Aircrew dive into water survival training

by Staff Sgt. Jason McCasland
2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs

1/23/2013 - BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La -- The 2nd Operations Support Squadron Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape conducted Water Survival Training, Jan. 22.

The training started with a classroom portion and transitioned to a "hands-on" class at the Louisiana State University pool in Shreveport, La., where three aircrew members went through a triennial refresher training how to release from their parachutes, enter a life raft and rescue cage and more.

"We teach the "hands-on" at the pool so that aircrew members know what to do in the event of a water landing," said Staff Sgt. Charles Millison, 2 OSS SERE operations NCO in charge. "This way the students have training to fall back on; this will help them by saving them from panicking if it ever happens to them."

This triennial training refreshes what aircrew members learned during their initial survival training in flight school, and strengthens their techniques of what to do when landing in water after ejecting from an aircraft.

"Since many of our missions take us over water, we need to know what to do," said Col. Andrew Gebara 2nd Bomb Wing commander. "The possibility of a water landing after an ejection is something we have to worry about."

The water survival course teaches aircrew how to deal with a bad situation. It provides them with the knowledge needed to be rescued. Like how to inflate life preserving units, enter and exit the life raft, release themselves from parachutes.

"We make sure the aircrews know how each part of the safety equipment is used and how it will help them the event it is needed," said Senior Airman Cody Markham, Aircrew Flight Equipment journeyman and SERE augmentee. "The training we provide to the aircrew helps to give them the knowledge to stay safe until they are rescued."

While being in the water is not what aircrew look forward to, the training gives them techniques on what to do when and if it happens.

"This class is very informative, I learned so much on what I should do if I'm in that type of situation," said 1st Lt. Jarrad Thorley 20th Bomb Squadron navigator. "We train for the worst, but pray for the best. That way, when or if something like this happens we will know what to do."