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Aircrews team with SERE for readiness exercise

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Lauren Pitts
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
GULFPORT, M.S. - --  "Where we come in is when the mission goes wrong," said Tech Sgt. Isaac Houston, 305th Operation Support Squadron Search, Evasion, Resistance and Escape section chief.

Houston, along with Staff Sgt. Jared Todd, 305th OSS SERE NCO in charge of training operations, participated in Operational Readiness Exercise 03-16 in Gulfport, Mississippi March 7-12, 2016. SERE instructors ensure Airmen have the tools to survive on their own in any environment, under any condition, should their aircraft go down.

"Our job [at the 305th AMW] is three fold," Houston continued. "Personnel recovery code of conduct continuation training, personnel recovery operations support, and personnel recovery exercise support."

During the ORE, the SERE instructors trained both active-duty and reservist air crews on how to communicate with aircraft from the ground if they were ever to become isolated in unfamiliar territory and how to evade capture while doing so.

The crews exercised urban movements; coastal and night missions; and studied the contents of personnel recovery kits which include flares, a radio and a compass.

Although the SERE members are no strangers to an exercise, this was the first time the 305th instructors had conducted the training with KC-10 crews, explained Todd.

"We didn't know what to expect when we got the notification [for this exercise]," Todd said. "But this was a chance to get out of our comfort zones and get the air crews acclimated to SERE."

The SERE training was not the only first throughout the training; the ORE was also the first time the 305th and 514th AMWs partnered with the 87th Air Base Wing and 621st Contingency Response Wing for an operational exercise, and assessed the ability to launch and recover aircraft while providing rapid global mobility excellence all in a simulated deployed environment - an element Houston believes to be one of the most important pieces.

"Any time you have an exercise, you want to practice like you play," said Houston. "The more real we can make it, the better."

Like most exercises, the wing inspection team injected random challenges, putting the participating units through the ringer and getting them to think "real-world," Houston continued.

"We got everyone in a location where their minds were on the mission and they were doing things outside their comfort zones without actually being in a combat zone," Houston said.

While leadership hopes to see similar exercises in the joint base's future, members of the SERE team look forward to improving for the next opportunity to train.

"We've seen a lot of good and we've seen some things we need to improve on," said Todd. "But this is a great starting point."