HIGHLY DETAILED NAVY SERE TRAINING MERROWED EDGE PATCH
Survival ~ Evasion ~ Resistance ~ Escape (SERE)
The goal of the United States Navy's training in survival, evasion, resistance and escape, or SERE, is to teach personnel how to survive if they become separated from their unit; to evade a hostile force and make their way back to friendly forces; and to avoid capture. In the event that soldiers are captured, SERE training will have prepared them to resist the enemy's attempts at exploitation, to escape from captivity and to return home with honor.
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Training
SERE is a United States military acronym for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape, a program that provides military personnel, Department of Defense civilians and private military contractors with training in evading capture, survival skills and the military code of conduct. Established by the United States Air Force at the end of the Korean War (1950–53), it was extended during the Vietnam War (1959–75) to the Army, Navy and Marines. Most higher level SERE students are all military aircrew and special operations personnel considered to be at high risk of capture.
Survival and Evasion
Most of SERE training focuses on survival and evasion. Skills taught include woodcraft, and wilderness survival in all types of climate. This includes what is known as emergency first aid, a variant of the battlefield variety, land navigation, camouflage techniques, methods of evasion, communication protocols and how to make improvised tools.
Resistance and Escape
Training on how to survive and resist the enemy in the event of capture is largely based on the experiences of past US and allied prisoners of war. Most of the aspects of this course are secret. Several official websites, however, give a general overview.
Water Survival
How to survive in water is taught at a separate Professional Military Education (PME) course; it takes two days and is typically attended after the main SERE course. In addition to training in the use of aquatic survival gear, more academic skills include first aid tailored to an aquatic environment, communication protocols, ocean ecology, and equipment maintenance.
Code of Conduct
SERE training is intended, above all, to provide students with the skills needed to live up to the US military code of conduct when in uncertain or hostile environments. It is recited as follows:
I am an American, fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.
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.
If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available.
I will make every effort to escape and to aid others to escape.
I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.
If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information nor take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades.
If I am senior I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way.
When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability, I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.
I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.
The Army has a specialized school called SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape), which teaches students the basics of survival if they should find themselves separated from friendly forces in enemy territory. SERE school is shrouded in mystery due to its classified nature. Students who attend the schools are not allowed to divulge specific information about what goes on at SERE. Part of the SERE training is preparing students to confront the unknown.
Sere In The Services
Each branch of the military has its own version of SERE tailored to its own needs. The Air Force and Navy use SERE programs designed to help air crew members cope with survival in enemy territory, while Army SERE is geared more toward ground forces.
History
The SERE program traces its roots back to the Vietnam War. First Lt. Nick Rowe spent nine years as a POW in Vietnam, and when he left the Army in 1974, Rowe wrote his memoir, “Five Years to Freedom.” Army Special Forces recognized the need for a SERE program and chose Rowe to design a course and establish its operation.
Levels Of Sere Training
SERE training takes place at four levels:
Level A: Entry level training. These are the Code of Conduct mandatory classes taken by all at induction (recruit training and OCS). All service personnel get this basic training annually.
Level B: For those operating or expected to operate forward of the division rear boundary and up to the forward line of own troops (FLOT). Normally limited to aircrew of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Level B focuses on survival and evasion, with resistance in terms of initial capture.
Level C: For troops at a high risk of capture and whose position, rank or seniority make them vulnerable to greater than average exploitation efforts by any captor. Level C focuses on resistance in terms of prison camps.
Level D: For aircrews, but more recently phased out; what would have been SERE-D students in future undergo SERE-C training at Fairchild.
US Army SERE School
Army SERE school is three weeks long. The first part of the class teaches students how to survive in the field on their own. Students learn which plants are edible and which ones to stay away from. They also learn how to make homemade weapons and equipment should they need them. The course culminates with students being released in the field and trying to evade an “enemy” army. All of the students are eventually captured and spend time in an authentic-looking Cold War-era POW camp. The instructors at the camp wear the uniforms of an enemy army, and they often speak a foreign language in the camp. While in the POW camp, SERE students are exposed to interrogation techniques.
2012:
KITTERY, Maine (NNS) -- Center for Security Forces Detachment Kittery celebrated its 50th year of training military personnel as part of the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) School during a ceremony July 6, 2012.
SERE training was developed to provide personnel with the technical knowledge, practical experience, and personal confidence to survive, evade, resist, and escape enemy captivity.
The SERE School, which moved from Naval Air Station Brunswick to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 2010, celebrated its birthday by inviting former SERE instructors to share advice with current instructors and students.
Ninety former instructors were on hand for the all day birthday celebration, two of which were former Prisoners of War (POW) - retired Cmdr. Robert Fant, and retired Cmdr. Timothy Sullivan. Fant served as an Advanced SERE instructor from 1974-2004 and Sullivan served from 1983-1994 and was the Officer-in-Charge at the school. Both men were Radar Intercept Officers in F-4 Phantom jets and were shot down over North Vietnam.
"God, country, family, and my fellow POW's is how I made it through," said Fant. "The worst part was the first three weeks, since I was injured and they wouldn't give me any medical attention." Fant was seriously injured after his jet crashed, suffering numerous broken bones in his arm and legs. He was imprisoned for 1,693 days.
Sullivan suffered abrasions after ejecting from his aircraft and was captured and held for 1,945 days in a French prison. After getting released, both men were awarded the Legion of Merit and POW medals for their bravery and resistance to brutal treatment and depraved conditions. "I made it through one day at a time," said Sullivan. "It's mostly mental and lots of luck."
After the opening ceremony the group toured a new SERE museum, and then moved the celebration outside for a BBQ lunch. A cake-cutting ceremony honored the two POWs as well as Naval Aircrewman (Mechanical) 2nd Class (NAC) Brandon Coccio, currently the youngest SERE instructor in the Navy at 23, and Jim Clay, the oldest and one of the original SERE instructors from 1962.
The SERE School employs about 100 military and civilian personnel and trains an average of 1,200 students per year. SERE training is 12 days, including six days of classroom training at the Rear Adm. Jeremiah A. Denton Jr. facility onboard the shipyard, and six days of field and practical training at the 12,500 acre Ralph Odem Training Facility in Redington, Maine.
NAVY SERE SCHOOL (2004)
It was a blistering day on Oct. 3, 1993, during Operation Restore Hope when Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot, crashed in Mogadishu, Somalia.
The Special Forces officer was captured and held captive as portrayed in the movie, "Black Hawk Down." According to Durant, in his book, In the Company of Heroes, if it were not for a survival-training course, he would have not returned home 11 days later with honor.
The Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) course held at the Navy's remote training site in the mountains of Maine is similar to the course Chief Warrant Officer Durant credits with having saved his life.
SERE is actually an advanced code-of-conduct course. All military personnel get their initial code-of-conduct instruction during basic training in which they are taught an American service member's moral and legal responsibilities if captured by enemy forces. But SERE goes way beyond that.
"We teach individuals what to do when things go from bad to worse," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Harry Haug, a SERE instructor assigned to Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational (FASO) training Group, Brunswick, Maine.
"The students who attend the course have a greater risk of being stranded behind enemy lines," said Haug. "They come here to learn how to stay alive and the values behind the code of conduct. When the situation is real, the threat is real, so these students need to be ready to handle it."
Aviators, aircrewmen, Special Forces and force reconnaissance personnel are the types of jobs that require SERE school training.
"With today's ever-changing battlefield, I believe most military personnel are at risk of being captured," said Haug. "Hopefully what I teach here on the mountain is enough to give someone the courage and know-how to survive if they are ever in that situation."
The instruction begins with a week of classroom work focusing on wilderness survival and the real world applications of the code of conduct for a service member. This includes an extensive look into ways of surviving off the land. What may sound like a Boy Scout manual: fire-building, trapping, creating shelters, finding edible plants, are actually rules to live by.
"Once we have the students on the mountain, we split them into teams and immediately get their hands dirty. Like ducks out of water, they do their best to demonstrate all that we teach them about survival," Haug added.
"You never know what's going to happen out there, in hostile environments," said Haug. "Survival starts with prior planning and that is where we begin with the students. They have to be ready for the unknown."
Everything the students learn in the field phase of training will prepare them for the simulated "problem." When the problem arises they are on their own and being pursued by the "enemy." There will be no help from instructors during this phase and what has been learned will become the key to survival.
From the minute the students lay their packs under the raggedy silk canopy, simulating a downed pilot's parachute, they do all they can to become one with nature.
"We teach primitive means of making due with what is at arms-reach, such as constructing a fire with flint and steel, what's edible and how to use a simple piece of metal as a compass," Haug said.
Although the course can be a difficult experience according to Haug, "It is a necessary episode. The students never forget the simulations and lessons that are taught," he said. "I would rather see the students screw up in camp, where we can teach proper procedures during a debrief."
"I have messed up a lot but I have learned something each time," said one SERE student. "The confidence I am gaining may never save my life but I'm definitely more confident in my abilities."
During the problem phase of the training the students are expected to work together. Navigation skills will be put to the test, along with rigorous hiking on unknown soil, up and down mountains. Here they will also use all means necessary for immediate survival, such as making small shelters out of their ponchos.
"I enjoyed it when we were all alone and finally put to the test," said a Marine Corps CPL.
"I found it rewarding to successfully find locations we had been searching for all day with a compass and map."
The students will gain the technical knowledge, practical experience and personal confidence necessary for worldwide survival and evasion, although no two students are the same and sometimes individuals find themselves out of their element.
"I grew up in the outdoors where hunting, fishing and camping is what I did," said Haug. "There are many students who come out here that have spent all their lives on paved streets and the only trees they have ever seen grew on street corners."
Knowing how to handle unique individuals is up to the instructors who are part naturalist, guide, psychologist and mentor. Haug, along with all the instructors on the mountain, are highly motivated and well trained individuals possessing an immense knowledge of the subjects.
"Before we can actually teach students we have to go through the school ourselves," said Haug. "Then we spend more than six months learning everything about the course before a written and oral board."
The students, more often than not, outrank the instructors, although there is no lack of respect when individuals are learning how to possibly save their own lives.
"Most all the students are higher in rank than I am, but they know who the boss is on the mountain and pay close attention to everything I teach them," said Haug.
During the fall SERE Class of 2005 a soaking rain poured from the skies and the students were tested to their limits.
It's only human nature to do all that is necessary to stay alive. The training that takes place in the remote mountains of Maine opens the window into how to survive when things go from bad to worse.
"According to his book, Durant survived with honor by using the techniques he learned at SERE," said Haug. "Being able to learn from his and other peoples' real world experiences gives us invaluable teaching tools for the future."
The instructors at SERE have combined years of knowledge and experience directly from surviving POWs making this course an invaluable tool for all those that could possibly be in danger of capture by enemy forces.
"What I have learned up here, may never get put to use, but I will be ready if it does," said Student.
"I view the Code of Conduct in a different way now and have a much clearer idea of what the words mean," Student added. "If I am ever captured, I will return with honor."