Train to save lives

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Melissa Harvey
  • 301st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
NAVAL AIR STATION FORT WORTH JOINT RESERVE BASE, TEXAS --  With little notice a pilot can find himself ejected from his aircraft and in need of rescue. This situation is exactly what 457th Fighter Squadron pilots trained for recently at Naval Air Station Key West, Fla.

"The purpose of our water survival training is to replicate a very critical phase of recovery and educate aircrew in the procedures required to ensure a successful recovery," said Maj. Blaine Tompkins, 457th FS pilot. "In a real world ejection or downed aircraft scenario, the ejection and subsequent parachute ride are certainly dangerous and life threatening."

Making it through ejection or a crash, does not ensure survival. There are still circumstances that could endanger the life of a pilot.

"Equally dangerous are the events and threats once the aircrew has landed in the water," he said. These include, but are not limited to: being drug at high speeds by a moving parachute if the pilot does not disengage from the harness; being covered and drowned by a sinking parachute; being unable to overturn and/or enter a life raft in rough seas; not following proper connection procedures by a rescue aircraft and falling or becoming injured; not using proper flotation or swimming procedures and drowning."

Preparing pilots to survive situations like these is exactly what 301st Aircrew Flight Equipment personnel do.

In order for training of this caliber to be accomplished, 301st AFE members dedicated time to ensure each detail was complete. "All the guys spent a couple of months getting everything built up specifically for this," said Senior Master Sgt. Robert Safley, 301st AFE superintendent.

In addition to getting equipment ready, there were schedules, flights, and moving 35 pilots and support personnel from Texas to Florida, he said.

"There are a lot of logistics involved around scheduling everything, to ensure maximum participation," Safley said. "Achieving a successful joint training event with the Navy and the 920th Rescue Wing from Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. requires a lot of coordination and some rigid flexibility."

Once training began, AFE instructors emphasized vital steps that will assist in keeping pilots safe in hazardous water environments.

"Usually pilots don't perish parachuting into the water or anything else; it's the small things like getting from underneath the canopy and getting into the life raft, especially if they have any injuries," he said. "Again, we have to give them the tools and techniques so they can survive to fight another day."

From Tompkin's point of view, having a refresher course in water-survival training mitigates risk.

If a parachute lands on top of a downed pilot, it usually begins to sink and will ultimately take the pilot under water if he does not know the proper procedures to disengage from the parachute," he said. It is very disorienting and has taken more than a few pilot's lives. Only a pilot prepared by proper training and confident in his ability to remove himself from the sinking parachute will remain calm and follow these procedures correctly."

According to Tompkins and Safley, this continuation training is among several courses pilots must complete on a regular basis. Examples include: combat survival, aircrew chemical defense, parachute descent, emergency egress, local area survival, and flight equipment training.

In order for any 457th FS mission to be accomplished, it takes the seamless partnership of several units, not the least of which is AFE, who provides all of the survival training.

"Aircrew Flight Equipment is charged with educating aircrew in both the risks of water survival and the proper procedures to mitigate these risks and increase the chances of survival," Tompkins said. "The training we experienced at Key West, in the ocean, with the assets we will see real world, could very well prove the difference in saving one of the lives of the pilots flying at this squadron."