Optional?

This is coolbert:

From a comment to the blog:

"Umm, SERE Training is purely voluntary and a person can stop at any time in the process, that's kind of the point. They try to get you to sign a false confession."

"Anyone who knows anything about the military or the special forces community ought to know that."

That SERE training is "voluntary" so as it is stated is questionable to me! Voluntary participation in practical "exercises" is possible and not mandatory? Of this I am not sure! [I personally am not special operations or SF trained and experienced!]

"Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape" [SERE] is an integral part of military training for various commands, MOS, positions, etc.

Rangers, Special Forces [SF] troops, combat aviators, etc. Anyone who has an elevated chance of capture by the enemy or find themselves in a very hostile natural environment undergoes SERE training!

[CIA personnel involved in field work - - if not military trained, also receive SERE training of some sort?]

From the wiki entry:

"Curriculum"

"The curriculum has three key parts: survival and evasion; resistance and escape; and water survival; some parts are classified."

And taught at different levels as well.

* Survival and evasion as taught suggesting a troop NOT in the hands of the enemy!

Woodcraft, eating roots and berries, how to move cross-country and regain friendly territory without capture, etc.

The survival and evasion portion of SERE NOT being voluntary! You must actually go out into the woods and survive for a period of time eating nuts, roots, berries, building an expedient shelter, and evading teams of the "enemy" "hunting" you. NOR could you say: "OK, I did the classroom work, now I call off the practical exercise!"

* Resistance and escape as taught suggesting a troop IN the hands of the enemy!

Subjected to mental and physical abuse, torture, etc. This is where the controversial episodes of waterboarding as PART OF TRAINING HAVE OCCURRED.

American military personnel, as part of SERE training, being subjected to waterboarding, simulated drowning. NOT MERELY A CLASSROOM SUBJECT DISCUSSED!! Actual physical waterboarding occurring.

[about 15 seconds of waterboarding has been found to be the limit of what most folks can withstand!]

American military personnel also subjected to other forms of abuse as part of the Resistance portion of SERE training. Forced nakedness, being placed in a coffin, exposed to extremes of heat and cold, etc.

My understanding is that this "training" is not necessarily VOLUNTARY! You can [?] call a halt to the abuse at any time, but classroom "work" and a mere discussion of the subject is not enough!

And U.S. military personnel WERE being waterboarded as part of SERE. That is a fact. That was the whole point of the previous blog entry. The question was raised [and not answered] - - if the U.S. military and the CIA for that matter have been told that it is illegal to waterboard an enemy combatant, is it also now illegal to waterboard OUR OWN personnel as part of "training"? Resistance training in totality now consists only of a classroom lecture?

[SF personnel prior to deployment to Laos as part of the White Star missions [1960] were required to spend SIX WEEKS in the forests of Eglin AFB surviving and eluding "friendly" personnel "hunting" for them. This was a basic requirement, to be completed successfully prior to being sent overseas. NOT merely classroom work!]

Certain aspects of SERE have been and are NOW controversial. The entire course is not necessarily voluntary. YOU CAN "call off" waterboarding if subjected to the ordeal, but that is only an ASPECT of SERE.

And the legality of administering "measures" as the troop may encounter during Resistance training is still an open subject. Perhaps the classified nature of the subject in some regard precludes a definitive answer? I just don't know!

coolbert.