jhungary
MILITARY PROFESSIONAL
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We didn't get any vitamin pills either. Within 3 weeks, I had lost over 13Kgs in weight and my waist had dropped from 32 to 27 inches.
In addition to starvation, sleep deprivation, pressure positions, regular beatings, motion induced vomiting, waterboarding and a host of other daily activities, we were also made to run about 20-30km every day. We could literally see ourselves wasting away every time we looked at our reflection.
Toughest days of my life. But they give you a feeling of infallibility afterwards, I had a huge confidence boost after living through all that. I felt if I survived all that, I could survive anything. No hunger was debilitating after that, no fatigue was too tiresome. I also learnt how painful time could be, I used to often say "I don't have the time for X,Y,Z" after undergoing my survival course however, I knew just how long 24 hours can be, an eternity can be brought to bear in that time.
Well, we are now a bunch of fat stick trying to play soldier, when I was in SERE, they took the waterboarding experience away and each class have a physician and make sure you don't die on training. Was expecting a full panel of torture (minus the fingernail bed stuff of course) but beside dishing out a bit beating, they choose not to get too physical.
For us, we were made to run before we enter the torture phase (resisting phase), full gear humping, much like when you are in boy scout camp, you learn the wilderness skill and try to survive for a duration of time scourge and hunting for food, learning how to cover your track.
We did got physical in resistance phase, but mostly push up and some stressed exercises, but you do need to do a parade - A walk of shame around the camp everyday and every night. Don't know if that counts.
Did they taught you to sing in SERE? Because that is what they taught us to keep time, without clock, watches and well, mobile phone now, it's really hard to keep track of time when you are in there, and 24 hours seems like forever when you don't kept tapping on the time, what we do is, you pick a song you know how long it last, and you sing it out loud (If you want your guys to hear them) or just mouth the word and you can keep track of time that way. That will give you a reference point in time and your time will pass a bit easier, but still.....
And yeah, SERE is probably one of the most rewarding training, the sense of accomplishment for me is second only after Ranger School. After SERE, you felt like you can stop bullet.....But after SERE, you are in such bad shape, some of them who are connecting to SWCS have dropped out because they became undeployable and transferred out. I lost 15 kgs on a 80 kgs frame. And I need to rest for about a month before my next assignment...