Combat Survival Training

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.

Graduate Aviation Program (GAP)

After graduating from SUPT, I moved into the Graduate Aviation Program (GAP) here at Columbus AFB. It's a fancy term to describe the flight I'll be in from now until I head off to Intro to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) at Moody AFB, GA in May. The GAP flight is called Training Flight. It's actually a pretty cool program, and the goal is to keep our flying skills from getting too rusty. We are still a part of the 50 FTS and have both dedicated and sandbag flights. The dedicated flights are actual flights the squadron dedicates to the guys in the GAP program to keep them current whereas sandbag flights are those we can jump into whenever there's an open cockpit available. So far I've had one dedicated and two nice tries at sandbag flights...they've both been cancelled due to weather. But, I'm on the board to fly a couple 4-ship and a couple 2-ship sandbag flights this coming week. We're also allowed to sandbag cross-country flights if we can find an open cockpit, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for one of those. Besides the flights, we have dedicated sims and the commander's approval to use the sim whenever we want to keep instruments skills sharp.

In addition to being part of the GAP, I have an additional duty to help out as an assistance flight scheduler in Hawk Flight...one of the four student training flights in the 50 FTS. I actually requested a scheduling job because I knew I'd have a better chance at getting flights whenever they were available, and it would keep me in the squadron. We have a big base wide Operations Readiness Inspection (ORI) coming up soon and a few dudes are getting tagged to help out with that...thankfully not me!

As I mentioned on the graduation page, we were all looking forward to the awesome opportunity (cough, cough) to head back to Holloman AFB, NM and revisit the torture chamber...only this time a little more pain was expected. For the Viper guys, the max g load we had to keep from passing out under was 9g's. Like my first fuge experience, it was painful but thankfully I didn't chew my shoulder like a couple guys did. I was the fourth person to go of the F-16 guys. The first guy made it fine, but the second dude wasn't so lucky. This was his second trip to Holloman to try and pass the F-16 profiles, but he passed out on profile #3 again. Of course this made my pregame jitters increase a bit...but, I knew I was in good enough shape to keep the blood in my head. =) There was also an F-15C dude that passed out on his first try, but then made it a few minutes later after he had some time to rest. The F-16 profiles were as follows:

Profile #1: 0.1g/second increase without the g-suit or straining to determine our resting g tolerance...5.0g for me.
Profile #2: 6.0g's for 30 seconds
Profile #3: 9.0g's for 15 seconds...ouch!!
Profile #4: check six at 7.0g's for 10 seconds
Profile #5: 90 seconds of varied g loads from 3.5g to 9g to simulate an air-to-air engagement...very tiring!

Next on my schedule are land and water survival training, which I leave for in a couple weeks. Survive Evade Resist Escape (S.E.R.E.) training is the technical term for it. This kind of training prepares us for the unfortunate day we hope never comes...having to eject over enemy territory. The survive and evade part is meant to keep one from getting captured, and the resist and escape part is for post capture if it happens. The water survival shows us the additional difficulties of surviving if ejecting takes place over water. I'll be finished with this training in late March. I'll update everyone as much as I'm allowed (because of classified stuff) on how the training went when I get back. Fly safe, and check six!

Next Assignment: Luke Air Force Base, Arizona!

Wow...what can I say! It feels awesome to have all the hard work over the past year pay off in getting my first choice out of pilot training. Honestly, it all the praise goes to God...He's blessed me too much!! I think this week has been the longest week I've ever been through. The nerves, excitement and being anxious about assignment night have all contributed to restless nights of sleep and a brain that just wouldn't shut off! Now I can finally tell people what I'll be doing next and where I'll be going after graduation. I was asked a ton over Christmas, "So, where are you going after this?" All I said was, "I'll get back to you on January 7th." F-16 training will be at Luke AFB in Phoenix, AZ, which should be a pretty cool place to live...better than Columbus, MS!! As of now I don't have my dates for Intro to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) at Moody AFB, GA, but the guys that have graduated just ahead of us have said they've been waiting 4-5 months to get there. IFF is a course in teaching basic fighter maneuvers (BFM) in the T-38C with bigger engines. It's 2 months long, and has around 20 flights total. So, in the meantime I'll be going back to the centrifuge for the F-16 profile and complete some other training. I have survival training, both land and water, as well as resistance training...some fun, some not so fun. But hey, it's worth it!

From what I've heard from IP's that have flown the F-16, it's going to be an awesome time. Of course, flying any fighter for the most part is sweet, but to be flying my #1 choice out of pilot training is going to be awesome! For me it came down the mission, with location being second. The F-16 is a multi-role fighter, so it'll give me a chance to do different things. It has both air-to-air and air-to-ground capability, which is cool because I'm a person who tends to get bored doing the same thing over and over again. I can dogfight one day and drop bombs the next. Also, I wanted to be able to use all the training I've been getting in war if the country needs me. It's been awhile since we've gone air-to-air with any country...we may in the future, but at least I'll be able to blow stuff up in the Falcon (a.k.a Viper). As far as locations are concerned, there are both good and bad. But, I've decided even if I end up in one of the "bad" spots, I'll still be flying an awesome jet and I'll make the most of my surroundings!

Assignment night is very similar to track select at the end of T-37s. It takes place in the O-club on base here and is set up where each individual student gets call up in front one at a time to get their assignment...we probably had about 400-500 people there. After you're made fun of and joked on a bit, the screen behind you shows the next jet you'll be flying. I can't even explain the feeling inside when I saw the F-16! My classmates rushed the stage to congratulate me, and then it was on to the next person. What a great time, and a day I'll never forget!

Over the past few weeks we finished up with our 4-ship formation flying, which by far has been the most fun...just slightly above low level flying. Being up there in formation with three other jets around you is awesome. Our 4-ship flights in the T-38 were just to get us familiar with what we'd be doing a lot more of in our follow on jet, and as with most things dealing with flying I'm looking forward to it!All that's left for me is five flights and then graduation on the 21st. It's been an awesome year of flying and an awesome year of rewarding work...God is good!

Phase III Complete - Low Level Check...0E!

Don't go passin' out because I'm updating the site again so soon...I have to pass on some great news! I ended up flying my low level check this passed Tuesday after the crappy weather moved through the day before. It went great! Everything went as planned, and I had a good day flying. After the flight and ground evaluation were done with, I was very surprised to hear the check IP say, "Well, I have no downgrades for you. You flew and excellent ride!" I was totally pumped, and could hardly keep myself from yelling "SWEET!" in his office. Praise God I was able to finish up my checkrides with a bang...I'll take a zero downgrade excellent any day!

The day after I flew a formation flight down the LA and then had a night nav flight back here to the base. As we were planning our formation flight, the weather was supposed to be decent at our destination except for some cloud layers...no big deal. Well, that wasn't the case as we found out in the air. It was cloudy pretty much the whole way, but things didn't really start to get interesting until we got closer to the airport we intended to land at.. I was flying in fingertip on the wing when we started to get into some pretty dark, thick clouds with rain...and oh by the way, some pretty heavy turbulence. I had never seen that before. Lead's jet looked like a rag doll being tossed around so much, as were we. I told my IP, "Sir, I'm going to hang out a little behind lead to keep from hitting him." He also thought it was a good idea while lead coordinated for vectors south around the storm. After about 10-15 minutes of that we popped out of the side of the thunderstorm to see sun and a layer of clouds below us. "Man, I was getting a little anxious there for a second" is what came from the backseat. I too was wondering how this was going to play out, but as a student you have a sense of security with a dude in the backseat who has his wings. This whole time we had been keeping an eye on our gas and also and eye on the closest divert base, which at that time would have been New Orleans, NAS (Naval Air Station). Once clear of the weather and headed toward the airport, it was obvious we were going to have to split the formation and do separate approaches...we were going to have to go back into the weather to land on a wet runway. We're not allow to do a form approach and landing with a wet runway. To make a long story short, we split up and we ended up going in first. My IP says, "Make sure you're strapped in good and all your crap is secured before we go into the weather again." I got all my stuff together and shot the approach only to pop out of the clouds in the pouring rain...thank God for runway lights! =) No sooner had we taxied to the parking ramp did it start to rain even harder with lightning and thunder. We ended up sitting in the jets for about 20 minutes while it dumped, when finally we said screw it and made a dash to get inside. We were all soaked! It was easy to laugh at once on the ground, but in the air it could have gotten pretty hairy had the weather gotten much worse or the runway closed for some reason. It was a good learning experience and will make for a good story.

Unless something really cool happens between now and assignment night, I probably won't post anything...I just had to pass along the good news!

Video:

One Month Until Assignment Night!

Well, as with most things in pilot training, your plan for the day is never official until you're actually stepping out the door to the jet. The day of our solo x-country, the weather at Lake Charles, LA wasn't going to allow us to fly into there. So, one of our IP's mentioned we should try for Wright Patterson AFB (WPAFB), OH. I was down with that because I had worked there and had family in the area. A trip that takes me about 10 hours to drive only took about 55 minutes to fly in the T-38...and being able to do that solo was even better! We took of in a train of seven T-38's with IP's in their own jet leading the way and bringing up the rear. We spaced out our takeoffs by about 5 minutes or so. The flight itself was actually pretty uneventful, but fun. We flew up there at FL370 (37,000 ft) where it was cold enough to frost my canopy...I had never seen that before and it called for the use of the canopy defog. Once I started my decent into WPAFB, I started looking around to find places I knew. It was pretty cool to see the building I used to work in at the base, my old college Cedarville Univ. and even the 178th ANG Fighter Wing...it was cool seeing all the F-16s sitting on the ramp. After landing, I was able to meet up with some dudes I knew from the area, so it was a good time to catch up on the latest in their worlds. After a quite bite to eat, we blasted off for our flight home. As I was flying along both to and from WPAFB, and had to sit back and really think about what God was allowing me to do...I was flying a supersonic jet trainer solo to a base I had never been to. My training and God given ability had brought me to the point where I was able to do that, and do it well. Totally awesome!
I was able to fly a formation x-country to WPAFB the next week as well. The first trip was a last minute thing and I wasn't able to see any of my fam. So, this time I gave them a little more of a notice and it worked about to grab some dinner together before I had to leave. I was also able to show them the jet. We did a single ship night flight back to Columbus, so it allowed us to have a little fun during takeoff for the fam. As I was holding short of the runway I called tower and asked, "Tower, Poison 81 holding short 23R request unrestricted takeoff." Tower's response, "Poison 81 standby for coordination." So, I waited for a minute of so while they checked to make sure there wouldn't be any traffic conflicts in the air and came back with, "Poison 81, you're cleared unrestricted to 10,000 ft." Nice! I had never done an unrestricted takeoff before, but I wasn't that hard...plus, my fam got to see the whole thing. It was also just getting dark, so with the afterburner lit we shoot a little bit of a flame out the back. The fam liked that too. =) We took off, stayed low, kept in in afterburner until 400 knots and pulled it about 60 degrees nose high to 10,000' where we rolled inverted, pulled the nose to the horizon and then rolled back upright...good times!


The reason I have time to update the site today because my low level checkride got cancelled...the weather is crappy again. It's obvious the winter season has arrived here in Mississippi with all the rain we've been getting lately. Too bad it's not a little colder so it would all be snow. Low level flying is pretty awesome, especially when in formation. Low level form takes the principles we learned up high in the practice area and employs them at 500' and 360 knots. There's a lot more going on down low like looking for towers, finding your turn points and thinking about how you're going to turn the formation at each point. Too cool! I completed my six low level flights pretty quickly, but the weather has held us up some. I'm really looking forward to finishing this checkride because I'll be checkride complete!

The class before us, 05-03, had their assignment night this past Friday and if ours is anything like it I shouldn't have a problem getting an F-16. There were a total of 4 F-16s with one being ANG, one F-15E, a T-37 and T-38 FAIP as well as a B-1. After a lot of thought and talking to IPs, my first four on the dream sheet will be as follows: F-16, F-15E, F-15C, T-38 FAIP. The rest is up to God to give me when He thinks I should have. I'm off to the gym...