White Sands, New Mexico. (February 19, 2024): As far back as World War II, American airmen downed behind enemy lines had to learn how to evade the enemy and survive. In this photo by 2nd Lieutenant Merit Davey, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) specialists and Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians from the 27th Special Operations Wing hold exercises on Melrose Range, New Mexico. The training centers on the “survive and return with honor" concept with a curriculum that includes survival skills, evading capture, the military code of conduct, and techniques to escape from captivity. SERE is taught to a variety of personnel based on their risk of capture and potential exploitation value to the enemy. This is particularly the case for aircrew, special operators, and foreign diplomatic or intelligence personnel.

Each year, approximately 1,500 Soldiers, Airmen, and Marines come to the Special Operations Forces Training and Experimentation Center here to experience what it is like to be a prisoner of war. At White Sands, units are able to conduct irregular warfare activities in an environment that replicates the modern-day battlefield.

The survival school teaches unique skills such as specialized signaling, vectoring a helicopter to their position, and how to use rescue devices like forest penetrator harnesses. Other survival skills include building fires, erecting crude shelters, procuring food, and locating safe drinking water. For meat, students practice setting traps or snares to capture rabbits, snakes, or other wild edibles.

The course also covers the mental aspects of an operator caught behind enemy lines who may be wounded and disoriented. The school stresses situational awareness, the ability to assess one’s situation, and the prioritizing actions to be taken. The course encourages “survival thinking” and the will to live to overcome the trauma of captivity.

So long as America sends its aviators over hostile territory, some will find themselves in a SERE situation. America’s military services are determined to give them the skills needed to “survive with honor.”