Now THIS is survival training!

“Every survival kit should include a sense of humor”

~ Author Unknown

September is one of those months that doesn't seem to want to end. Two weeks ago we had a Unit Training Assmebly (UTA) for my Reserve unit, and this weekend we had another. This one was our 5-year mandatory survival training refresher, and took the place of our drill in August. I'm sure it felt great to skip the August Drill for those guys that were here, but for me, I played Air Force all through the month of August, and now I've been doing it over and over gain in September. What fun!

Our Life Support shop takes a lot of pride in all that they do; not only in how they run their shop on a day-to-day basis, but in putting on a first class survival class when it's time for refresher training. No holds are barred, no expenses are unpaid... and for a bunch of part-timers, it's an event to look forward to, instead of dreading like so much mandatory training is these days.

For this event, we typically show up bright and early Saturday morning dressed in flight suits and BDUs (what used to be called "fatigues,"), load up buses and stake-bed trucks; and head 1-1/2 hours north to the 200-acre "camp" a former member of the squadron has generously donated for our use. This year things were complicated by the death of a member of our squadron after a long battle with cancer, so we all attended a funeral in the morning, and ended up starting our survival training weekend at noon.

Once up in the woods, we poured out of the buses, found our gear (sleeping bags, backpacks, air mattresses, etc) and set up camp. Because of the late start, by the time we had our 100 or so tents set up and gear stowed away, it was time for an early dinner. Now in most survival camps the instructors throw you a couple of MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) or a rabbit and have you skin it and cook it yourself. Not us. Our Training department took up a nice donation from each of us and had food catered in from a nearby bar. They roared into camp with a bunch of trucks and quads, set up a couple of grills and a serving line, and suddenly we had the nicest steak dinner I've enjoyed in quite a while! The steaks were thick, juicy and cooked to order over a charcoal fire... nothing better!

After dinner, it was time to get serious and start the training. The gaggle was broken into four groups and rotated through various training stations covering such topics as how to build shelters out of parachute material, and/or local vegetation; fire craft; food procurement and snare building; and some rudimentary first aid training. The fire craft was the most well attended class. Practicing meant building an actual fire using flints or a maximum of three matches. It turned out to be quite competitive (go figure with all those Type-A aviators involved!) - if you weren't the first to build a fire, then "By GOD," you had to build the biggest one! My team fell into the second category. We spent a lot of time gathering all our material, and when we finally got it lit, we just kept piling it on, not wanting to let all our gathering go to waste. That was all well and good except that it was very important to put the fires out. We had quite the pile of coals to deal with by the time we got ours out. Oh well.

About the time the training ended that evening (around 2100) the caterers were back to serve a dinner of hamburgers and hotdogs. Again another huge meal with terrific baked beans and patato salad. The icing on the cake was the kegger that suddenly appeared, and was quickly surrounded and tapped. (I don't remember anyone serving beer on my original survival trek...)

With the smoking and drinking lamp lit, the carousing and mingling commenced full-force. A huge bon-fire was lit in a nearby field, and people wandered back and forth between the fire and the beer tent for the remainder of the night and long into the morning. I think I gave up the ghost about 1230, keeping mind the fact that wake-up was at 0730, with classes scheduled for 0800.

True to the schedule, the caterers showed up bright and early the next morning, and as we emerged bleary-eyed from our respective tents, they put on a huge spread of bacon, sausage and eggs! Promptly at 0800, the First Sargent started hollering and classes commenced. The big event of the day was the Escape and Evasion course. We were split into two-person teams and after a refresher in map and compass reading, were sent out into the woods to sneak through "enemy" lines for about 3/4 mile to a checkpoint back by camp. Along the way we had to dodge various "comrades" combing the hills for downed fliers; though how they could miss 30 of us in a confined area the width of about two football fields, is beyond me. It was warm out, but the rain had stayed away, so as we low-crawled and crept through the undergrowth struggling not to sound like a small herd of buffalo, it turned into quite a sweaty, buggy event. It was fun though, and was a valuable refresher.

To finish the training day we hit stations in signaling and vectoring rescue helicopters, more first aid, water procurement, and hands on examination of all the various pieces and parts of the survival vest and kits we carry or wear when we fly. More good hands-on familiarization.

Finally it was time to pack-up camp and head out. Oh, but not before one last meal: Catered sausage and meatball sandwiches! I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly didn't lose any weight on this trip!

The final activity of the day was passing the hat one last time to pay for the ADDITIONAL Keg and bottles of booze the group somehow consumed the night before. Turns out our group went right through the stuff we brought and ended up invading our buddy's house and drinking him dry too. Luckily everyone was good about pitching in to pay for replacing the extra beverages, and carting off all the garbage we had created over the past two days, leaving the camp in pretty much the shape we found it in.

All in all, it was one of the better training events I've been to. Unlike most of them, we managed to learn a lot as well as do some serious bonding as a unit, which is a critical thing when you go into combat together. Well done guys! Can't wait for the next one!