what is wrong with the air pack in order to be able to breath, or you have to pop your regulator and drop to call out a "mayday."

We also had our faces covered and had to run through similar drills, where they would disconnect our air and someone else had to reconnect it (also blindfolded), and vice versa. This was all done to get us confident in ourselves and our air packs.

We also had to do some pushups while in full gear.....not that I particularly enjoy pushups...but adding 50 lbs of weight and doing pushups is even less fun.