Barren Land Arctic Survival Training: BLAST from Unforgiving Greenland

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You’re on a plane that goes down in the Arctic. There is nothing but snow and ice as far as you can see. What do you do? And how do you survive?

The US Air Force has a course for that. In a 4-day, 3-night exercise, a mobile training team of Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape instructors, known as SERE specialists, hit the wavetops (er, ice caps?). A repeat customer, the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing calls the training Barren Land Arctic Survival Training, or BLAST camp for short.

Because the 109th owns the only 10 ski-equipped LC-130 cargo planes in the world, its aircrews fly America’s missions to both poles. For that reason, the Guardsmen need to know how to survive if one of their skiplanes goes down over the Arctic or Antarctic, Earth’s coldest and emptiest regions.

Read more about Barren Land Arctic Survival Training on Coffee or Die.
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14 thoughts on “Barren Land Arctic Survival Training: BLAST from Unforgiving Greenland”

  2. I lived in Alaska for 13 years after I got out of the Army. My first job was with Evert's Air Cargo as a cargo master. Been over the Arctic Ocean, Point Barrow, Barter Island (Kaktovic), Prudhoe Bay, and many many other places. My 2nd job was driving truck for a moving company out of Fairbanks. Spent many many hours in -40 below working outside loading my trailers. I also hiked and camped continuously the whole time. I loved almost every minute of it(not always at the time). The Arctic has a stark beauty that nothing I have seen can compare to. Also, you mess up, you die. I loved that simplicity. Do your research, learn the lessons from those who have gone before you, and remember, when you stop moving somewhere not warm enough for life, you freeze to death and die.

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  13. Do they use the RCAF Boxtop 22 crash in the mid 90's near Alert (roughly due west of Thule) as a motivating real world reason for the training? If not they should. A lot of changes to RCAF SAR and C130 loadouts of survival gear amongst the lessons learned.

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