Air Crew members receive combat survival refresher training Published Aug. 15, 2011 By Senior Airman Jonathan Hehnly 911 AW/PA PITTSBURGH IAP ARS -- "Recovery is an evolving challenge that each aircrew member must understand to successfully return from an isolating event on today's battlefield," said Staff Sgt. Nathan Martinez, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape Specialist, 910th Airlift Wing. More than 130 Airmen from the 911th Operations Group descended upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' property, in Friendsville, Maryland, to engage in combat survival training during the August unit training assembly. The field training exercise's purpose was to keep air crew members and flight status personnel current with the dynamics of today's war and provide them with the skills that would allow them to adapt to the evolving situation overseas. "The refresher training is used to update air crew members with the latest survival and recovery techniques," said Senior Master Sgt. Robert Gray, Aircrew Flight Equipment Superintendent, 911th Operations Support Squadron. Preparation for the field training exercise was coordinated in a joint collaboration between the 911th Airlift Wing's Aircrew Flight Equipment, Intelligence, and Training, as well as, S.E.R.E. The joint group conducted in-depth training on navigation techniques, radio procedures, and signaling devices for the air crew. In the event of a crash, flyers need to know how to use the equipment onboard their aircraft, as well as, the procedures to be safely recovered. "Most rescues happen within the first 72 hours," said Senior Master Sgt. Gray. Over the course of two days, air crew members were put into conditions similar to a hostile environment, where they had the opportunity to use their equipment and skills to become effective survivors. Using the perimeter of the Youghiogheny River Lake for cover, air crew members engaged in a recovery process starting from a downed aircraft to an egress point in a simulated real-world scenario. Divided into six teams, the flight status personnel worked together to create an emergency plan of action, navigate the terrain, evade enemies, and make contact via radio, all in an effort to reach their egress point to be rescued by boat. "A large focus of this training is to ensure that the air crew members understand the responsibility that they have in the personnel recovery process, which is to report and locate," said Staff Sgt. Martinez. Using the maps, compasses, radios, and flares found aboard aircraft, aircrew members practiced mapping coordinates, navigating to waypoints, and signaling for help to build their confidence in recovery procedures. The goal is to make sure they know how to conduct themselves in a recovery process in order to make the process go smoother, Staff Sgt. Martinez said. The more quickly the guys make contact and the more effective they are at describing/knowing their location, the less time they'll be on the ground. By creating an EPA prior to a flight, air crew members involved in a crash will have a plan of action to follow until they make contact for help. Once a survivor makes contact, his/her identity is authenticated by an intelligence official. Airmen are required to have an isolated personnel report on file in order to deploy, so rescuers can authenticate the survivor's identity. Authentication through an ISO-prep or other personal information ensures the person using the radio is in fact who he/she says they are, Lt. Col. Kenneth T. Frankenbery, Senior Intelligence Officer, 911th Operations Group Intelligence, said. As air crew members navigated the terrain, they had to evade being captured by Lt. Col. Frankenbery and other intelligence analysts. By having "enemies" in the area, the scenario was more realistic, as survivors had to navigate and make contact for rescue while avoiding open areas, trails, and potential captors. The field training exercise focusing on combat survival is only one aspect of the air crews' multi-faceted training that must be kept up-to-speed. Refresher training is required for those in flight status, in order to maintain combat-mission readiness. Among other training requirements, both S.E.R.E. combat survival training and water survival training are mandatory every three years. This opportunity lets them use their skills in a training environment, rather than in a situation they don't want to be in, Staff Sgt. Martinez said. Hopefully this is the only time they need to use it.