During the five-day survival-and-evasion field-training exercise, teams evade through a 9-mile swath of woods and dense vegetation while being pursued by an “enemy force” using tracking dogs. To make the challenge even more difficult, the students are stripped of rations and must forage for food and water while attempting to evade capture. Upon reaching their destination, they must complete a series of survival tasks.
Safe to eat?
Surviving in the wild means foraging for food. Watch a Navy survival video in this issue at
www.moaa.org/moarchive.
Experiencing imprisonment
The third phase of full-spectrum SERE training, which gives students a taste of what to expect should they be captured, is taught in the Resistance Training Laboratory (RTL), a mock POW camp. The RTL originally was modeled after a stalag-type communist prison camp but was changed following 9/11 to include multiple captivity environments.
Over four days, students are tested on their individual and collective abilities to resist enemy attempts at exploitation and interrogation. Role players portray the enemy, and the scenarios are extremely realistic. Students are deprived of food, sleep, and creature comforts and might be menaced and threatened. It’s physically, emotionally, and psychologically taxing, but great care is taken to ensure the students’ safety.
“Although we can’t replicate the physical and psychological pressures one might experience as a captive, we do expose students to approved pressures as in accordance with DoD guidance,” Bracco says. “We’re not allowed to harm students nor do we want to — we want them to be productive members of the Army. We induce psychological stressors similar to historically documented captivity situations [and] make them tired and hungry, but their basic needs are looked after.” All role-play is closely monitored, and a SERE psychologist debriefs the students when the exercise is over.
“Everything is controlled by a joint training standard,” confirms Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Lawrence Richards, a SERE specialist at Fairchild AFB. “[The goal] is safe and effective but realistic training so that should the student be faced [with captivity] he or she will be able to recall that information and that scenario under real-life conditions.”
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Henry Hoegen, a public affairs photojournalist at Fairchild AFB, found SERE instruction challenging but worthwhile. “I think personality type has a lot to do with it,” he notes. “Some people do well on their own, and some people don’t. Going without food, the stress, the constant movement throughout the course, the lack of sleep — that affects people differently based on their personality and individual traits.”
SERE instruction is provided at numerous installations across the U.S. In addition to Camp Mackall, Army SERE instruction is offered at Fort Rucker, Ala., though that program is primarily for aviators, says Bracco. Fairchild AFB is headquarters for all Air Force SERE instruction, but a water survival course is offered at Eglin AFB, Fla.; an arctic survival course at Eielson AFB, Alaska; and a Level-B resistance course at Lackland AFB, Texas, says Baldinger.
Navy personnel receive SERE classroom instruction at facilities in North Island, Calif., and the Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard in Maine and field skills training in Rangeley, Maine, and Warner Springs, Calif., reports James Meehan, SERE code of conduct course curriculum model manager at the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia Beach, Va. Instruction for Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) units is offered at Camp Lejeune, N.C. However, the Marine Corps sometimes uses SERE schools through the other services, notes MARSOC Public Affairs Officer Marine Corps Maj. Jeffrey Landis.
Evolution ongoing
As with most military programs, SERE instruction has evolved along with the global battlefield. “When I went through this course in 2002, the only detention environment we learned was the wartime environment. You were a POW, and that was it — there was no other status,” Bracco says. “Around 2004, we introduced hostage detention and peacetime governmental detention. The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency is the DoD Office of Primary Responsibility for SERE training. It directs us regarding the minimum standards for what we have to train students.”
Servicemembers hope they never have to call upon their SERE training when overseas, but there have been numerous recent examples of its value. In March 2011, for example, crew members of an Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle relied on their SERE training to avoid what were perceived to be enemy forces after the plane crashed in a field near Benghazi, Libya, while enforcing a U.N.-backed no-fly zone, reports Baldinger.
Venomous? SERE trainees learn which animals to avoid and which are for dinner. See whether you know your snakes. Watch the video on page 54 of this issue at
www.moaa.org/moarchive.
54 MILITARY OFFICER DEC EMBER 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84