re: U.S. Fighter Jet Shoots Down Syrian Government Plane

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Here is Col Bud Day

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It turns my stomach reading that. I wish Americans were more in tune with what went in in SE Asia during that war. Those stories should be told far more often than they are.

I don't understand what SERE guys in the Air Force do. Are they just instructors?

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I don't understand what SERE guys in the Air Force do. Are they just instructors?

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They are the DOD Subject Matter Experts.

The largest SERE Course and only career-long SERE Instructor cadre are located at the primary Air Force SERE training center which is at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington; each USAF SERE Specialist (previously called Survival Instructor) goes to a selection course and if selected, then attends the famed USAF SERE Instructor Training Branch six-month course. Those that graduate (less than 15%) are awarded the Sage Beret and SERE Badge. Following ITB, the Specialists are tasked with 45 weeks of intensive on-the-job training to complete their skill levels. Each graduate must attend Airborne School at the US Army Training Center located at Ft. Bragg. After completion of four years as an Instructor (Field Training) the Specialist may be tasked to train students worldwide. Student training for Level "B" medical aircrew was conducted at Brooks City-Base, Texas until the planned course closure on 30 September 2009. The Air Force conducts Arctic Survival Training – Cool School at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, and Parachuting and Non-Parachuting Water Survival Training at Fairchild AFB, Washington. The parachute water survival training which used to be located in Florida ceased operations there in August 2015.
SERE training was also conducted at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs from the late 1960s until 1995, enabling those USAF officers commissioned through USAFA to exempt from USAF SERE training at Fairchild AFB following undergraduate pilot or navigator training. In contrast, those USAF officers commissioned through AFROTC or OTS still had to complete SERE at Fairchild following flight training. In 1995, the resistance/escape element of the course at USAFA was abolished (see Controversies below), leaving the survival and evasion classes in a program called Combat Survival Training (CST). The academy discontinued CST entirely in 2005, however in summer 2008, some portions of the program, including resistance training, were reinstated. Following the summer of 2011, the scope of the CST program was reduced drastically and incorporated into the mandatory expeditionary skills training for budgetary reasons.[5] Now, all USAFA graduates selected for pilot, air battle manager, or navigator training must complete SERE training at Fairchild after receiving their wings, along with their AFROTC and OTS graduate counterparts.
USAF SERE Specialists are considered DOD-wide subject matter experts in their field. USAF SERE Specialists are assigned to base level and to command staff as advisors. USAF SERE are the only Test Parachutists in the Department of Defense. They test all new parachute systems and evaluate all flying platforms for suitability in DOD operations.

Murika!

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USAF SERE are the only Test Parachutists in the Department of Defense. They test all new parachute systems and evaluate all flying platforms for suitability in DOD operations.

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Yeah frick that

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Yeah frick that

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No idea, what the wiki thing says.

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I think you're just melted up because the Navy/USMC got a A2A kill.

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He is too stupid to know A2A.

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Robin Olds

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Do you have his book Fighter Pilot ?

Awesome guy.

Great book. One of the co-editors, Ed Rasimus, was also a Viet Nam combat pilot. His books about his own experiences are great, too.