What Is USAF SERE? Inside the Military’s Elite Survival Training Program
- Micah Gillette
- 13 hours ago
- 9 min read
From A SERE Specialist
After signing up for the USAF in 2010, I knew I wanted to do something fun where I could jump out of planes and shoot guns, queue the recruiter SERE video. I spent 12 years in the Air Force as a SERE Specialist, where I worked as a combat survival instructor, a water survival instructor, and set up a base-level training shop to conduct refresher courses. I finished my 12 years by certifying as a Combat Aviation Advisor (CAA). I also deployed to CENTCOM where we ran recovery missions, developed the Afghanistan reintegration center, and trained the Iraqi SERE instructors while helping build their program own SERE school. I can’t tell you exactly what SERE looks like today, but this is my experience as a SERE Specialist.
This is what we will cover
What Is SERE?
SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape—a program built to ensure that U.S. military members can survive in hostile environments after becoming isolated and "Return with Honor." Developed after World War II and refined through every major conflict since, SERE is where the military’s toughest lessons, learned the hardest way, in adaptability, grit, and human spirit, come together.
A Short History
The concept of SERE was born out of hard lessons learned during World War II and the Korean War. Thousands of Allied airmen were shot down or forced to bail out over enemy territory with little to no formal training in survival or evasion. Many were captured, and many never made it home, simply because they didn’t know how to live off the land, navigate without tools, or resist interrogation.
After the war, the U.S. military realized that survival and resistance weren’t instincts that could be counted on; they were skills that needed to be taught. That realization led to the creation of organized survival training programs in the late 1940s.
One of the early leaders credited with shaping what would become modern SERE training was Colonel (later Major General) Don Flickinger, a flight surgeon and pioneer in Air Rescue operations. Along with others, like Dr. Albert “Doc” Sims and Colonel Jerry Sage, a former WWII POW, he helped develop the first survival and evasion courses for downed aircrew. Their work eventually evolved into the USAF Survival Training School, officially established at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada in 1948.
When the school moved to Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington in 1966, the curriculum expanded to include the Resistance and Escape portions of training. Over time, all four pillars—Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape—were brought together under one unified program known simply as SERE.
USAF SERE vs. Other Branches
Let me start by saying I’ve never attended any other branch’s SERE program, so I won’t comment on how good or bad they are. I can only speak from my own research and from a deep understanding of how these programs came about. All SERE programs operate under the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) doctrine as Level C Code of Conduct (CoC) training.
There are the obvious differences like branch, uniforms, and traditions, but the real difference lies in who’s teaching. In the Air Force, SERE is its own career field (AFSC, MOS, NEC), while in the other branches, instructors are brought in on special duty assignments.
So what does that mean exactly? A special duty is something someone steps away from their normal job to do for a few years, usually two to four, before returning to their original career field. The Air Force, on the other hand, made SERE a full-time profession.
That means Air Force SERE Specialists receive a higher level of training and maintain the most comprehensive program across the services. It's also the only place in the Department of Defense where you’ll find junior enlisted members serving as Professional Military Instructors. Every other school in the DoD requires you to be a Non-Commissioned Officer to teach.
Training Pipeline: Becoming a SERE Specialist
I'm well aware that the pipeline has evolved since I attended in 2011, so this is a little outdated, but the general idea and flow are still the same.
Selection: First, all wannabes attend SERE Selection. This is a 15-day course held at Medina AFB in San Antonio, Texas. It’s designed to weed out the weak before moving them on to the next phase. There’s a lot of exercise, a moderate amount of stress, and a few skill-building events mixed in. It gives candidates an idea of what’s coming if they complete selection and are chosen to move forward. It all wraps up with a field exercise and an interview to ensure you’re ready to move to Fairchild AFB, Washington, which was selected because the state offers nearly every climate possible. Six of these selection classes will come together to form a team.
Indoc: Once you move to Fairchild, you’ll enter the Indoc pipeline. Here you complete all of SERE’s courses as a student first, followed by a three-week technical course that’s a slightly more demanding version of what happened in Texas. This phase takes a few months while you continue daily PT and train with your future team. The actual tech school only runs two classes per year, so once you finish Indoc, you might wait anywhere from one week to six months to start the official program.
Tech School: This phase is broken into sections based on specific survival environments. The Air Force wants SERE Specialists to have hands-on experience in every major biome. There’s classroom time on base followed by real-world field training. In each environment, we learned to meet the five basic needs: sustenance, personal protection, navigation, medical, and communication. The order may change depending on the season, but these are the phases we went through.
Familiarization (now Core Survival Skills): About ten days on base learning core skills like knots, sewing, and tool care, followed by ten days in the Kaniksu National Forest putting them into practice. The goal was to build a foundation of survival skills in a static location. There wasn’t much navigation or evasion. Long days, short nights, and a high attrition rate.
Mobile: This phase was all about navigation—long hikes with heavy packs, endless map and compass work, triangulation drills, and short camps each night before moving out again. My back still remembers this phase.
Rocks: Probably the most enjoyable phase, full of food and sleep. We learned to set up high- and low-angle recovery systems, climb rock faces, and improvise harnesses. We camped just outside Spokane, Washington, and spent several days climbing and learning rescue techniques.
Desert: This was where we learned about real dehydration. We spent a week in the Columbia River Basin in August, including a 48-hour dehydration phase. We practiced meeting our basic needs in the sand dunes and sagebrush. If I learned one thing, it was to drink water.
Tropics/Rivers: In the northwest corner of Washington lies the Hoh Rainforest, the world’s coldest rainforest and, conveniently, the wettest place on Earth. That’s where we spent a week staying constantly soaked, learning how to survive and move through the environment. Fans of the Twilight movies might recognize the area—it was filmed nearby. This phase also included river training where we built rafts and navigated rapids.
Coastal/Open Ocean: The only out-of-state training, this took us to the Oregon coast. We started with a day in a life raft while the Coast Guard simulated rough seas if nature didn’t cooperate. After plenty of sea sickness, we made landfall and began coastal survival training, learning to meet our needs both on the shoreline and in intercostal waterways. Cold, wet, and salty sums it up best.
Teaching: Back to the Kaniksu, and this time it felt different. You start to feel like a real SERE Specialist. We developed lesson plans, practiced instruction, and began learning our craft as teachers.
Integrated: This was the final step, where we put everything together. We built a full day of lessons and were graded on our ability not just to perform survival skills but to teach them to our teammates. The cadre took a step back—no more yelling or punishment. They had given us the tools. It was up to us to prove we could use them.
After that came graduation, but not the end of training. Once you earn your beret and the title of SERE Specialist, you’ll move on to Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, followed by Arctic training in Alaska. When I went through, we also had to complete instructor certification, which took another six to twelve months of on-the-job training at the Basic Survival Course, learning how to teach aircrew the same skills we had just mastered.
A Day in the Life of a SERE Specialist
This is one of the best things about SERE—the answer can look very different depending on the path you build for yourself.
Many SERE Specialists stay within the basic survival training program, working as instructors at the Fairchild AFB survival school. This includes the field courses, on-base academics, resistance training, and water survival. These are the core programs that aircrew and operators must complete before starting their careers.
Another common option is to move to an Air Force base and work at a support squadron. Aircrew and operators who attend initial SERE training are required to complete refresher training every few years. To make that possible, SERE Specialists are stationed at bases around the country to provide those refresher courses.
Beyond those core roles, there are several other unique opportunities that SERE Specialists can pursue:
Rescue Squadron (RQS) Assignments – Embed with Guardian Angel or Combat Rescue units, supporting recovery operations, mission planning, and aircrew training.
Test Parachutist / Equipment Evaluation – Work with developmental test units to jump, evaluate, and certify new parachute systems, survival gear, and recovery equipment.
Headquarters / Staff Positions – Serve at MAJCOMs, Air Staff, or Joint Commands, providing subject matter expertise for survival, evasion, and personnel recovery policy and programs. (pssst...don't do it!)
Weapons School Support – Augment the USAF Weapons School or other advanced training programs by integrating survival and recovery into combat mission planning.
Advanced Tactics Assignments – Support Advanced Tactics units with realistic survival and evasion training and integrate personnel recovery into large-force exercises.
High-Risk-of-Capture (HRC) Instructor – Train select aircrew and special operations forces in advanced resistance and recovery techniques beyond standard SERE levels.
Combat Aviation Advisor (CAA) – Work with the 711th Special Operations Squadron or similar units, advising and training partner nation forces in survival, evasion, and personnel recovery.
JPRA or DoD-Level Liaison Roles – Represent Air Force SERE at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, contributing to doctrine, curriculum development, and inter-service coordination.
R&D and Equipment Testing – Participate in developmental projects for new survival kits, clothing systems, or signaling equipment through the Air Force Research Laboratory or similar entities.
Specialized Environment Detachments – Serve at detachments focused on extreme climates, such as Arctic Survival in Alaska or Water Survival in Florida, managing regional training programs specific to those environments. I worked at Water Survival for 2 years and it was by far the most fun job I've ever had. This video gives a good idea of what we did there with a cameo by yours truly.
Legacy and Mindset
At its core, SERE isn’t just about surviving in the wild. It’s about discipline, adaptability, and a deep sense of purpose. “Return with Honor” isn’t just a motto we throw around; it’s the foundation of everything we do. It means making decisions that protect your team, preserve your integrity, and give you the best chance of coming home.
The community is small by design. The people who make it through carry a quiet professionalism that’s hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t lived it. It’s not loud or showy, it’s the kind of confidence that comes from being cold, hungry, and exhausted, yet still finding a way to take care of the person next to you.
What sets SERE Specialists apart isn’t just technical skill, it’s mindset. We train to prepare others for the worst days of their lives, and that kind of responsibility changes how you see the world. You learn that comfort is temporary, growth happens in discomfort, and humility is strength.
Those lessons don’t fade when the uniform comes off. They shape how you lead, how you raise a family, and how you handle adversity long after active duty. The culture of SERE is built on service, resilience, and an unshakable belief that preparation saves lives, and that mindset never really leaves you.
Closing Thoughts
My time in the Air Force as a SERE Specialist shaped who I am today. It taught me a lot of hard lessons, the biggest being just how far I can push myself. It also gave me one of my favorite compliments: “You’re the hardest-working lazy person I’ve ever met.” We’d push ourselves all day just to earn an extra hour of rest at the end, and somehow that balance made sense.
SERE gave me the foundation for everything I do now. If you’d like to learn more about practical survival, leadership skills inspired by this training, or just want to know more about SERE, reach out through Six Point Survival.
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~ Micah Gillette
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