Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

by Mark Bowden

His personal nightmare had been the water drill at the army Special Forces SCUBA training facility. It was called “crossovers.” Trainees were weighted down with water-filled tanks and dropped in a deep pool. Holding their breath, they had to walk twenty-five meters to the other end without coming up for air. For Wilkinson, it was hard enough just to go that distance without blacking out, but the instructors would deliberately detain him, push him backward, disorient him, pull off his mask and fins, rough him up, tangle him up with other trainees ... simulating the helter-skelter, life-threatening stresses of a real-world rescue. To panic or black out meant failing the test. Those who made it across the pool had thirty seconds to catch their breath before setting out to recross the pool. This was done over and over again, until many of those who hadn’t failed had decided to quit.