BELLOWS AIR FORCE STATION, Hawaii —
Members from Team Fairchild’s innovation cell conducted an event to review current foundational survival training methods and their applicability to tropic, jungle, and coastal conditions by taking three groups of members with varying levels of survival training to Hawaii for a simulated isolation scenario from Jan. 30- Feb. 3, 2023.
During this event, the three groups (no Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training, SV97 training, and SV97 with SV98 training) were tasked with demonstrating current knowledge of survival in each of the environment conditions.
“The idea was to create a training program that other bases can utilize and determine a need for that training, students with differing levels of survival training were evaluated,” explained Major Sean Edwards, chief innovation project manager at Fairchild’s innovation cell.
The purpose of this training was to innovate current survival training methods compatible with tropical, coastal and jungle environments, to determine the difference between AMC airmen with and without foundational survival training and evaluate each student before and after the new training was taught.
“The process of evaluating, training, re-evaluating, then providing any necessary remedial training allowed airmen with no prior training to demonstrate the ability to survive long term isolation,” said Edwards.
The survival scenario was split into a written portion and a task proficiency portion. The written portion was designed to measure each student’s current survival comprehension levels, while the task proficiency part was to observe the student’s ability to carry out tasks needed to meet their survival needs.
“This rigid method of evaluating students ensures they are focused on improvement of the ability to conduct critical survival tasks,” said Edwards.
At the end of the written and task proficiency portion, the students were given hands-on survival instruction in each of the different biomes (coastal, jungle, and tropics) and were then asked to redo the task performance portion of the exercise.
“We wanted to give them hands on experience and see the difference in their performance,” said Edwards. “The evaluations revealed that airmen could increase their odds of survival in the evaluated biomes with Tropical Pacific Survival Training.”
Team Fairchild’s innovation cell is constantly looking for new ways to improve and renovate the Air Force so that our airmen are better prepared for the future.
