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(Game Warden) Get back!
(Instructor) That’s 2 minutes!
(Narrator) These Texas Game Wardens are hitting the water…which
isn’t easy when you’re wearing twenty pounds of gear.
(Jason Jones) We’ve got weighted gun belts with metal
guns in it, bulletproof vests and our full uniform, boots everything.
(Narrator) Six Texas Game Wardens have drowned in the
line of duty. This ground-breaking training aims to change that.
(Rodger Norcross) This is to give them the skills to survive
falling in the water. If they’re boarding a shrimp boat, getting from one boat to another,
falling in…
(Game Warden) Good morning! State game warden.
(Norcross) …respond to a flooded situation and slip
and fall into the water…
(Game Warden) Here, I’ll hold onto Landon.
(Norcross) Somebody fights them and ends up in the water.
(Game Warden) Stay back! Stay back!
(Norcross) We want them to be comfortable enough in the
water to be able to survive that and get back out.
(Narrator) Texas Game Wardens are some of the first officers
in the nation to receive this specialized training.
(Instructor) You can rupture your ear drum during this
evolution.
(Narrator) It’s based on real-life situations.
(Norcross) The first part of the obstacle course, it’s
to simulate being under a boat hull or in a boat cabin, caught. Then they will swim
and hold a volleyball to simulate somebody’s head above the water, a small child above
the water, any object like that.
(Instructor) A little bit farther! A little bit farther,
come on!
(Norcross) It’s a very physically demanding class.
(Chelsea Bailey) It’s totally different than wearing just
a bathing suit. I mean it’s all added weight that’s just dragging you down.
(Jones) You don’t float like you normally would
with just normal swimwear on. You start sinking a lot faster.
(Instructor) Keep going! You’re almost there.
(Travis Haug) This training is helping us to overcome that
moment of panic to show us that we can do it and instill confidence in us.
(Narrator) And while they may not win ‘most graceful,’
ultimately they could save lives.
(Norcross) These are the skills that they’re developing
so that their name is not on a plaque on the wall.
(Narrator) For Texas Parks and Wildlife, this is Abe
Moore.