A trainee’s first step is to learn to pull oxygen from a small air tank while under water.

The emergency tanks, which are issued to all military air crew who fly over water, hold about 3,000 psi, or 20 good breaths, and can mean the difference between life and death.

But, “it depends on how stressed out you are,” said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Cooper, with the Aviation Survival Training Center located at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

“We just tell them to relax and control their breathing.”

Army crew members who pilot UH-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apache Echos out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord joined the ranks last week of trainees from all over the world.

The Whidbey-based training center is one of only eight such installations and services all branches of the military.

All over-water crew members are required to complete and pass the training once every four years.

After completing that first air-tank exercise three times, trainees move on to phase two of what the military calls the “crawl, walk, run” approach, according to Cooper.

“It increases their comfort level in the water,” Cooper said.

Crew members are strapped into a rotating chair, a Modular Shallow Water Egress Trainer or MSWET, that simulates an aircraft.

Each trainee, wearing full gear, is strapped in, and the apparatus is rotated to submerge the entire seat.

Trainees must then use their tank, unstrap, open a nearby window and escape under water.

This is also done three times.

For the last run of each exercise, the trainee is required to do it completely blind, wearing blackout eyewear.

The first two stages are in preparation for the main event, a “dunker,” that simulates the cab of a helicopter.

Six crew members are strapped into the cab, which is submerged and then rotated upside down, similar to how a helicopter behaves when in water.

Crew members must work together to exit the aircraft. Each time, crew members switch seats to play a different role in the escape, according to Capt. Jesse Paulsboe, with the visiting 16th Combat Aviation Brigade.

Again, the final exercise is done with blackout eyewear.

While the training can be nerve-wracking to some, each trainee must pass a preliminary swim test and “have to have demonstrated a basic level” of water skills, Paulsboe said.

“Things change in a stressful environment,” Paulsboe said.

Paulsboe said the Army has been doing the training for years, but last week’s training was the first time the 16th has come to Whidbey Island.

The training is part of their annual plan intended to expand the brigade’s ability to land as well as maneuver in and around water, Paulsboe said.

The brigade ended an eight-month deployment in Afghanistan in December.

The change in training schedule marks a shift in Army resources to the Pacific Rim and expands the Army’s traditional focus on over-land missions.

Trainers at Whidbey Island try to make the experience as realistic as possible using real gear, Cooper said.

“Any time you have an incident or mishap, you want the crew to be familiar with the gear,” he said.

“Stats show that this type of training helps.

“We provide the training to anyone that needs it.”