OK, I am back!!
I have to tell you about one of the classes I took at the conference.
Saturday at noon, I started a survival class that I have been looking forward to for the last 2 months. It was an Intermediate Survival Class, taught by the SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape) Instructors from Fairchild Air Force Base.
Now this was NOT my first class with the SERE guys from Fairchild. I have had several before, but each instructor has a new idea, or method of teaching, so I go as often as I can.
We only got to take our normal 24 hour Search and Rescue pack, and the clothes on our back. When we arrived at the rally point, the instructor loaded us up into buses, and hauled us WAY up into the mountains around Leavenworth WA. When they stopped, we got our gear together and discussed our ROE's. Once we had all been briefed, we hiked about a mile up into the woods, cross country, to about the 6,000 ft level. Once we got there, we practiced helo extractions with a live helo and the Penetrator Hook, triangulation with our maps, food procurement (including snares,) firecraft, and last, shelter building. At the end of all the lessons, they had us drop our packs.
You know how there is ALWAYS that one person who can spoil a party? Well, we had 3 of those. These were the people who brought a 6,000 cubic inch expedition pack, loaded to the gills with everything, including the kitchen sink. So, to even the class up a little, the instructor calls us all together and tells us:
"You may only have 7 items out of your pack. Choose wisely, it's gonna be COLD tonight!"
For me, this was a no brainer. I only had a dozen or so, not including repair kits and spare batteries. So, my items were:
- Fleece sleeping bag
- Water Bladder
- Iodine
- MRE
- Rope
- Metal Match
- Survival/Space Blanket
Since I am an EMT, they wanted me to keep my med kit. I cheated and pulled another space blanket out of that! I also had a Standard Issue Bolt knife, but since I was wearing that, they didn't count it.
I built my shelter and insulated it with plenty of pine boughs, and curled up to test it. It was warm and cozy, and I promptly feel asleep! After a quick hour nap, I was woken by by another student who wanted to see my ugly, but warm little home.
After I walked her around it, we heard a large group of people laughing, so we headed down to join them. Apparently some of them had swapted an item they had taken, for another item they had left in their pack. One girl went and got a large bag of spoons, and another went and got her playing card. With those two things, they got a rather large, vicious game of spoons going by the camp fire. Nice.
After bullshitting around the fire, and eating a meager dinner, we headed off to sleep. Worried about bears, I slept with my second favorite woman.. Kimber. After about two hours, I began to feel the temp drop, and the rain started. Then the temp dropped some more, and the sleet started. Then the sky's cleared, and the temp dropped more. By morning, I was cold, but not freezing, and there was a fresh layer of snow just a couple hundred feet above us. I got up and stretched, and moved around a bunch to generate body heat. Next, we got started on the morning fire. We built a pretty good fire and boiled some water. Since I had my MRE, the beverage I got was a Vanilla Cappachino, SCORE! So I had hot coffee for my morning wakeup! (Yes, I know caffeine is not good for hypothermic patients, but as I explained, I was cold, but not frozen!) After this, we played around a while, tore down the shelters, and headed back.
Although most of the people were cold, none of us froze, and everybody learned a lot. The instructors commented that we kept ourselves entertained a lot better than most of his Aircrew/Pilots do when they go through the SERE training.. I reminded him of the cute little 19 year old girls we had in our group, and we figured that may have had something to do with the high level of our morale.
So, that was my Saturday night... How was yours?
