When conducting combat swimmer operations you will need to have a certain amount of gear on you. This gear will depend on a of couple things. First what you will be doing during the dive, second what you will be doing at the end of the dive. If you are just doing a straight up dive and never leaving the water you can get away with just a gun belt with maybe a couple extra pouches for an extra mask, mask strap or fin straps. If you plan on conducting a ship attack or a raid, you will need more then just a pistol belt. This will be up to the diver and the mission requirements.
Gear Common to all
Items to have on you at all times.
– Gun Belt
– Pistol Holster
– Pistol Mag Pouch
– Water pouch and bottle.
– Radio pouch
– E and E kit
– First aid kit
– Extra mask/ mask strap/ fin strap
– Knife
– Signaling device, strobe/ flares
Gun Belt
There is a lot of them out there right now. There are many things you need to think of when setting it up. You need it to be able to easily expand the belt for the type of thermal protection you will be wearing, IE wetsuit /drysuit thickness. You need to always have your pistol holster and mag pouches in the same place for muscle memory. Other things to think of are, will you be climbing? If so can the belt be used as a harness by adding leg loops or can it be put over a climbing harness? Can you swim with it on without it rubbing the hell out of your legs? Items like the S+S Precision gear retention track are a great way to move items around with little effort. Lastly a good set of suspender’s will help keep your belt in place and stop it from spinning as you swim.
Pistol Holster– One of the things you need to look at for this is, where you want it to sit, if you want it on your thigh, on your hip or a spot in the middle. If you have it on your thigh you need to make sure it does not move around as you are swimming. It also needs to be able to be easily moved if you have to adjust your belt for the think ness of your wetsuit. It also needs to be able to lock your pistol in so it will not fall out; a bungee is a good item for it to have to lock the pistol in but that can also get stuff on something. Should it have a flap cover to protect the gun a little from small things in the water? With all this stuff it should be able to drain water fast.
Mag pouch –They need to be able to keep your magazines in place when you are diving and be able to get to them out fast when needed. Keeping them free of items in the water and be able to drain water fast. This goes for everything you carry anything it. A good mag pouch is great for carrying an extra mask.
Water Pouch- Be able to carry the water bottle you use. A Nalgene bottle is a great bottle to use, as it’s easy to fill in the field. It also doesn’t take up as much room on a belt. Typical tactical Nalgene bottle pouches have a mess bottle that drains water fast. Depending on if you have to carry something on your back or not you can also use a Camelbak on long dives when it is hot, it’s nice to drink something other then seawater when your legs start to cramp up.
Radio pouch– as radios advance it means that the people at the TOC want to know more and more what you are doing and when you are doing it. So that means that you might have to take a small radio with you to maintain comms, you might have to take along a survival radio. They can be one of the same but you might have to carry two. As one is none and two is well two is twice as much to carry.
E and E kit -Your E and E/R kit can just be a candy bar and some money to pay some people off or it might be more extensive, like having way to purify water, start a fire and kill a bear. No matter what you have, it needs to be waterproof and negatively buoyant as will everything on this list. You can laminate dollar bills in between two 3×5 cards, so it looks like they are just 3×5 cards for write info on. Then if you need the money just rip them open. This way they are hidden and waterproof. Most good kits are small and can be used for about every situation just by adding one or two items depending on what you are doing. If you have to dump all your gear for whatever reason, make sure you have your kit on you separate from everything else.
Extra straps / Masks- It is best to keep an extra mask/ mask strap and an extra fin strap on you. The extra mask should be the same mask that you are diving. You can put an extra pouch on your dive rig straps and put the mask in there. You can also switch your mask strap out to one of the newer comfort straps. They are made of the same martial that ski goggle straps are made of. As for an extra fin strap you can keep that in there also. You need to have a plan on how to change your fin strap out. This will depend on how it breaks. If it breaks in the middle on the strap, it’s not as bad as if it rips away from the fin and takes some of the fin with it. Most fins have the ability to replace the rubber strap with a steel spring version. Cave divers started using screen door springs because they wanted something that was extremely reliable. They almost never break. They have them for Jet Fins, Twin Jet max and also the Seawing Nova’s.
Knife– Knives are very personal, and everyone has the one that they like. The main thing to remember about your knife is have it in a place that you can reach it on a dive. Some people like it on their legs others like it on their waist. Some people have one on the leg and on their chest (again one is none). Keep it sharp and clean.
Signal devices – You can and probably do carry both a strobe and a flare when diving. The Flare is for emergencies and a strobe for overt and covert signaling. Both need to be waterproof and easily accessible if needed. The bad think about a flare is they are a onetime use. So make it count if you are going to use it. Almost all that are geared towards the military can handle a combat swimmer dive. Lastly you can carry a signal mirror. It is 100% waterproof and never needs batteries.
No matter what gear you take on a dive you make sure it is probably maintained. Make sure you prepare for the conditions and environment you will be in and adapt you gear and E+E kit for it.
