DOD developing training to help potential captives

  • Published
  • By Donna Miles
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  Defense Department officials are taking a hard look at the way they train servicemembers to avoid capture and, if they do fall into enemy hands, how to handle themselves.

A new "core captivity curriculum," expected to be completed this summer, is designed to update training currently being provided to servicemembers whose jobs put them at the highest risk of being captured, said Col. Mark Bracich, director of policy, doctrine and training for the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Colonel Bracich said the curriculum is being developed jointly by the services for incorporation into training offered at their survival schools. If validated, key concepts of the new curriculum are expected to be introduced into training for all servicemembers beginning with their initial military training, he said.

The new curriculum is designed to address the "asymmetric" modern-day battlefield -- one without clear-cut front lines or clear distinctions between friend and foe.

It also considers peacekeeping, humanitarian and other noncombat missions today's military carries out. In these situations, Colonel Bracich said, servicemembers are as likely to be taken hostage by a splinter group as they are to be taken prisoner of war by an enemy army.

As the battlefield has changed, so have traditional notions about who is most likely to be captured, he said. For example, during the first days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it was not combat troops who became the first U.S. prisoners of war, but rather, combat-support Soldiers from the Army Reserve's 507th Maintenance Company.

"More people are being put into more levels of risk in more environments," Colonel Bracich said. "It raises the question: Are we doing the right thing for the right people at the right time? This is something we're working with the services to figure out."

Army Chief Warrant Officer Dave Williams, whose AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopter was shot down over Iraq in March 2003, said his 21 days of captivity reinforced the need for additional training for all servicemembers, regardless of their job specialty.

"When you go into a situation like Iraq, there are no friendly lines," he said. "Everybody is at high risk of capture, regardless of your (specialty)."

As a former member of the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Chief Warrant Officer Williams had gone through the Army's three-week survival school at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1997.

The course, he said, gave him the tools he needed to evade capture as long as possible, along with his co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young Jr. Once they were captured and taken to the Al Rashid prison in Baghdad, Chief Warrant Officer Williams said the course helped him endure the hardships of captivity and, as the senior U.S. prisoner, help his fellow Soldiers.

He said he established a chain of command and "developed a fellowship with the other prisoners," Chief Warrant Officer Young and five Soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company. Their captivity, he said, included torture and psychological abuse.

Unlike Chief Warrant Officer Williams, the 507th Maintenance Company Soldiers had no training in what to expect or how to behave in a prisoner-of-war situation, he said. Their only training -- and the only training currently provided to the vast majority of servicemembers -- was limited to a briefing on the Code of Conduct during basic training.

Army Pfc. Patrick Miller, one of the 507th captives, admitted that he, like most servicemembers who receive this training, did not expect to ever have much use for it. But not surprisingly, Private Miller has since become a big advocate of more training in how to handle oneself if captured. "Everybody needs it," he said.

Servicemembers considered at "moderate" risk of capture receive slightly more training, generally consisting of eight to 10 hours of videos about survival techniques and sometimes field training, Colonel Bracich said.

Only those servicemembers whose duties put them at the highest risk of capture attend their service's survival school. There, they learn fundamentals ranging from what is safe to eat when they are in the field evading capture to how to resist their captor's attempts to exploit them. They also go through realistic scenarios similar to what they might face during captivity.

"Everything I was taught in the course got applied in a real-world situation," Chief Warrant Officer Williams said.

And while acknowledging that "nothing can fully prepare you" for the hardship and loneliness of captivity, Chief Warrant Officer Williams said he is committed to sharing everything he has experienced and learned with his fellow servicemembers in case they fall into a similar situation. He has lectured at military posts around the country and recently became the new officer in charge of the survival school at Fort Rucker, Ala.

Meanwhile, Chief Warrant Officer Williams said he is encouraged by the military's effort to train more servicemembers in how to avoid capture and successfully endure captivity if necessary.

"The more tools a Soldier has in his rucksack when he goes off to fight, the better off he'll be," Chief Warrant Officer Williams said.