In order to become a SERE Specialist, the
training pipeline begins here at Lackland Air Force Base. Me and my
other cadre members will take them for 15 days and we'll put them through a
screening phase or an orientation phase to see if they have what it takes to be
successful in the next phase of training. SERE specialists have a lot of gear that
we need to carry around, so you need to be physically ready for the job. Their
go or no-go event is a four mile ruck with sixty to sixty-five pounds in
under an hour. They also have to complete the physical aptitude stamina test. It
consists of being able to swim 200 meters, run a mile and a half, pull-ups,
push-ups, sit-ups. On top of the physical challenge, we are giving them assignments
every single night. We're saying this needs to be done at this time and to this
standard, to show us that they have the capability to teach and instruct Airmen if they graduate this year training pipeline. After being selected
at Lackland Air Force Base, moving up to Fairchild Air Force Base,
you begin what's called your prerequisite courses from water survival
to emergency parachuting procedures, then you are ready to start your SERE
Apprenticeship course. This phase, CSS, or Core Survival Skills, the point of it
is to give them task saturation. If you could imagine an isolated person, they
have a lot of goals or tasks to accomplish once they hit the ground
running. So our goal is to prepare them, give them lots of mental fatigue and
stress, different food than they're used to back on base, and all of those things
combined lead to more of a mental barrier than a physical barrier. We want
to make sure that that isolated person is well-versed and well-rounded in what
they might be faced with in any situation that they come to. After that,
the members will then travel to each biome, from desert to tropical, temperate
environments to coastal, and then learning about personnel recovery. And then once
you complete that then you're ready to attend Army Airborne School to
become a parachutist, and then Arctic survival training. The SERE training so
far has been mentally and physically draining for me. We have late nights and
early mornings completing projects, mix that with two hour PT sessions, it adds up.
The first couple days were pretty rough. No sleep, very little food, lots of hard
work, but your body gets used to it. I think some characteristics of a good
SERE Specialist are grit, integrity, or honesty, respect for yourself, respect for
others, and just the ability overall to push through anything that you face.
Typically, the numbers that we start with varies. Max, we can have up to 42 students
but only the best Airmen make it to graduation. When you make it through
training, the ones that make it are the cream of the crop. People you can rely on
and trust your life with. The beret means a lot. You get to wear it after a year of
hard work, making sure that you are doing everything you can to be the best SERE
Specialist you can, and getting to wear that with pride means a lot. What makes
me proud to be a SERE Specialist is knowing that everything I'm learning,
everything I'm doing, and everything I teach is going to enhance somebody's
chances of survival whether it's behind enemy lines or in friendly country.
