Survival Training Question

Posted by: Rusty

Survival Training Question - 08/03/03 07:04 PM

Do some Military bases offer a civilian survival course or is it just for military personel only?
If so how much would it cost?
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Posted by: Chris Kavanaugh

Re: Survival Training Question - 08/03/03 07:46 PM

No, Some military courses are open to civilian agencies, but not individuals. Your best option is to find a suitable commerical school.
Posted by: widget

Re: Survival Training Question - 08/03/03 10:36 PM

Military survival traiining is usually geared toward high risk of capture personnel, such as aircrews, Special Forces, etc. A fair portion of the training is geared toward evasion (of the enemy) and resistance (to interrogation). The average ground soldier generally receives navigation training and training to acclimatize them to living away from creature comforts. Not much "living off the land" training takes place except in the cases mentioned of personnel destined to operate behind the lines for extended periods. There are a number of excellent trainers that have courses oepn to anyone and a little research can produce some excellent choices of where to spend some time and money learning survival basics. Myself, I would love to get into some of Ray Mears courses but they are far away and always booked years in advance. Check with you local search and rescue organization and see who they recommend, also the Internet is always a good source of opportunities. Read some good books also, a good starting point to get some basic knowledge. That Knowledge should be applied in practice in a controlled environment and skills honed with more training and more experience. One more thing, if you have an Air Force base nearby, try calling their Life Support folks and ask if any of the trainers does any moonlighting teaching basics. It may take a few phone calls to get the proper organization, but worth it if you find a trainer that does some civilian courses from time to time. Hope that helps!