Operating a military aircraft isn’t just knowing what to do inside the cockpit or inside the boom pod. Operating a military aircraft and being a U.S. Air Force aircrew member also means knowing how to float.
Every three years U.S. Air Force aircrew members are required to complete water survival training. A combination of classroom and hands-on training is used to ensure military aviators know how to survive, evade and are ultimately recovered in the case of an unanticipated water landing. The experts training them at the 117th Air Refueling Wing are assigned to the unit’s aircrew flight equipment shop, or AFE.
Master Sgt. Justin Bruce, an AFE technician with 14 years of experience in the career field, was first to brief the flyers, providing them their agenda for the morning training, “You’ll need to get into the pool and swim to the raft using any swim stroke – breaststroke, back stroke, or side stroke – you just have to demonstrate a swim stroke.”…