SERE training: Doing what it takes to survive

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Vanessa Bastidas
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
You're on a routine flying mission over the wash. You've done it a million times before, at least two or three a week. The difference this time is you'll be put to the test.

The aircraft is going down; within seconds you have to draw on all your training. As you make an emergency jump out of your aircraft, all noise must be silenced and only one thing takes over your thoughts - survival.

Once in the water, panic grips you. You furiously try to tear the soaking parachute from your face. You identify the problem and use your training to get you out of harm's way - follow the seam.

You've just punched out of your aircraft. Now you need to kick it into survival mode.


Sounds dramatic, but that's exactly the scenario Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape specialists train pilots and aircrew of the 100th Air Refueling Wing, 352nd Special Operations Group, 48th Fighter Wing and 56th Rescue Squadron for every day.

An average class is 20 students. Six SERE specialists train them together to provide an opportunity to share information and learn from each other's personal experiences. Everyone benefits.

Their mission is to better equip aircrew and high-risk-of-capture personnel with the tools necessary to survive under any conditions.

So what does SERE really mean and what's it like to be a SERE specialist? Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape - that's the core of what their training instills in a two-part technical school.

During an indoctrination phase at Medina Annex, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, candidates' abilities to join the SERE team are assessed. Once they've made the cut, formal training begins at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash. After successfully completing the training, Airmen join the ranks of about 300 SERE specialists in the Air Force.

"The career field is in need of some good recruits," said Tech. Sgt. Robert Graham, NCOIC 100th ARW SERE Training. "We need motivated people that want to make a difference and save lives."

During field training at Fairchild, trainees acquire knowledge of combat and non-combat situations while learning survival skills. Mock prisoner of war camps test their ability to use what has been learned.

They then experience how to live off the land and procure food and water.

In combat exercises, recruits learn how to evade, to properly apply camouflage paint to their faces, bodies and ruck sacks, to move from point A to point B without being captured, and to make contact with indigenous personnel.

This all serves as preparation for the next phase - resistance training.

By graduation, new SERE specialists are expected to have baseline knowledge and skills to evade the enemy, promote and aid in their own recovery effort and to resist the enemy if needed. In a very realistic setting, SERE specialists are given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes so they don't have to in a real-world situation.

Here at RAFs Mildenhall and Lakenheath, SERE specialists provide Code of Conduct Continuation training. Its purpose is just what the name implies, to bring information already learned to the forefront. It assesses how much Airmen have retained since formal training. It also provides an opportunity to give updated guidance with changing times.

During the water survival training held at Lowestoft College, Maritime and Offshore Facilities, students are hit with 5-foot waves, pounding rain and brutal winds - all while soaking in valuable information crucial to keeping them alive.

So how can you tell a SERE Specialist from any other war fighter?

"We're the guys out there wearing the pewter green berets, and we're proud of what we do," said Sergeant Graham. "We're there for the war fighter who may be in harm's way. We're going to equip them with the biggest weapon of all and that's knowledge - knowledge on how to get out of that situation."