Military Hotrod Club - Thinkin of goin TACP but need help....

I am thinking of going into Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) but the only thing holding me back (besides being deployed and overseas until 2012) is the water portion. I have heard from a friend that you have to swim a lot under water and such. I tried to search it on goggle but all that is says is you have to do a 200m swim in no time.

My question is how much water training is there? I am a decent swimmer but not a strong one, I want to know if I should train in underwater swims and such while i'm deployed and overseas until I can cross-train.

Thank you for all the info!

-A1C Galindo

um if its the same one for combat weather and the combat controlers its pretty rough thats what most people get washed out for. they basicly try drownding you hold you under pull your mask off under water. i heard something about logs in the water too. so it just not swimmimg. but once again its hear say

I was at the annexed part of Lackland doing EAUC training the same time and location friends of mine from boot camp were doing their initial TACP training.

By the end of the 3 and a half week course I had, the majority of the TACP's had indeed washed out of the program, and most had been washed due to the swimming portion. Most of their water training that I was exposed to was conducted in a pool. From talking with one of my buddies that got washed out, it was the lack of speed and endurance that cought up with him in the water.

Best advice I can give you from my limited experience is train. Go under water, become a fish. Swim and swim until you can't swim anymore, then do it again. Swim with clothes on or something to create extra drag. Be prepared to be disoriented under water, to be near the point of when you would feel like if you wait another second until you breath, you will die, then expect for someone to appear out of no where and hold you under water, and you have to take the abuse until he is satisfied.

If you think all of this is bad, trust me it could be worse. Another buddy who became a Seal said that one day for training they loaded everyone up in a small dingy, started to drive out into the ocean a few hours from shore, then the stopped, killed the motor, and told everyone to "get in the water". After they jumped in the water the instructors all jumped in and drowned each and every one of them until unconsciousness. Then rececetated all of them back to life.

These guys are no joke. The training is hardcore and serious for a reason. More will wash out than make it. But thats what makes those who make it the elite.

Don't let my words discourage you, but let it prepare you. Good luck, and take it from this officers word that the more training you can do on your own, may be the difference between you making it as a TACP, and washing out.

When was Water Con added into the TACP pipeline? I know the PAST had a swim requirement pre '06 but was dropped.

go to ROMAD.com and get the real info..

there are a few of them here, i'll ask them any more specific questions you may have.




btw what is drownding? :jest:

The TACP school is basically PT more than anything, and people don't usually get the boot because they can't pass the pt portion, but because they get hurt.

I'm a former CWT member and now belong to an ASOS as the Commander's Assistant.. and all I can say is wow, more often than not TACPs are absolute idiots and so very rude.

I've been dicked hard by weather folks, and worked with some very professional JTACs.