USAF Survival School (SERE)
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Awesome show thanks for sharing watching right now!:thumb:
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They provided wild game for them to cook? WTF? I cant belive the military would do that. What did they learn from that? Anyone can kill a rabbit,try catching one with limited resources,different story.
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7,683 Posts
It's been going on for years...trust me!
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105 Posts
What they learn from the wild game exercise is how to clean it and cook it.
Many of these men are very new to the outdoors and in a classroom enviroment as such the "course of instruction" on preparing rabbit can't wait 3 days for someone to actually catch one. In that approach they will teach how to trap or kill and teach how to cook, all with both classroom instruction and practical application. Then the students go to a "testing" phase and have to put these new skill sets to a test. The final phases are only lightly supervised and you have very limited starting resources. In the last part you either eat or don't depending on how much you picked up on in your training phase.
When I have done this training in bridgeport, Ca. I have literally seen grown men cry over catching a trout, so I think the standards for roughing it are pretty high.
Many of these men are very new to the outdoors and in a classroom enviroment as such the "course of instruction" on preparing rabbit can't wait 3 days for someone to actually catch one. In that approach they will teach how to trap or kill and teach how to cook, all with both classroom instruction and practical application. Then the students go to a "testing" phase and have to put these new skill sets to a test. The final phases are only lightly supervised and you have very limited starting resources. In the last part you either eat or don't depending on how much you picked up on in your training phase.
When I have done this training in bridgeport, Ca. I have literally seen grown men cry over catching a trout, so I think the standards for roughing it are pretty high.
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I remember a few guys in our survival school class that had a real problem with wacking a rabbit on the head. Some were really squimish about eating a worm or a bug. I guess it's good to get over that kinda thing before you need to get over that kinda thing. The time factor is also very important in a training enviornment, as you had stated.
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Right, I guess the important thing here is: The course while rigorous is still proctored to teach at the most basic / introductory level, with huge emphasis on safety. It does get more rugged and demanding as the weeks click on.
As I said before some of these guys have never been camping, and "squeamish" doesn't cover some of the antics I've come across, I actually had a troop who was afraid of the dark. I kid you not, totally afraid of the dark. So eating gross things would have been way outta his league. I remember we had to eat earthworm and scrambled eggs during a class, now I can say its not at all realistic to eat earthworm scramble, but it did help get over the initial repulsion at eating a worm. So later on when just worm was on the menue it was'nt sooooo bad.
Another thing I always have to keep in mind is the "Bear Grylls" effect. Yeah he sets up situations and wears a life vest under his shirt during river crossings (just like the student here will do…. It's TV and its training, so it can't be totally real. Learning to survive is not worth dying over.
As I said before some of these guys have never been camping, and "squeamish" doesn't cover some of the antics I've come across, I actually had a troop who was afraid of the dark. I kid you not, totally afraid of the dark. So eating gross things would have been way outta his league. I remember we had to eat earthworm and scrambled eggs during a class, now I can say its not at all realistic to eat earthworm scramble, but it did help get over the initial repulsion at eating a worm. So later on when just worm was on the menue it was'nt sooooo bad.
Another thing I always have to keep in mind is the "Bear Grylls" effect. Yeah he sets up situations and wears a life vest under his shirt during river crossings (just like the student here will do…. It's TV and its training, so it can't be totally real. Learning to survive is not worth dying over.
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16,125 Posts
Thanx, does bring back memories. The Marine Corps requires Jungle( did mine in the PI), mtn, desert and cold weather( Korea) survival training. We never got any live animals in a cage. I like AF gear.
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41,430 Posts
Great series, but I can't find episode 8
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7,683 Posts
Great...I finished 6 and moving on to 7. Nothing like looking forward to a missing episode.
I remember in my class, we had a small city kid who had never been outside of LA before and there we were in the middle of nowhere WA. Well our instructor and I (I was the SRO student) decided that he was going to be the one to wack the rabbit. So he starts petting his rabbit with the stick and he reels back and smacks it on the head. Now at this point you would expect the rabbit to either squeal or die, but no that thing turns its head and looks at this kid like "WTFO". I at this point fall over laughing the instructor grabs the rabbit and the stick and hands it to another student who is also laughing his butt off.
I still can't help but laugh every time I see a rabbit.
I will say it was an interesting school, aside from the combat stuff really isn't much different from being a country boy.
I still can't help but laugh every time I see a rabbit.
I will say it was an interesting school, aside from the combat stuff really isn't much different from being a country boy.
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