Elite U.S. military aviators and special forces undergo intense training for the prospect they are trapped behind enemy lines. The training is called SERE, which stands for “survival, evasion, resistance and escape.”
The Air Force crew member rescued this weekend was seriously wounded, President Trump said. The aviator survived and evaded capture for 36 hours in a remote, mountainous part of Iran.
The four pillars of SERE are survive, evade, resist, and escape. Survive involves prioritizing needs to minimize stress and calorie burn, while evade requires executing an exit strategy. Resist involves learning martial-arts style kicks and following rules of engagement consistent with the Geneva Convention.
Escape involves using equipment like flares, radios, and other gear to evade the enemy and return to safety. The idea is “so that if they do go down they can get home safely,” a SERE trainer says.
