Keep them flying high

  • Published
  • By SrA Tiffany Trojca
  • 49 FW/PA
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  An F-22 pilot's mission is to fly, fight and win; however, many things must be done before they ever touch the aircraft in order to help ensure mission accomplishment.
 
Among those things are continuation and refresher courses held here to maintain readiness for combat and non-combat environments. 

The Survival, Evade, Resist, and Escape instructors here regularly instruct pilots in lessons on the local area, including terrain, climate, plant and animal life, both hazardous and beneficial as well as local recovery procedures. 

They also keep them current on emergency parachute training, water survival and conduct after capture so the pilots remain deployable. 

In addition to continuous training, pilots also rely on gear to get the job done. 

That gear is maintained by the 49th Maintenance Group Aircrew & Equipment Flight.
The SERE instructors regularly consult AFE about the equipment they've packed for flying personnel. 

"It's our job to train the pilots to survive with the gear that AFE maintains and packs," said Staff Sgt. Adam Gates, 49th Operation Support Squadron. 

"The AFE packs the gear that a pilot needs in the aircraft while flying as well as all the equipment included in the emergency kits. 

Emergency kits contain a number of life saving products including a life raft, signal flare, multi-tool and sea dye," said Master Sgt. Andrew Baker, 49th Operation Support Squadron.

In addition, AFE also maintains all of the pilot's chemical warfare gear as well as maintaining and packing decelerating parachutes for the F-4, F-22A and T-38. 

"Our equipment is the last chance the aircrew has if there is a catastrophic failure of the aircraft to get safely to the ground," said Sergeant Baker. 

The communication between the SERE instructors and the AFE, as well as continuous maintenance, ensures the pilots here keep flying high to achieve the mission.