CAMP HANSEN, Okinawa — “Ditching. Ditching. Ditching,” were the last words a dozen servicemembers heard Wednesday, just before the “helicopter” they were riding in hit the water and flipped upside down.

The troops were forced to locate the closest emergency exit and push out windows before making it safely to “shore.”

Fortunately for the Marines and sailors of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment from Camp Pendleton, Calif. — the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Battalion Landing Team — the crash was in a training pool here and they were in a simulated helicopter called the Modular Amphibious Egress Trainer (MAET).

Survival Systems USA, a contractor, provides the two-day training packages to anyone who can attend, according to Survival Systems USA instructor Lee Warren. He said the training teaches troops to “egress from a helicopter in the unfortunate event it crashes in the ocean or a body of water.”

Warren said the most important thing to do in a water crash is to remain calm.

Before students enter the pool, they are given classroom instruction during both mornings. Everything from what to expect in a crash, how to get out of the helicopter and how to survive are covered.

If not killed or knocked unconscious upon impact, one instructor said the survival rate increases from 3 to 85 percent with the training they provide.

Morning classes are followed by time in the pool. Students first practice their egress skills in a Shallow Water Egress Trainer chair.

They then move to the MAET, which is configured like a CH-53 helicopter the first day and a CH-46 the second, and do the same routine. Students wear uniforms and Kevlar helmets the first day, and add flak jackets and rifles on the second. Students repeat MAET until they’ve shown instructors they can successfully escape on their own.

On the second day in the pool, students also simulate nighttime conditions by wearing “blackout” goggles while completing the underwater escape. They also make several trips in the simulator using an Interim Passenger Helicopter Aircrew Breathing Device — a small tank that gives them several minutes of air — learn how to exit the helicopter in a surface and hover evacuation.

Students also practice water formations that allow the survivors to interlock bodies and stay together in the water.

“I can’t see anyone going through a helicopter crash and surviving without this training,” said Cpl. Clifford Olson, a scout sniper with 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. “The first time (in the MAET) you think ‘I can’t believe they’re making me do this.’ But then training kicks in.”

Olson said there wasn’t a time he got into the MAET when he didn’t have butterflies.

Cpl. Matt Hernandez, a radio operator with Scout Sniper Platoon, said he’d now pay more attention whenever he’s on a helicopter.

“I was one of those guys that would kick back and sleep,” Hernandez said. “I always thought it won’t happen to me … this was an eye-opener.”

Warren said this training was implemented after a 1999 CH-46 crash off the San Diego coast in which seven Marines died. He said the training is offered to anyone and is open to all service branches, adding that a new class starts every two days. For more information on how to arrange the training, contact Tim Morello at 645-8022.