this is back in early 90's but I am reasonabl that things have not change too much
Plebe swiming, also known as plebe drowning. We did an assessment swim test, and placed into beginner, intermediate, and advance.
"Plebe drowning" is now "cow drowning". AKA "Survival Swimming"
They do the assessment during CBT (beast), but you don't take the course until later.
Failure to meet basic aquatic screening standards requires a cadet to complete PE 109 (Fundamentals of Aquatics) during Term I. Some of DS's friends are doing this. I think they may take it in leau of boxing. Which puts them a bit out of sync. So it's worth trying to pass it if possible.
If you can swim at all you are probably OK. Most of the stories about taking remedial swimming are about non-swimmers. But if not, you will learn!
Word to the wise: If you are a strong swimmer, try extra hard in the CBT swimming test.... there is a cutoff to validate cow drowning. DS missed it by a second or two, and regrets it. But they did not tell you until afterward it could be validated.
In case you are interested, as a plebe you will normally take the following DPE courses:
Cadet Basic Training (CBT)
- Combatives I
Academic year:
PE 115 – Fundamentals of Combatives (Women) Fall half semester
PE 116 – Boxing (Men) Fall half semester
PE 117 – Military Movement Fall half semester
PE 150 – Fundamentals of Personal Fitness (Spring)
APFT (Fall and Spring)
Competitive Sport
PE 109 Fundamentals of Aquatics as needed
At the end of Military Movement you will take (and hopefully pass) the IOCT.
Word from plebes I know is they either love or hate boxing. Not much middle ground. And the intent is not to learn about boxing, it's what the process teaches the cadet about themselves. Boxing is just to tool used to do so.