This article by Frumentarius was originally published by SANDBOXX.

SERE — short for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape — training is one of the more psychologically challenging training courses the U.S. military has to offer. It is not really that physically challenging, other than having to overcome the short duration of enforced hunger and the occasional slaps and stress/discomfort techniques employed against the students in the course. But for a young man or woman who has never been a prisoner of some type, it is mentally jarring. Uncomfortable, even. That is where the real challenge is presented.

I won’t go deep into SERE training here, just because it is a school that should remain cloaked in some mystery for it to be truly effective as a training program, other than to share a few of the memories that stand out for me, almost 20 years after I went through it.

(Photo: Airman 1st Class Peter Reft, U.S. Air Force)

To be clear, I went through a SERE program run by the U.S. Navy, in the American northeast, in January, with a handful of my fellow SEALs, some Navy pilots, and a few Marines. The other service branches ran their own programs at that time, I believe, and presently, I am not sure how the program is run across the services. I am sure, though, that the training continues in some form given its perpetual relevance to service members in danger of becoming prisoners of war.

The goal of SERE training is to prepare U.S. service members to survive, on the run from enemy forces and while evading capture, and to resist your captors should you find yourself a prisoner. It also touches on escaping from captivity, and aims to provide guidance on how to behave and organize if you find yourself in a prisoner situation with other Americans. Enough on that for this venue.

SERE is mostly a hazy memory for me now, in terms of the particulars, but certain scenes, events, sights, and smells, continue to bubble up every once in a while. They are lingering yet occasionally vivid impressions of a long-ago tribulation, I suppose.

The Snow and the Cold

(Photo: Senior Airman Jonathan Snyder, U.S. Air Force)

My SERE training took place in the far northeast in January. It was damn cold, especially for a Florida boy who had spent the previous year-plus in sunny San Diego and Norfolk, Virginia.

In SERE, we spent a significant chunk of time in our survival and evasion phase stumbling around in the woods, in a couple of feet of snow, with nothing but the minimal amount of gear we were supplied to keep us warm. It was not ideal. It was an enforced “pack light, freeze at night” situation. Some shared sleeping bags to stay warm, while others built shelters in the snow. We all shivered a lot.

The memory of all that snow and the bleak, wintry landscape still pops into my head occasionally, in photograph form. While it was lovely, especially to look back on now, at the time it was frosted misery.

The Hunger

(Photo: Staff Sgt. Vernon Young Jr., U.S. Air Force)

Okay, let’s be honest: Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training is not hard on the stomach. At no point in the training do they try to starve you, like they do in Ranger School, for example. In fact, in BUD/S, you can eat as much food in the chow hall as you can stuff down your gullet in the allotted meal time. And boy did I stuff myself, and yet I still lost 15 pounds during BUD/S training.

In SERE training, however, there is no food offered after a certain point, and you have to eat whatever you can forage. Let me tell you, there is not much edible out there in the hell-scape of a January New England forest. So we just didn’t eat for a few days, which made me very hungry. At the end, they advised us not to go out and stuff ourselves, since our stomachs would not handle it well. I failed to heed this advice, however, and paid the man for it. It was not pretty, but I doubt I will ever forget how good that (Italian) meal tasted my first night after SERE ended.

The Slap

(Photo: Tech. Sgt. Amy M. Lovgren, U.S. Air National Guard)

So, there is some physical discomfort inflicted on SERE students, all of which is to make it as realistic as possible. Part of the physical discomfort comes by way of open-handed slaps to the face and head. These aren’t too terrible, especially if you are ready and braced for them and they thus don’t whip your head and neck around too violently. It is really no worse, and mostly less painful, than taking a punch while sparring in the ring. I was used to the slaps by a certain point in SERE training, and ready for the men who administered them each time they approached me.

Well, in a very effective curveball thrown at me by the instructors, the details of which I will not divulge here in case this little surprise is still employed, I found myself at one point face-to-face with a woman captor whom I did not expect to hit me in the face. Needless to say, when she did in fact smack my face, at lightning speed and with some real force behind it, my entire upper body, neck, and head swiveled nearly 180 degrees. It was the most effective slap I received in the entire course, in terms of the pain and shock it caused, and kudos to that woman for catching me unawares.

Well done, madame. To this day, I still remember the surprise and the pain of that slap.

The Almost-Meal

(Photo: Senior Airman Jonathan Harvey, a Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) specialist with the 106th Rescue Wing, demonstrates how to contact friendly forces during survival training. Photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher S. Muncy, U.S. Air National Guard)

As noted above, by a certain day in the survival and evasion phase of SERE training, I was pretty damn hungry and would’ve eaten just about anything I could get my hands on. At just that point in time, we were told to link up with a notional “foreign contact” in the woods who would supply us with some sustenance.

This was to simulate resistance fighters in enemy territory who might help an evading American service member. The three or four of us in our small group were so damn excited to see what we’d get, and I had visions of bread and cheese and jerky and all the food. Well, it turned out to be just one thermos of “borscht” (soup) for all of us to share. Fine, whatever, anything at that point.

(Photo: Tech. Sgt. Amy M. Lovgren, U.S. Air National Guard)

What happened next is frozen in my mind forever: One of our guys walking back to us from the link-up with the foreign contact, the steaming thermos of borscht in his hand, his eyes full of victory, hunger, and satisfaction. He had that same look that Ben Stiller had in one of the “Meet the Parents” movies when he arrived in triumph with the formerly-lost (and fake) Jinx the cat. Total victory.

And yet, right at that moment, the clumsy bastard tripped in the snow, fell in slow motion to the ground, and spilled the steaming thermos of life-giving soup all over the snowy ground. He then looked up in total defeat, and seemed to say with his eyes, “murder me, I deserve it.” To this day, I am not sure he was not a plant all along, in a highly effective and sick scheme to demoralize us. Oh well, we’ll never know.

The End

Through all of SERE school, I never really went to that mental place that some go to, in which they start to believe they really are a prisoner, and that they might never get out. Apparently that happens to some, and they kind of lose it. I just went back into BUD/S mental mode, where I tune everything else out, and focus on surviving to the end, telling myself that everything ends at some point.

Still, when the end was signaled — in an admittedly moving and patriotic display orchestrated by the instructor cadre — I experienced a flood of relief. Some made audible sighs and expressions of relief, and some even cried right there in front of everyone. I was mostly happy to have finished another required training course, and excited to get some sleep in a bed that night. Mostly, though, I remember being excited to stuff my belly with that ill-advised Italian meal.

Good times.

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About the Author: Frumentarius is a former Navy SEAL, former CIA officer, and currently a Captain in a career fire department in the Midwest. He is a writer for SANDBOXX – a military blog covering topics relating to news, careers, lifestyles, military affairs, history, and more. This article was originally published on September 23, 2020.

Top Photo: Image features the SERE patch worn by a survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) specialist assigned to the 414th Combat training Squadron. Photo taken at the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), August 29, 2019.

The SERE Specialist of the Air Force provides expertise in Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape to Air Force crewmen and other Air Force personnel with a high risk of capture or detention. The story below, by Airman 1st Class Katherine Miller of the 7th Bomb Wing, originally ran on May 23, 2016 on DVIDS.

Can you image having to survive on your own out in the wilderness? Would you be able to build shelter, obtain food and water or use land navigation by compass and GPS devices to find your way to safety?

Can you see yourself being given the responsibility of training Airmen to stay alive if ever they are captured by the enemy or stranded in the middle of the ocean? For Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape specialists, this is a reality.

SERE specialists are highly-trained Airmen whose duty is to teach those with a high risk of capture and isolation how to return home with honor from any type of survival situation.

“I actually first joined the reserves as an aircraft fuels systems maintainer and I did that for about a year and nine months but I was getting tired of it. I felt driven to do something different,” said Tech Sgt. David Noriega, 7th Operations Support Squadron SERE specialist. “So, I went to an active-duty recruiter and he said that the only jobs that are available are those in the critically-demanded career fields.”

There, he was introduced to the SERE Specialist Air Force Specialty Code.

After being given a pamphlet, Noriega’s recruiter explained that SERE specialists do a lot of outdoor activity.

To become a SERE specialist, Noriega explained that you must pass the initial physical training test. This entry-level test consists of push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and a 1.5 mile run.

Upon successful completion of this test, Airmen then attend the first portion of SERE training, a two-week SERE Selection Training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

After two weeks of extreme training, Noriega made the cut.

“We started off with 33 guys on my indoctrination team and after two weeks, there were only eight that made it to that point,” Noriega said. “And that was just the beginning of becoming a SERE specialist, because once you graduate that, it’s not over.”

SERE candidates that have successfully completed the SERE Selection Training then make their way to Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., for five and a half months of technical training.

During this training, SERE candidates learn how to live off of the land by obtaining food and water, creating fires and shelter. Candidates also learn the skills necessary if captured by the enemy and support rescue and recovery if captured or isolated on land or at sea.

“After those five and a half months, you can call yourself a SERE specialist and wear the beret,” Noriega said.

Noriega is now one of three SERE specialists at Dyess.

“Here at Dyess, we give the aircrew their continuation trainings,” Noriega said. “All of them must go to Fairchild to get formal training – that includes combat and water survival and resistance. What we do here, now that they have their formal training, is refresher training.”

The combat survival course training, a general refresher course, places aircrew out in the woods where they must avoid the SERE instructors and other volunteers that are dressed as simulated enemies. During this scenario, the aircrew must also use different techniques to help them make their way from point A to point B without being detected or caught by the adversary. Aircrew members use diverse methods such as land navigation by GPS and compass, communication via radio to rescuers and maneuvering quickly and quietly while blending in with their environment to remain unnoticed.

This training serves as an opportunity to show the aircrews what may happen if an aircraft were to crash in hostile territory and how to survive in this situation.

Aircrew here also receive another general refresher course from SERE instructors in a water environment. Water survival training places aircrew in a situation in which they have been ejected from their aircraft, deployed their parachute and landed in water. Aircrew must be able to disengage from their harnesses and extricate themselves from their canopies. They also learn how to survive out in the open water.

Noriega explained that training is essential for aircrew since skills can potentially be lost after long periods of time. Therefore, some training is required yearly and others are required every three years.

For each aircrew member they encounter, SERE specialists pass on their knowledge and skills that could potentially save countless lives.

“The skills and experiences that I have to put upon them are to instill confidence in them so that in the event that they are in these situations, they can get themselves out,” Noriega said. “And that’s the gratifying piece of everything that we [SERE specialists] do – it’s not about us, it’s always about them.”

Original story can be found at link below:
www.dvidshub.net/news/217711/sere-specialists-ensuring-airmen-survival