Whidbey Island Survival School

When I was in the P3 community (VP31), I was sent to NUW for Survival
School. I forget how long it lasted, but I recall the "ogre muthas" giving
us a time or two. It was cold and wet (February) and I recall they bused
us out to some mountain for snow survival. I have no idea where the Happy
Valley compound was, but I do recall being quite uncomfortable for some time
in a little box they put me in. All in all, quite an experience.
Hell of it is all I got was this lousy little rubber stamp "FATUPAC DET
2 successfully completed" in my personnel jacket.

Is this kind of stuff still done?

JD
USN sailor '63 - 67
USA doctor '75 - 77

You should have gone through in August as I did when there was not enough
snow on Mount Baker to justify the snow survival phase.

Got sick on day-old black berries. But really enjoyed the world's best crabs
( illegal to catch except during survival school).

WDA
A3D RAG 1962

end

"JD" wrote in message
...
When I was in the P3 community (VP31), I was sent to NUW for Survival
School. I forget how long it lasted, but I recall the "ogre muthas"
giving us a time or two. It was cold and wet (February) and I recall
they bused us out to some mountain for snow survival. I have no idea
where the Happy Valley compound was, but I do recall being quite
uncomfortable for some time in a little box they put me in. All in all,
quite an experience.
Hell of it is all I got was this lousy little rubber stamp "FATUPAC DET
2 successfully completed" in my personnel jacket.

Is this kind of stuff still done?

JD
USN sailor '63 - 67
USA doctor '75 - 77

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:14:55 -0800, "W. D. Allen Sr."
postulated :

Got sick on day-old black berries. But really enjoyed the world's best crabs
( illegal to catch except during survival school).

I got the crabs once down in Guantanamo but the folks at Sick Bay
helped me get rid of them. ducking and running

WDA,

By the time I hit the Rock for A-6 type training (1972), the only training
of that type happening there was Cold Wx Environmental Survival Training
(CWEST). Essentially 3 days of "Snow Caves 101," on the slopes of Mt.
Baker, IIRC. This was actually quite practical, as we had to transit the
Cascades all the time to use the Boardman target range, the Spokane Radar
Bomb Scoring site, and the low-level routes of eastern Oregon.

All of the west coast SERE training had been consolidated at Warner Springs
by then.

Most interesting aspect of my CWEST class was that our instructor had been
the leading QM aboard PUEBLO at the time of her capture by the North
Koreans. All of us were nugget O-2s and O-3s, plus one or two junior
enlisted up for Aircrewman qualification. We got to hear all the POW
stories. (Picture a bunch of adolescent kids around the campfire as their
Scoutmaster tells them ghost stories. Not too much different.)

--
Mike Kanze

"Boy, I feel safer now that [Martha Stewart's] behind bars. O.J. & Kobe are
walking around free, but they take the ONE woman in America willing to cook
and clean and work in the yard and haul her ass to jail."

- Tim Allen



"W. D. Allen Sr." wrote in message
...
You should have gone through in August as I did when there was not enough
snow on Mount Baker to justify the snow survival phase.

Got sick on day-old black berries. But really enjoyed the world's best
crabs ( illegal to catch except during survival school).

WDA
A3D RAG 1962

end

"JD" wrote in message
...
When I was in the P3 community (VP31), I was sent to NUW for Survival
School. I forget how long it lasted, but I recall the "ogre muthas"
giving us a time or two. It was cold and wet (February) and I recall
they bused us out to some mountain for snow survival. I have no idea
where the Happy Valley compound was, but I do recall being quite
uncomfortable for some time in a little box they put me in. All in all,
quite an experience.
Hell of it is all I got was this lousy little rubber stamp "FATUPAC
DET 2 successfully completed" in my personnel jacket.

Is this kind of stuff still done?

JD
USN sailor '63 - 67
USA doctor '75 - 77

I remember it well . Oger Muthu,s . Commie Uniforms and Pigion English .
Damn legs going to sleep in those Little Boxes . March 68 . Prior to
shipping out to RivRon 13 Mekong Delta .

The sailor in the box next to me keep passing out and I was able to keep
cool myself talking to him! Never did thank him.
Jim

"T Bird" wrote in message
...
I remember it well . Oger Muthu,s . Commie Uniforms and Pigion English .
Damn legs going to sleep in those Little Boxes . March 68 . Prior to
shipping out to RivRon 13 Mekong Delta .

"T Bird" wrote in message
...
I remember it well . Oger Muthu,s . Commie Uniforms and Pigion English .
Damn legs going to sleep in those Little Boxes . March 68 . Prior to
shipping out to RivRon 13 Mekong Delta .


March 68
That conjures up images of P-2V Neptunes and A-6 Intruders 'in the pattern'
at "The Rock". My Step-Dad was a TD stationed there at that time- I recall
playing in the Flight Simulators at FASO. That stuff was way cool to an
eight year old!

Larry
AECS (AW/SW/MTS)
USN 'Retired'
20 years if gettin 'em off the pointy end
AND safely home again!

There was this one ogre mutha with a t-h-i-c-k southern country drawl. We
got cold water thrown on us for laughing when those "yall dum merican peegs"
would ring out. As I recall, there was one LCDR, two jg's, maybe 18 shiney
new squadron nuggets and two junior enlisted. I bet the average age was
23....... Middle of February, rain and slop. We come off that mountain
after freezing our asses off overnight in an igloo, summer flight suits, and
a parachute. Then they dropped us off in some place to survive (don't
remember how long.... day or two I guess) and eventually we'd come out on
Freedom Road with barber striping on the poles. Then we were captured and
the "training commenced". Intelligence prevents total immersion, but they
do have a way of getting what we needed to know across.

Does anyone know if they still do survival for the aircrews? I would
expect it's primarily desert oriented, but if I recall, there was a tropical
survival school in the islands...... Not sure about that.

Best
JD



"JD" wrote in message
...
When I was in the P3 community (VP31), I was sent to NUW for Survival
School. I forget how long it lasted, but I recall the "ogre muthas"
giving us a time or two. It was cold and wet (February) and I recall
they bused us out to some mountain for snow survival. I have no idea
where the Happy Valley compound was, but I do recall being quite
uncomfortable for some time in a little box they put me in. All in all,
quite an experience.
Hell of it is all I got was this lousy little rubber stamp "FATUPAC DET
2 successfully completed" in my personnel jacket.

Is this kind of stuff still done?

JD
USN sailor '63 - 67
USA doctor '75 - 77

JD wrote:
Does anyone know if they still do survival for the aircrews? I would
expect it's primarily desert oriented, but if I recall, there was a tropical
survival school in the islands...... Not sure about that.

I think it randomly depends on which location you get sent to and
what time of year it is. Everybody still gets basic land survival
classes in API, SERE comes later. I got the winter deal at the same
time as SERE up in Maine a few years ago. One of the most traumatic
experiences for was looking out the window of the plane on the way
there, down into the snowy landscape and thinking, "Aw crap, I'm
gonna be sleeping down there next week. This really sucks!" My
friends that went to the one near San Diego said they froze in the
desert at night, but they didn't get the "cold weather" piece of paper.

Suffice to say they still have many good methods of instruction to
get the point across when you're in the camp.

For a week or two after getting back, I remember every time I saw an
animal I'd start thinking of a way to try to catch it and eat it.
Fun stuff. I also appreciated my freedom more than I ever thought
was possible.

Oh, I made a few photocopies of my SERE letter to be safe, just in
case I lost it. I stopped short of stashing them all around the
house, distributing copies to family and friends, burying one in a
safe place...

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 16:09:04 -0600, Jim Carriere
wrote:

Suffice to say they still have many good methods of instruction to
get the point across when you're in the camp.

Indeed. ;-)

I was a guest of PRONA (The People's Republic of North America) in the
fall of '69. I still have the book of matches they gave us after
"liberation" emblazoned: "PRONA: You're a Stranger Here But Once."

When I went the Maine woods were not yet terribly cold, so at one
point the whole camp was down to skivvie shorts and boots with no
laces. Picture 8 or 9 guys so clad working either end of a cross cut
saw on a 24" log and you have quite an image!

For a week or two after getting back, I remember every time I saw an
animal I'd start thinking of a way to try to catch it and eat it.
Fun stuff.

We all went out to dinner the night we got back at a buffet near NAS
Brunswick. Everybody loaded up and quickly found that a week without
significant food leaves you quite unable to do any buffet justice.

I also appreciated my freedom more than I ever thought
was possible.

Well said.

Oh, I made a few photocopies of my SERE letter to be safe, just in
case I lost it. I stopped short of stashing them all around the
house, distributing copies to family and friends, burying one in a
safe place...

I still have a copy of mine in my safe deposit box. Sometimes
paranoia dies hard. :-)

Bill Kambic