SERE School trains the best for the worst

Naval Aviation News, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Dan Ball

I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never
surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to
resist.
--Article II, U.S. Military Code of Conduct

Living off the land is often romanticized in movies, books and television as peaceful coexistence with nature, where food is delicious, nutritious and easily obtainable and shelter is convenient. The reality of wilderness survival is more likely to include life-threatening injuries or illness, hunger, exposure to the elements, fatigue and, under wartime conditions behind enemy lines, constant movement to evade pursuers. Today's sailors and Marines are living in a fortunate age when there are very few times that finding an insect under a rock conjures up the thought, "What a good source of protein." On the other hand, there are worse things than eating insects. The field instructors of the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) School prepare students to know what to do when things go from bad to worse.

As a part of Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group Pacific, NAS North Island, Calif., SERE School is actually an advanced code of conduct course. All military personnel get their initial code of conduct instruction during basic training in which they're taught an American service member's legal responsibilities regarding capture by enemy forces. But SERE training goes far beyond that. Because the school is a combination of courses designed for personnel with jobs that entail greater than normal risks of being stranded behind enemy lines or captured by enemy forces, students get a deeper insight into the philosophies behind the code. Aviators, aircrewmen, and special forces and force reconnaissance personnel are the types of jobs that require SERE School training. The instruction starts with classroom work, and for several days it focuses on real-world applications of the code of conduct for a service member. After the classroom, students board a bus and end up at the Navy's remote training site near Warner Springs, Calif., ready to break down the acronym SERE into individual lessons. Here, they begin with the survival and evasion portions to learn methods of avoiding capture by the enemy. Eventually, they'll be captured and enter resistance and escape training.

The field instructors who teach the survival and evasion lessons are comprised of male and female sailors and Marines from many communities. They are highly motivated and well trained, and possess an immense knowledge of the subject. As instructors, they are part naturalist, part guide, part psychologist and part mentor. Before each class shows up at the field site the instructors have been on the course making preparations, and it's apparent that they know the area well. They move easily through the cactus and brush on the foothills of the Palomar Mountains and note the things that have changed since their last visit--new animal tracks, obstacles in need of repair, a washout on a service road. Driving the course during an inspection, YN2 Steven Gohanna notes an increase in the quail population, shows off the only pine trees growing in the area and gets excited about a quarter-inch of water running in a streambed. "I need to take a picture of this," he said. "Nobody ever believes me that water actually runs here, because most of the year it just looks like sand and rock."

In Warner Springs, there is a lot of sand and rock. Interspersed with hilly plots of field grasses, cacti, brush and groups of small stubby trees, the scenery here plays tricks on the eyes. What looks like an unmarked rolling field is actually a bunch of grass islands in a sea of dirt roads; large obstacles such as portable bridges; and bright manmade objects such as red parachutes, which seem to appear only when you step within a few yards of them. Occasionally, a bright orange fence marks off a dangerous boundary. Gohanna points to one that appears to have been set up at random among some trees. "It's invisible from here, but just past that fence is a 70-foot drop into a ravine."

Many precautions are taken to avoid accidents. Besides the orange fences, students are given very strict ground rules about safety. Deviation from the regulations is not acceptable and can result in being dropped from the course. For almost all of the students, not having a SERE background will keep them from working in their fields.

When the students jump off the bus, the course is ready and the instructors are waiting--at the end of a march, that is. Class starts immediately after introductions. Two field--trained corpsmen conduct a field health and safety brief and let it be known that they aren't there to treat hunger pangs. A lesson on core values follows the brief. There must be no contraband items in the students' possession, i.e., candy bars, matches, tobacco, flashlights, etc. The students are given a grace period to pony up anything they might have brought along, knowingly or not. Afterwards, they are instructed on how to carry the allowed items in the most convenient way.