Survival Training

Unconventional soldiers at risk
Special Forces troops often work in small teams behind enemy lines. It's that kind of unconventional warfare that puts them at risk. In Afghanistan, Taliban and al Qaeda supporters have offered a $50,000 bounty for a dead Westerner, according to the United States, and $100,000 for a live one.

		The U.S Army's Special Forces train extensively for combat. But they also train for the possibility of being captured by the enemy. For nearly three weeks, a CNN camera team was granted exclusive access to the survival training of 50 new Green Berets at Camp Mackall, which is part of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

'Stress inoculation' What goes on at the school is three weeks of "stress inoculation" via a course the Army calls Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, or SERE. The school provides a realistic setting for soldiers to learn how to live off the land if they are cut off from friendly forces. Students also learn how to evade the enemy and escape if hunted down and finally how to resist if captured, imprisoned and tortured.

		The stress of survival training To understand what makes a better soldier, the Army has examined the stress levels of soldiers who have gone through the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training course. In one study, the levels of cortisol, a hormone that prepares the body for stress, were measured. Researchers found that students taking the SERE course experienced significant changes in hormone levels, which the military described as some of the greatest ever documented in humans.

The chart at right shows average cortisol levels measured in SERE students compared to levels recorded in previous studies that looked at patients about to undergo major surgery, soldiers in Army Ranger training, pilots performing military flight operations and novice skydivers making their first jump.
Source: Dr. C.A. Morgan III and Maj. Gary Hazlett, from "Special Warfare" magazine		published by the JFK Special Warfare Center and School
		One of the most interesting findings by the Army was the difference found between Special Forces soldiers and other soldiers. Data from Army studies showed that Special Forces soldiers had higher levels of adrenaline during the SERE training than regular Army soldiers. When adrenaline was measured 24 hours after the SERE stress was over, the adrenaline levels of Special Forces soldiers returned to normal levels. But adrenaline levels in non-Special Forces soldiers were depleted. The data suggests that Special Forces have a biological profile of people who are "cool under fire."

So the selection and training process to become a Green Beret is rigorous. Only one in four Special Forces applicants actually makes it. Part of what the Army is looking for in its unconventional warriors is character that often includes a strong independence streak, which can be at odds with the Army's prevailing culture.

		Trainees are taught that when stranded in the field, they should eat what they can find, which can include turtles, snakes, insects and other things normally considered unappetizing. The training helps them overcome their food aversions.

These are some rabbits that some trainees turned into a meal. But a running joke is that "food is a crutch" because survival school teaches soldiers how to overcome physical stress like hunger by using mental strength.

		A Special Forces captain swallows a worm to the delight of his fellow trainees. Asked what it tasted like, the captain said, "Dirt. And kind of like a worm. Kind of fishy. Kind of fishy. "

Soldiers are taught to use anything to survive, like this trash scavenged in the woods and used to build a lure to catch fish.

		These are examples of weapons that soldiers can make by scavenging and thinking creatively.

Survival School also teaches the students how to be extracted by helicopter should they ever need to be rescued from terrain like a jungle where trees and vegetation are too dense for a helicopter to land.

		Evading the enemy The SERE course includes a section on evading the enemy. Students are taught how to leverage even limited strength in hand-to-hand combat and students learn how to be extracted from rough terrain by helicopter. But the main lesson on evasion takes the form of a war game with an opposition force armed with blank ammunition to make it realistic. The students have no food, water or weapons.

Realism is crucial to survival school training and the school instructors strive to create a realistic prisoner of war environment. However, the Army places strict limits the physical and mental pressures that guards can exert. But the Army will not publicly disclose what the limits are so it can maximize the anxiety for future students.

		To simulate a real environment, the "opposition" army that hunts the mock prisoners is armed with blank ammunition.

A mock POW camp The Army strictly limits how harsh the physical and mental pressures can be. But it will not publicly disclose what the limits are so it can maximize the anxiety for future students. After several days of the war game -- evading the bad guys -- the students are captured. The students are then taken to a mock prisoner of war camp to begin the most stressful part of their training.

		Sleep and food deprivation Much of the school's training is classified. But Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant credits the training for helping him survive 10 days in captivity in 1993 when the Black Hawk helicopter he was piloting was shot down in Mogadishu, Somalia. To prepare commandos who are at high risk of capture, the course includes sleep deprivation and food deprivation -- severe enough that, over the course of survival school, a student typically drops 15 pounds.

Once captured, the "prisoners" are hooded and roped together. After their capture, the school instructors attempt to strip soldiers of their identities. What the instructors hope to teach can be summed up quite simply: They want soldiers to understand that if they're captured, there's a difference between being a prisoner of war and a prisoner at war.

		The mock prison camp is designed to provide the most realistic conditions possible. "Is the guy going to be under stress in captivity? You're dang straight, he is," says survival school instructor Elmer Adams, a former Green Beret who fought in Vietnam. "So, we're going to put him under stress here to prepare him for that, just in case he gets scarfed up."

Conditions are spartan in the mock POW camp. These are the 3rd World latrines that trainees use while they are "imprisoned." No toilet paper is provided.

		The communist-style prisoner-of-war camp has cages, concrete cells and outside its barbed wire are mock graves.

An emotional ending Sgt. Glen, who asked CNN not to reveal his last name for security reasons, experienced captivity first hand in East Germany, where he grew up. He was imprisoned 18 months after trying to escape to the West in 1973. Now, as a survival school trainer, he tries to pass along the lessons he learned to new soldiers. "I want to be able to share that with the students that come through here so that they don't have to learn the hard way," he said.

And when the prospective Special Forces soldiers complete the course, the finale brings a flood of emotion to the surface.