I recently completed both land and water survival training before I head off to IFF in May. Land survival and resistance training up at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA went well, but by the end I was ready to get home. The first few days of training we had "death by PowerPoint," which is typical of most training courses. They discussed things like first aid care, surviving off the land and camouflage techniques to prepare us for our time in the woods. We were all issued a ruck sack and a bunch of other gear for the upcoming week of "camping, which weighted 50-60 lbs total once it was all packed. Saturday at 0500 we departed the base for a little more than an hour trip north into the mountains in northeastern WA. Towards the end of our trip snow began to appear on the ground and by the time we were at the official training site there was about 2-3 ft. The last 5-6 miles of the trip we had to jump into a personnel carrier type machine on tracks because of the snow. After we were dropped off, we grabbed our ruck sacks and began a short hike to what would be our camp for the next couple nights. Our element was comprised of 7 people...myself and another 2nd Lt being the only officers. He is also going to be flying F-16s down the road. The first couple days were spent learning how to use items we'd have after ejecting to make shelters, signal recovery helicopters and set up traps. We would also hike about 2 miles a day through the snow to different points in the area. We never caught anything, but the Air Force was nice enough to provide a couple rabbits for our eating pleasure. We killed and eat a couple rabbits the first night. Personally it didn't taste all that great to me, but I wouldn't complain if I were in the woods without food. We also hiked about 2-3 miles a day around the mountains...we didn't have snowshoes, so at times it was a pain since with every few steps you'd sink up to you thigh in snow.Eventually the focus shifted from the surviving part to the evading part. We were taught basic navigation using a compass and map as well as movement, camouflaging and concealment techniques. This was the most fun in my opinion. The last day before getting "captured" was spent evading the "enemy" (our previous days instructors) and making it to a rendezvous point. I led a group of two other enlisted guys and thankfully we never got caught. I don't take all the credit, they did a good job too. We split up leading the evading portion between the three of us. The morning of the last day...yeah, we didn't have a chance to get away. They gave us a point on the map to get to, but as soon as we basically turned around to head into the woods...guys jumped out with fake guns and camo on their faces yelling as us to get down...we were caught.
This began the resistance phase, my least favorite part. There isn't much I can say about this phase because most of it's classified. Plus, I don't want to ruin the "fun" for those of you who will experience the training in the future. I will say I have a whole new respect for the American flag and all those who have been or will be a Prisoner of War (POW). We were taught how to resist interrogations and physical discomfort and return with honor to our countries...something very tough to do sometimes (the resisting part) under such high pressure and extreme torture as we learned from past POW cases. We were in the resistance lab for approximately 48 hrs.
A week after returning from land survival and resistance training, I was on my way to Pensacola, FL to the Navy base for water survival. This training was pretty fun. We kicked things off with PowerPoint stuff as usual, but day two we were into the water...it was a little chilly. The best part was the parasailing and helicopter hoist. After being pulled up to about 500 ft. under the canopy, we'd disconnect from tow boat, run our post ejection checklist and prepare for a water landing. After splashdown, we'd release our canopy and wait for the "rescue" boat. The Navy let us use one of their choppers from the base for the hoist demo. After signaling our position to direct the chopper to our location, we prepared to grab the hoist skimming along to surface of the water. Once the chopper was hovering above us, we'd strap in and give a thumbs up to let them know we were ready and away we went.
We also had a little entertainment on day three of training with the Blue Angles training directly overhead...sweet! It helped the day go by quicker watching them practice their maneuvers. Knowing they were in town, I had to drive down to the flightline and check things out. We were done with training Thursday afternoon, so I decided to chill with a buddy of mine from OTS for the rest of the weekend. I'm sure I'll make it back down before I'm out of here. That's it for now...check back in a few weeks.
