What SERE Training Teaches Military Pilots About Survival

Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training prepares military aircrew for the worst-case scenario: being shot down behind enemy lines. This intense program pushes students to their limits while teaching critical skills for staying alive and avoiding capture.

Course Structure

SERE training spans approximately three weeks for most aircrew. The program begins with classroom instruction covering survival techniques, evasion principles, and resistance to interrogation. Knowledge tests ensure students understand concepts before the practical phases begin.

The field training portion puts classroom learning into practice. Students learn to build shelters, find water, signal for rescue, and navigate through wilderness terrain. Food deprivation adds realism, simulating the conditions a downed pilot might face.

Resistance Training

The most intense portion simulates captivity. Students experience conditions designed to prepare them for enemy imprisonment. Trained role players use psychological pressure and stress techniques to test student resistance and teach coping strategies.

This segment remains classified in detail, but graduates describe it as the most challenging training of their careers. The experience builds confidence that they can endure capture and maintain their integrity under pressure.

Survival Skills

Practical survival skills include fire starting without matches, water procurement and purification, shelter construction from natural materials, and signaling techniques for rescue forces. Students practice these skills until they become second nature.

Medical self-aid covers wound treatment, fracture splinting, and managing injuries without professional help. A downed pilot may be injured during ejection and must stabilize themselves before help arrives.

Career Requirement

SERE training is mandatory for most combat aircrew and many other personnel with elevated capture risk. The training must be refreshed periodically, with condensed courses reinforcing skills and updating information on current threats.