SERE helps pilots hone water skills

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Briana Jones
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  Panic sets in as the pilot furiously searches for a way out. Time is ticking down, but his training takes over as he finds a seam on the parachute and uses it to swim to safety. In this emergency situation training helped keep him calm and save his life.

Water-survival training at Aviano Air Base, Italy, instructed by Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape professionals teaches pilots how to survive in water.

Water-survival training is split into six different phases, the first being a 45-minute classroom course, followed by hands-on training taught at the base pool by SERE professionals. These training sessions simulate conditions pilots could face if they eject, including parachute drags and disentanglements, operating a one man life raft, open water survival and hoisting procedures upon rescue.

"This training is a refresher course, designed to remind them what they need to do if they're ever put in a situation where their lives are in serious danger," said Staff Sgt. Isaac Denton, 31st Operations Support Squadron SERE specialist. "Without this training requirement, pilots cannot perform their job."

According to Denton, if a pilot ejects and lands in the water under his or her parachute, it could stay inflated and if winds are high the pilot could be dragged by the parachute. To simulate this training, pilots practice how to disengage themselves from a parachute while being dragged across the pool by a motor. This training helps prepare pilots for potential obstacles  they may encounter in a life or death situation.

If there is an emergency when a pilot or passenger needs to eject, parachute disentanglement training teaches him or her how to avoid drowning . To simulate the scenario, a parachute is laid out in the pool and pilots must go under it and find their way out while swimming using only their arms.

The training also included properly entering a life raft and the immediate action tactics to take. Instructors taught participants how to inflate their rafts and set out a sea anchor. The training also taught students to care for injuries received during ejection, exposure prevention, how to stay dry to prevent immersion injuries and navigation techniques.

"This training demonstrates things that can happen, and have actually happened," said Capt. Eric Broyles, 555th Fighter Squadron F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot. "To me, this training benefits all who attend and if ever needed could possibly save their life."

The training concluded with participants learning hoist procedures, which enable pilots to assist search and rescue teams during an extraction. To do this, attendees prepare their own life raft and hook themselves up to a recovery device in a way that will not cause injury to themselves or others.

"As a pilot, this training is of the up most importance even if it is a refresher course," said Broyles. "You do not hear about it a lot but this training does indeed save lives, and I for one feel safer having taken it."