Trainees undergo an intensive ten-week program to join the Taiwan Navy’s elite Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol (ARP) unit. During the grueling crucible trainees endure everything from long marches to hours in the water. Of the group of 31 who started the program chronicled by Reuters photographer Ann Wang, only 15 finished.

An ARP trainee dressed in camouflage wades through sewage-contaminated water during the last week of a ten week intensive program to become a member of the Taiwan Navy’s elite Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol unit, at Zuoying Navy Base, Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, December 21, 2021.

Ann Wang/Reuters