HONOLULU - Wisconsin National Guard Airmen enhanced survival and technical skills during jungle and water survival training at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Jan. 13-23.
About 25 Airmen with the 115th Security Forces Squadron faced challenges in land navigation, evasion tactics, combative training and water survival that would have been unavailable in the Midwest.
“Getting hands-on in the jungle and the actual ocean has been amazing versus just going over it in a classroom,” said Airman 1st Class Felix Eggl. “Now that I’ve been exposed to the jungle and water, I feel way more prepared if I am ever placed in such positions.”
To maximize the Airmen’s training in a non-familiar environment, a survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE) instructor assigned to the 134th Air Refueling Wing at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in Tennessee joined the group.
“The SERE instructors have been awesome in sharing knowledge,” said Eggl.
Learning to adapt and innovate at a location very different from home provided the security forces Airmen with the hands-on experience required for worldwide military operations.
“Between survival, evasion, resistance and escape training and the different environments that created new challenges, we are creating a more agile defender,” said Master Sgt. Kevin Hamm, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the training. “Our security forces now have jungle and ocean survival skills that they previously were never exposed to.”