Members of the Georgia Counterdrug Task Force Reconnaissance and Interdiction Detachment (RAID) underwent Navy Helicopter Water Egress training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.

RAID personnel are required to take this training. This is because they may be called upon to conduct drug interdiction missions along Georgia’s coastline and off shore.

During egress training, participants are seated inside a simulated helicopter fuselage just as they would be on a real mission. The fuselage is sent into a pool to duplicate the conditions of a helicopter going down in the water. Upon hitting the water, the simulator goes underwater, and its occupants must free themselves from their seats, exit the aircraft and make their way to the surface.

Getting into the water egress course calls for participants to prepare themselves for the challenge. RAID personnel, for example, spent several hours in early January taking part in swim tests, with and without their flight equipment. That initial training took place at the Cobb County Aquatic Center, and was facilitated by the center’s recreation director Peter Conrady.