45th SERE Program

		The 45th'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 Spec Ops at Camp Corett, which is part of 45th's main base.

'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 45th 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.


So the selection and training process to become a Spec Ops is rigorous. Only one in four Spec Op applicants actually makes it. Part of what the 45th is looking for in its unconventional warriors is character that often includes a strong independence streak, which can be at odds with the SLDF'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 45th 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 45th 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. 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 Bremmer Adams, a former Spec Op who fought in the Fed-Com Civil War. "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 latrines that trainees use while they are "imprisoned." No toilet paper is provided.

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

An emotional ending Sgt. Glenshaw, who asked not to reveal his last name for security reasons, experienced captivity first hand in the Fed-Com War, where he grew up. He was imprisoned 18 months after trying to escape. 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.