I am currently pursuing the 1A8 airborne cryptoligic linguist route, and I was wondering if anyone has any info on the Water Survival-Non-Parachuting Course or the Underwater Egress Training, as I haven't swam in atleast 10 years and I was never a great swimmer.
It does menti** swim ***essment, I would think since I havent been that it wouldnt be too intense just to make sure your not freaking out in the water,etc. It would be a good idea t**ugh to get your swim ** maybe at a local pool,YMCA,etc just to get spun up ** basics if you d**t feel comfortable
Non Parachuting water survival is a course designed to let aircrew get used to the gear they would use in case of a distressed situation. I am not teaching the course yet, but have augmented the SERE Cadre at my base for about a year now. You will more than likely be wearing floatation devices the whole time in the water. You should not have much of a problem with it.
Dunker training on the other hand is something i am not qaulified to talk about. In about a year and a half, and if i make it through all my required training i will be going through dunker as a SERE Specialist.
As a 1A8 you will eventually end up at Hurlburt I would guess. For that you need parachuting. Even in the open water course they identify weak or non-swimmers and you will wear a special helmet so they can watch you closer. If memory serves me correctly, you are usually wearing a life preserver of some form when in the water. Don't let the easiest course in the aircrew pipeline deter you from that great job. Don't sweat water survival.
Originally posted by caninedale: As a 1A8 you will eventually end up at Hurlburt I would guess. For that you need parachuting. Even in the open water course they identify weak or non-swimmers and you will wear a special helmet so they can watch you closer. If memory serves me correctly, you are usually wearing a life preserver of some form when in the water. Don't let the easiest course in the aircrew pipeline deter you from that great job. Don't sweat water survival.
The infamous red helmet!
I have a friend of mine that made it through SERE Specialist training and is a great SERE Spec now who had trouble swimming. He is not afraid of water, just got labeled a weak swimmer and had to wear the red helmet.
I have been to all the USAF water/land survival schools. Parachuting W/S is a blast and is a great 3 day course... CHECKLIST!!!! Non-parachuting was in the base pool at Fairchild and to be honest, it was a great course. People seem to think that you can't get real training in a pool. Trust me, ice cold fire-hoses blasting you in the face, surround sound thunderstorm sounds, flashing strobe lights in a black outed pool building and a group of people with light-sticks on their helmets trying to get out of a helo fuselage as it is filling up quickly and then gathering together and making their way into a F2B life raft, it is actually very realistic for what they had to work with. I had several "red helmet" people in my class, and it just so happened one egressed the Helo fuselage right behind me and thought it would be fun to just grab my 10/P LPU and hold on while I dragged her the length of the pool to the 20 man Life raft....fun times.
