reading materials

Hello everyone,

   Officially I have been in Spokane a week.  I am loving it more everyday.  THis weekend I am helping my friend move into his apartment downtown so we will get to spend some time in the city.  There are all kinds of outdoor activities here.  It is really a dream to be living here right now.  I have been getting in processed here the last week but next week I should be getting some of the preliminary classes out of the way.  Ill try to explain....... All SERE students from now until late November will be slotted in the January class.  Since there are only two classes a year (July and January)  there is alot of downtime.  When class does start in January we will have 5 months of intense SERE specific training.  In the mean time all students waiting around have to complete SV80, emergency parachuting, and the dunker tank.  I am the first student here for the january class so I have the luxury of alot of time.  The dunker tank and emergency parachuting are both classes that only take one day.  I will most likely be doing those next week.  I wont actually be parachuting but just learning the basics of how it works.  The dunker tank is to simulate a plane crash in the water.  You strap yourself into a "plane" and when the exercise starts the plane is submerged in the pool and spinning 360 degrees.  Our job is to stay calm and get out.  I think that will be a ton of fun.  SV80 is the survival course that every pilot and aircrew goes through. It is the one I will be teaching when I graduate.  It is three weeks long and it essentially teaches the basics of survival and resistance.  They want us to get the perspective of a student in the class.  Anywho, that is my life in the next couple of weeks.  There are also plenty of things to read up here.  I happened across this magazine (picture) that I can't wait to give Kate when I see her next.  Its a great read!  Have to go to dinner now.  Post again soon.  

  

spokane

Hello everyone,

well i have been in spokane for a couple days.  Not too bad.  No complaints.  It is absolutely beautiful.   THis weekend the SERE candidates that are here all drove a couple hours west to work at a fishing tournament.  We were "voluntold"  to go.   but it wast that bad.  It was essentially a camping trip with a little work.  On the drive out there I had my first tour of downtown Spokane.  It is a great place.  I am really excited for the next couple of years here.  I can;t wait to do more exploring when I get a car.  Anywho, I am really enjoying my time in the program so far.  THe hardest part is being away from Kate.  We are taking it one day at a time though.  She is a daily encouragement to me and we have been able to talk on the phone so that is alot better that basic was.  So here is a picture of me in my room mate.  This is how we look all the time by the way.   alright bed time for me.

Fairchild

Well flying out tomorrow.  I am really looking forward to seeing what Washington is like.  I haven't been over on the eastern side of the state but it sounds like it is right up my alley.  I will be sure to post pictures of what it is like.  The past couple of days I have been out processing here at Lackland which entails alot of paperwork.  Kate is on vacation in Alaska right now so I have been hearing all about that.  I am hoping to come home sometime soon and spend some time with her and my family.  I will be asking all those questions when I get up to Fairchild.  Just wanted to let everyone know what is goin on.  Ill update again once I get up there.

Alrighty then.  Well Im done with indoc and headed up to Washington next week.  Final count...5 of the original 20 made it through training.  I just got back from the field yesterday and that was the toughest part for me.  In total I got 5 hrs of sleep in 4 days.  It was an experience.  

     The first day out in the field we drove down 4 hours south to the desert.  We were dropped off and immediately started hiking to out destination.  We were each given a topo map and told where we needed to go so we had to navigate our way there.  The navigation is alot of fun.  Anywho after 4 hours of hiking we finally made it to our camp site where we set up our tents.  The goal of the field portion of training is to simulate being a survivor.  We make tents out of parachutes, eat rabbit, get little to no sleep, drink nasty water, and just be busy all the time.  The first night was the roughest for me.  It was 100+ degrees on our hike and I drank 11 quarts  of water and I was still dehydrated.  I got to camp and could barely stand up.  After a couple hours ofs replenishing my fluids I was feeling alot better.  After, the first day we kept the same pace the entire time.  We were always to something.  The instructors would give us team projects.  The second night we all had to dig a giant hole in the ground.  The hole was 3 feet deep and 8 foot square.  It took 6 of us 7 hrs to dig that whole.  It was big enough to bury and elephant!  We were pretty proud of it.  The third day we did alittle solo navigation then went on to our last night by ourselves.  We were evaluated on all of the things we learned in the last 8 days.  Our memory work, how to build a tent, our sewing, among other things.  Many of the things we learned we not skills we need to know but the instructors want to make sure that we can follow instructions and that they can trust us to finish a task no matter how stupid it may seem.  I had to keep reminding myself of that when I was up sewing at 4 in the morning.  However, after all that the feeling of graduating is so worth it.  I leave for Washington sometime next week, I will find out when I get my orders on monday.  Thanks for your thoughts and your prayers.  I will continue to update as I get up to Washington.  I posted a picture of me in my new SERE shirt.  Yeah Im wearing that with pride today.  Anyways, gots to go.  Hope everyone is doin well back at home.

  

into the field

Well, we leave for the field tomorrow.  It will be four days in the wilderness with both food and sleep dep.  After not eating for a while we will be killing our own rabbit and eating it.  By that time anything will sound appetizing.  

     The last part of the week was filled with sewing.  Over the weekend I spent 20 hour sewing.  The goal is not to have sewing skills, instead our instructors want to see that they can give us a task and trust us to get it done.  It was a lesson in patience for me but I got it all done.  Now I am jsut looking forward to going out into the field.  We are now down to 6 of the original 20 that started.  Anywho, tonight I am getting as much food and sleep as i can for the field.  Hope everyone is doing well as always.  Thought I would post a picture of the PT gear that we wear on a daily basis.  Take special notice to the daisy dukes style of shorts we are required to wear.  Also sorry for the picture quality all of the picture have been taken with my computer.  When I get up to Washington I will have my camera.  Wish me luck in the field!

70 lbs

Wow.  Three days down six to go.  This week has been really tough so far.  We have had 10 0f the 20 people who started already drop out.  We always have to have our 70 pound ruck sack on us wherever we are walking.  Before we enter and leave the  building we have to do sets of pull ups, so we are constantly burning calories.  Our day consists of getting up around four and going to breakfast.  After that we do some kind of physical training for about 4-5 hours.  They have us do all kinds of different things that promote team work.  We usually get enough time to eat just a little lunch which usually consists of a power bar.  After physical training we practice our public speaking in the afternoon.  Every night we prepare lesson plans to present to class the following day.  Since SERE is an instructor position you must be at least be okay at public speaking.  After we are released for the day we are given anywhere from 3-4 hour of homework. Our homework are things like sharpening knives and sewing all kinds of things.  The goal with all the homework is just to give us many things to do in a very limited amount of time.  They are trying to teach us to function on little sleep.  Anywho, I am having a good time.  i am taking it one day at a time.  Hope everyone at home is doing well.  I miss you all.  Hope to post again soon.  Got to go sew a knife sheath now.  Let me tell you it is about as fun as it sounds.

ERic 

Day 1

Well day one is over. We started with 20 at the start of the day and we now have 15. THis morning started off with the PAST test which is a physical assesment for those going into the program. I met all of my goals to the physical part so it is nice to know that the hard work and training is paying off. After 3-4 hours of physical training in the morning we had a couple hour brief on public speaking. Since a big part of SERE will be traching the instructors want to make sure that we are comfortable with it. Anywho, Ive got to get going. We have a four mile ruck sack assesment tommorrow. We have to walk four miles in under an hour with 70+ pounds. Wish me luck.

Eric

graduation

Also just finished up with basic training.  I had a good time learned a lot but 6 weeks was enough of basic for me.  Kate and I had been writing letter back and forth through the six weeks and it was really great to see her and my parents for a couple days.  After six weeks of doing the same thing in basic training it was really nice to be able  to go out and experience normal life again.  The time with kate and my parents really was refreshing and it reenergized me for the training to come.  As I said I will be updating everyone on the training to come hopefully with more pictures. 

Lets see if I can post a picture.

SERE

This is my first time trying a blog so here it goes.  

Tomorrow is the first official day of SERE training I will let you know how it is going some time during the week.  Wish me luck.

 Eric