YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- In any environment, under any condition, SERE specialists are highly trained to survive. SERE, which stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, is a program created to train air crew how to survive and resist the enemy in the event that their aircraft goes down. Recently the SERE specialists of Pacific Command convened at Yokota to share their knowledge and experience and practice the skills that help them keep air crews prepared.

Eleven specialists assigned to Korea, Guam and Japan attended the SERE working group. During the five days they compared and contrasted the strengths of their respective programs, gleaning the best practices to be implemented across PACOM. They also performed personnel drops to maintain their jump proficiency and practiced survival in the wilderness near Mount Fuji.

Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Johnis and Staff Sgt. Justin Bender, 374th Operations Support Squadron SERE specialists, organized the working group which is the second of its kind.

“Our goal is for the implementation of SERE working groups to become infectious across the commands,” Johnis said. “We are trying to align all the SERE and personnel recovery priorities across PACOM so that we are more unified in our efforts. It’s all to ensure that anyone who becomes isolated or is captured returns with honor.”

According to Johnis, the working group participants accomplished about 90% if their intended objectives, which is a significant accomplishment. Everyone earned their currency requirements. They were also able to share best practices across the Guardian Angel community: the various professions which make up the Air Force’s highly trained Personnel Recovery community.

The SERE specialists convened at Yokota for their jump proficiency because of the available C-130 Hercules aircraft and the drop zone. Yet, the specialist were not the only ones who benefitted. The C-130 aircrews from the 36th Airlift Squadron benefited from practicing personnel drops and maintaining their qualifications. The 459th Airlift Squadron also had the opportunity to maintain qualifications. They brought UH-1 Iroquois helicopter capabilities for hoist training and simulated search and rescue operations.

“We all want the 459 AS to have top notch search and rescue capabilities in case they’re asked by the Japanese to respond to a real world event,” Bender said.

There is another benefit of the working group that was not officially accounted for. Bender explained that there is a fraternity among SERE professionals and bringing them together leads to a morale boost. Working group participants balanced the main goal, professional development, with the time spent getting to get reacquainted since last seeing each other.

“Getting together is an important and beneficial part of the SERE working group,” Bender said. “Morale is crucial. It keeps us all working towards that common goal of training aircrew members the best we can. When that morale starts to fade away the training starts to take a hit as well. The realism goes out the window and you start to get on a hamster wheel.”

Bender explained that he and the other specialists want to eliminate the hamster wheel and keep the job interesting. They want to keep a real sense of how they are contributing to the Air Force mission and collaborating with other units is a good way to do that.

“Collaborating gives us perspective,” Bender said. “It helps us see what other units are doing. Here at Yokota we have C-130s. Up at Misawa Air Base they’re mainly dealing with fighters. At Anderson AB Tech Sgt. Ryan Hyslop is developing his own SERE program from scratch. We can see his struggle and give him all our experience to make his life easier. If we can continue that network across PACOM that not only helps us out as individuals, it helps us as an Air Force.”
According to Bender PACOM SERE specialists intend to continue to mold their operations based on insight from each working group participant so that they can give air crew members the best available tools to return home with honor.