“If you don’t do that properly,” says Stef, “you run the risk of serious injuries, such as hypothermia and frozen toes and fingers. If that happens, you are out and have to be removed.” And that also happens occasionally during training.
Machine gunner Bas stands ready at the edge of a ditch in Lithuania. He receives instructions from Casper, who is in charge of this part. The assignment is simple: rope around your waist, ski poles in hand, don’t think and jump.
“We train this because we encounter situations where there is no doctor nearby. You have to be able to warm up and survive yourself,” Casper explains.
Bas jumps, goes under and lies treading water in the hole. The trick is to control your breathing and keep thinking. To test this, Casper asks control questions: “What is your favorite food?” Bas still has his head: “pasta carbonara”.
Casper is satisfied and Bas is allowed to leave the water. “Nice and cold,” he laughs. And then: take off the wet clothes as quickly as possible, put on dry ones and run around in circles until he gets warm again.
