A very quick look at the Navy and Marine Corps Survival Evasion Resistance Escape school in Maine.
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FTW
Huh? They even have such a luxury as bunny boots and enough warm clothes to be relatively independent from fire, judging only by this video.
I think SeanL was making a Feinstein-related ironic observation.
OK, where is the 4’+ of snow and minus 15 deg. temps I had to slog through in 1991? Not only that but, where did all that Gucci “warm” clothing come from (good call Bushman)? Glad I had the experience; not willing to repeat.
My main concern is bunny boots, actually. Originally I’m from the place, where two months of deep sub-zero temperatures are common in winter, and I had a frostbite on all my fingers when I was five, just playing in the yard.
Feet are the most valuable “part of equipment” in case of SERE, so I would pay as much attention to keeping it in working condition, as possible, especially in extreme cold weather conditions, when it’s too easy to make something wrong.
In cold weather, if you are wearing boots with not enough insulation, you have to make the whole bunch of special precautions: keep laces not too tight, make standing pads using branches (to avoid full contact of sole with snow), loosen your shoelaces when kneeling to keep blood circulating and so on. You can’t learn it in theory wearing bunny boots – you have to feel it.
Doesn’t look half as bad as Warner Springs 😉
Those alpha jacket and pant combos make the worst weather so much better
For real, I have a set and with the right layers it is definitely “F you weather!” Great kit.
Alpha jacket and pants? Are the instructors wearing Arcteryx LEAF shell gear?
I didn’t see a logo but the jackets look like they have stand up collars with drop hoods. The Alpha Jacket doesn’t have that, at least mine doesn’t.
Curious. Looks like good stuff.
Looks horrible! No, not in terms of comfort – girl scouts settle for less – but in terms of winter practice and equipment.
Get some skis, for heavens sake. Without skis, mobility on snow is abysmal. If the troops can’t ski, teach them! Sure, one should preferably learn to ski as a kid, but teaching a motivated and physically able adult to manage basic skiing in the forest isn’t that difficult. Done that. A few days, and the troops’ mobility will already be well beyond snowshoes.
Compared to skiing, the rest is kind of details, but… Wearing puffy pause clothing – some sort of poncho even – on the move definitively doesn’t help. Sweaty and clumsy on the move, and will leave you freezing when you stop.
And camouflage! It’s white around your – hint hint – should you perhaps consider changing to winter camo?
Ok, so it was supposed to be SERE. You might not have skis, but you did have snowshoes? Prepare better. Snowshoes are easy to improvise from makeshift materials, but if you can get issue kit, get skis.
Surely, if you can have fancy PCU’s, you should also be able to get simple overwhites? If not, bedding sheets, laboratory coats and the like have traditionally been used for improvising snow camo (beware of fluorescence).
Sorry for the rant. But it just looked that bad from a Nordic point of view.
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Btw. The Germans figured out during the first winter on the Eastern front in WWII that not only do they need winter clothing, but that the winter clothing should be reversible from green camo to snow camo. And they issued it for the next winter. But this is of course too advanced for PCU’s…
M5,
you honestly don’t know what you are talking about. SERE is mainly for pilots, they won’t have skies or over whites. They can only carry 3 lbs of gear in their e and e kits. you would have to teach people how to use skies. Snow shoes you can just put on and go.If you didn’t give them anything they would be able to do the E part or SERE.
Sure, I have no knowledge about the aims of that particualr course. But the brief video looks like it’s about some ‘adventure’ tourists experiencing the wonders of the north, rather than military winter training, at least as I do know it.
Generally speaking, SERE is for whoever needs it. You may not be familiar with survival courses for the infantry, but these are part of regular training at least in some allied/friendly militaries. Including winter conditions in particular.
If the course on the video is SERE for downed pilots, it seems even more strange. It shows some training action with large backpacks, long weapons, snowshoes, bunny boots and whatever that will not fit into 3lbs. Usually, the point in SERE training is to improvise and manage with less, and definitively not with more, than what you’d have if it was for real.
And what comes to pilot EE kits, collapsible skis have been part of the ejection seat kits of airforces operating in nordic conditions.
the course is for USN/ USMC pilots and aircrew and ground pounders whose occupation may come w/ a high risk of capture. US military aircraft DO NOT come w/ collapsable skis. In military SERE school, it isn’t for everyone, it’s for those that need it. most of the equipment that students use during the course is stuff that personnel are issued to them in the theatre they are operating in.