How the Air Force Trains for Survival: SERE School Explained

The SERE Training Overview

• 🎯 SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) is a 3-week course for Air Force aircrew designed to prepare them for worst-case scenarios.
• ⚡ The training covers skills needed from escaping a downed aircraft to surviving in hostile environments and eventually being rescued.
• ⚠️ Aircrews must be prepared for situations where they could be isolated for days, weeks, or even months.

Water Survival and Egress

• 🌊 The dunker course simulates an aircraft crash into water, teaching airmen to escape while upside down and disoriented.
• 🏊 Students practice releasing from parachutes after overwater landings, simulating high winds and disorientation.
• ⚓ Raft living training focuses on using the "five A's" (Air, Anchor, Accessory, Assist, Assess) as a framework for decision-making in open sea survival.
• 🚁 Recovery device training prepares students to safely interact with rescue equipment like the force penetrator and naval rescue strum during extraction.

Wilderness Survival and Evasion

• 🌲 Air Force Survival School also trains airmen in wilderness survival and evasion techniques to help them survive and return to friendly forces in austere environments.
• 🗺️ Land navigation skills are taught using maps, compasses, and terrain features to determine location and plot courses.
• 🏠 Students learn to build hidden shelters that provide protection from the environment and potential enemy forces.

Resistance and Combatives Training

• 👊 Combatives training equips aircrew with basic self-defense skills to fight and defend themselves and their wingmen if they encounter enemy forces.
• 🔒 Resistance training prepares individuals for potential capture scenarios, focusing on resisting exploitation and protecting sensitive information.
• 🪂 Parachute landing falls and personnel lowering devices are taught to ensure safe egress from aircraft and to minimize injury during landings.
• 🥽 Virtual reality simulations provide hands-on practice for emergency egress scenarios, including parachute deployment and landing.

Rescue and Recovery

• 📡 Students learn signaling techniques to communicate their location to recovery aircraft, using visual markers and radio calls.
• 🚁 Live hoist training simulates extraction scenarios, allowing students to practice using rescue equipment under pressure in realistic conditions.
• ✅ The ultimate goal of SERE training is recovery, ensuring aircrew can safely return home after an isolating incident.