Photo By Jessica Kendziorek | Technical Sgt. Nathan Martinez, 302nd Operations Group SERE specialist, reviews the...... read more read more
Subscribe
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- With the sunlight reflecting off of the water on the coast of St. Croix, U.S Virgin Islands, a group wearing orange life preservers were treading water waiting to be "rescued." Overhead, a chopper hovered ready to pull them from the water.
Members of the U.S. Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron and the U. S. Coast Guard, based out of Puerto Rico, worked together during a Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape refresher training course Monday and Tuesday.
"This is the contingency training taught in the event that an aircraft goes down behind enemy lines, but all aircrew members must get refresher training every 36 months," said Tech. Sgt. Nathan Martinez, SERE instructor with the 302nd Operations Group, an Air Force Reserve unit at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.
The training refresher simulated the possibility of the "Hurricane Hunters" going down in the tropical waters, requiring a water rescue. The training also continued the next day, this time as if they made it to land before being rescued.
"With the Hurricane Hunters unique mission set, survival is extremely important," said Martinez. "If their plane goes down, they need to know how to survive in the water and on land until rescued. Coming here and training in these elements, they gain confidence in real life to deal with the waves, the sun and the unknown in the water."
Being small, Tech. Sgt. Karen Moore, 53rd WRS loadmaster, said she had to work hard to stay near the group because the current kept pulling her away, but after being hoisted into the basket, she could relax.
"The relief I felt when I heard the helicopter was instant, it was the thought that they know you are there," said Moore.
The water survival portion included ensuring members wear equipment properly and refresh their knowledge of how to use personal floatation devices, a one-man life raft, or 46-man life raft.
"Getting into the life raft, you don't use the ladder, so you have to have upper body strength. So once we had people in the raft, they had to help pull the rest of us up," said Moore. "There were two of the guys pulling us up, until they got to me and one of the guys pulled me up and kind of tossed me halfway across the raft.
"We started tilting to one side and that is where having the refresher comes in, because since we don't do this every day, we forgot to distribute the weight around the raft,” she said. “Once we remembered, we leveled the raft out."
The second day of training consisted of surviving on land until the crew was recovered. The members of the 53rd WRS tromped through the woods and reviewed how to read a map, use a compass, and find a place to make a camp and shelter from the elements.
"In the event that they end up in a place that is not accessible," said Martinez. "We teach them skills to keep them alive until they can be rescued. We teach them how to take care of their basic needs: shelter, fire, water and food. This is a perishable skill. They need to do these refreshers to maintain the skill."
| Date Taken: | 05.09.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2017 11:12 |
| Story ID: | 233452 |
| Location: | KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Surviving the elements, by Jessica Kendziorek, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT