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Show HILLTOP TIMES Tim Es June 21, 2012 Left, U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet A.J. Ciochomski steadies a one-man raft in the Hess Indoor Pool at Hill Air Force Base on June 15 as part of SERE Training. Above, Rex Anderson gets pulled into the pool face forward as part of the training to get a sense of what it would feel like to be dragged into water by his chute. Anderson then had to release his life preserver unit from the harness. Below, ten of the cadets can be seen attempting to get into the 20-man raft as another unseen cadet is being pulled up from the other side of the raft by a cadet. Bottom, Cadet Corey Landis makes his way under a floating parachute, demonstrating the technique required when a chute lands on your head in a low wind water deployment situation. ALEX R. LLOYD/U.S. Air Force CADETS From page 1 an aircraft in the Air Force inventory has to go through, said Maj. Mark Whisler, 388th Operations Support Squadron. Whisler was in charge of the visit as 11 cadets came to Hill Air Force Base to job shadow and look at career choices they might want to put on their dream sheets. The two and a half weeks the sophomore cadets spend here this month may very well determine what they become, once they go back to the academy for their junior year. Cadets will most likely all get the chance to take a familiarization flight in an F-16. The most challenging part of Whisler's job he explained is when others ask him, "What do you guys do up there?" He said it would take him months to describe it and it still wouldn't approach the way it really needs to be explained. "Being able to take someone up and showing them that is pretty rewarding," said Whisler. Besides the familiarization flights, cadets will get to visit several career fields, including operations, intelligence, security forces, and any other fields they would most like to job shadow. Hill Air Force Base is an excellent choice as it offers them a wide variety of career fields to job shadow said Whisler, indicating that besides the maintenance side, ICBM and other fields, there are operations groups, support groups and more to offer cadets who might be interested in experiencing a wide variety of job fields. Two cadets had already visited 75th Air Base Wing public affairs June 11 and others had spent time with the crew chiefs on the maintenance line. Whisler encouraged anyone conducting job shadowing efforts to show both the positive and negative aspects of their job. "A (cadet who visited the crew chiefs) came back and said he didn't realize that maintenance was a 24/7 operation," said Whisler. "The biggest thing is we don't want to paint a more positive picture than is reality," Whisler said. "I have definitely given them — this is what I absolutely love about my job — this is what I absolutely hate about my job. Here is what we are trying to fix or are in the process of trying to make better," said Whisler. In the SERE training class June 15, as Allchin asked for input on the water deployment portion of their training, and reviewed jelly fish, killer whales, water snakes and harmful, poisonous and toxic sea creatures, the cadets responded with answers to his questions. As the SERE NCO, Allchin described one man rafts, seven man rafts, 10 and 20 man rafts and told them a little about his Arctic training experience sleeping overnight in a one-man raft. "The (water spray) shield actually holds in warmth and provides an adequate air barrier," he said. Keeping the shield around them in a water environment would also provide warmth, he explained. He reviewed the procedures for detaching from their chutes, heading to the rafts, assisting others, analyzing their situation and providing medical relief to others. Easy to remember acronyms were the order of the day. These were to assist them in situations where it might be easier to panic. Retaining focus and moving through the Air, Anchor, Assist, Accessories and Analyze steps are a means to get the Airmen through the shock of the situation, to respond accordingly and reason their way through to a situation where they can be rescued more rapidly. Items that could be used as signaling devices ranged from everything as complex as a radio, to as simple as a shiny spoon or belt buckle. Health concerns, keeping the life raft sanitary, supplementing food with fish and birds, and the story of Poon Lim who survived 133 days on a life boat and walked unaided on land after his rescue were presented. When the group adjourned to the pool, Allchin demonstrated the way to unfasten the harness before each cadet then got a chance to be pulled into the pool, frontwards and backwards. The cadets then demonstrated their prowess at pulling their way through a parachute floating on top of the water in the corner of the pool with the aid of Staff Sgt. Ben- jamin Hill, SERE NCOIC. Hill also demonstrated the oneman life raft to a few cadets as others waited for the group to join them. Allchin led the group with a 20-man raft demonstration requiring the cadets to assist each other into the raft, attend to a wounded man, assemble a canopy and then reverse it to the black side for better camouflage. "It's been pretty great so far," said Cadet Tom Coughlin, when asked about his experiences. "Definitely all the fields have a lot to offer." Cadet Joel Bertelsen, one of the first to get a ride in an F-16 reported the familiarization flight as the highlight so far. "It was one of the coolest experiences of my life," he said. "I didn't know what to expect going in, but it was a thrill. It made me want to be a pilot even more." Both cadets reported that they had gotten good information on what deployment in a high operations tempo was like. Coughlin reported highlights as well of getting a chance to talk to the enlisted personnel, reviewing rates of promotion in various fields and what it was like to have a family as the military member deployed. 5 |