Hidden inside the air force is a variety of career fields that you can’t find anywhere else. Would you believe us if we told you there’s a job where you have to catch and eat bugs, camp in the wilderness and be a survival instructor? Or how about having to raise a bunny, but not as a pet? That bunny will have to be your dinner one day. Actually, that’s just a rumor. But don’t be surprised if you have to eat a rabbit or snake for food at some point. We’re sure you’re wondering what this career may be. That would be an air force sear specialist. The survival experts of the United States military. Yes, you heard right. These airmen are pretty much the bare grylls of the air force. Their whole job revolves around learning how to survive the brutal elements of mother nature, all with a military twist. Once they become masters of their craft, they teach those who may need those skills when they go operational. But what exactly do sear specialists do? What kind of survival techniques do they learn? What’s the point of having this career field? All of those questions will be answered and much more.
This is Air Force to your specialists. Whether they’re in the desert, jungle, arctic, mountains, or deep behind enemy lines, air Force deer specialists will be able to withstand the unforgiving wrath of mother nature with minimal equipment. They are very resourceful. Throw them in the middle of the ocean on a rescue raft, and they’ll be able to live on whatever they can pull from the sea or place them in an arctic environment and watch them make effective shelters, start fires, and stay warm. Whatever environment you throw them in, they will survive and thrive. The nature of their work and training has them oftentimes going long stretches with minimal water and as little as 500 calories a day. Needless to say, air force sear specialists are one tough breed. But what they do doesn’t just revolve around survival. They have to learn how to evade, resist, and escape the enemy. At this point, we haven’t told you what sear stands for, but it should all make sense once we tell you. Survival, evasion, resistance and escape still doesn’t make sense. Here’s an example. If a pilot goes down, they might have to survive days or weeks with nothing but a parachute and a few simple tools, like a knife, canteen, and if they’re lucky, some black buffalo dip, which is today’s sponsor.
Black buffalo is the best tobacco dip alternative on the market. It’s no secret that members of the military and law enforcement communities are tobacco users. But what if we told you there was a way to get away from traditional tobacco. And no, we’re not talking about those little white nicotine pouches. That’s not real dip. We’re talking about black buffalo. Black buffalo helps you keep the ritual of packing that can and putting a fat lip in without the tobacco. They use a blend of dried edible green leaves and pharmaceutical grade nicotine to give you that same grade dipping sensation that you know and love. No compromise. Black buffalo offers both long cut and pouches in a variety of flavors, ranging from Windsor green, peach, blood orange, straight and mint. But it doesn’t stop there. For those of you who are trying to stop using tobacco or nicotine, there’s black buffalo zero, a nicotine free version of all their products. Traditional dip flavor and feel with zero nicotine, zero tobacco, 100% ritual. If you’re 21 years or older and already dip, we strongly encourage you guys to check them out. Give your wallet a break, and use our promo code general discharge at checkout, where you’ll be able to get your first order for 20% off.
Blackbuffal proudly manufactures their products in the US and are proud supporters of the military, veteran and first responder communities. Again, that’s code general discharge for 20% off your first order. Links in the description below. Now back to Air force, to your specialists. Let’s bring it back here. That pilot we mentioned who is now stranded behind enemy lines will have to survive with minimal resources and equipment. If they know the enemy is nearby or is looking for them, they will have to evade them. Then, in the unfortunate circumstance that they get captured, they will have to resist them. What do we mean by that? Well, Sear teaches all service members who attend Sear training the code of conduct. It’s essentially a list of guidelines, six, to be exact, that service members must adhere to if they are captured as a prisoner of war. It ensures that they stay true to the american mission, do not turn on their country, and do their best not to divulge any sensitive material they may have. And lastly, while in captivity, that pilot would try to escape. Easier said than done, but they will get some training on how to accomplish that.
And that’s sear in a nutshell. It’s important to have skilled people teach this subject because there’s a lot of career fields in the military where service members are at high risk of being captured if they happen to be behind enemy lines. In order to have the honor and prestige of being able to teach a multitude of communities, ranging from pilots to special operations forces, Sear specialists must first master how to survive in the most remote and hostile environments on the planet. As the only Department of Defense specialty who is specifically trained, equipped, organized and employed to conduct sear operations for the entirety of their career, these airmen are the subject matter experts when it comes to all things in the world of survival, all in the midst of military operations. Make no mistake, while this community is filled with intelligent, highly skilled, and professional badasses, it must be noted that they are not the ones kicking down doors. Sear specialists are combat support. Thus, their primary duties do not include direct combat. But that by no means implies that they are not put in the face of danger on a daily basis, and they still deploy to combat zones in support of conventional and unconventional combat operations throughout the world.
So, to recap, the main mission of Sear specialists is to learn all there is to know about Sear, as well as constantly perfect their skills so they can teach what they know to other service members who are at an elevated risk of capture when they deploy in hostile territories. Moving on to our next point, if you see a Sear instructor who is operational, they’ve earned their stripes. Before they’re sent out to other areas around the world. Each specialist must spend three years as a field instructor before they can qualify to go operational and assist with personnel recovery, another important mission. Under Sears responsibility, they are quite literally your guardian angel. No, we’re not kidding. They’re a part of the Air force’s guardian angels. The Guardian angels, which are made up of pjs, combat rescue officers, Sear specialists, and other uniquely trained support personnel, are a highly capable unit that is designed and dedicated to conduct personnel recovery across the full range of military operations. But what’s their place in this unit and personnel recovery overall? Essentially, when a SeaR specialist is deployed, they assist in recovery of isolated personnel. They aid in the pre planning and preparation of forces who go in to rescue those who need to be saved.
Their expertise in this area makes them highly sought after. Everything they do helps service members return with honor, which happens to be their community’s motto. It affirms their commitment and dedication to the american imperative to bring all of our service members home, no matter how long it takes, even under the most dire circumstances. But what does it take to become one of these highly skilled survivalists? Let’s just say it’s no walk in the park. After BMT, the Air Force’s boot camp candidates go through a 15 day selection course to see who truly wants and deserves to go to sear specialist training, which is called the Sear specialist Training Orientation course. This is where you see the most attrition, with 60% being weeded out in just those two weeks. After that, they move on to learn their trade at the Sear specialist training apprentice course where for about six months, candidates are put to the test in the most extreme environments out there, with minimal sleep, food and lots of exercise and curriculum to learn, you’ll see another 30% dropout here. The dropout rate speaks volumes about their tight knit community, showing you that only those who truly make the cut move on to work in this amazing career field.
Even though there’s currently a shortage of Sear specialists, you won’t be seeing them ease their standards to make up for that. Upon completion of SSTAC, SEar specialists will attend jump school. They may have further opportunities down the road to attend military freefall dive school, EMT courses, and of course other Sear schools. For those who are watching this who may be interested in this career field, we’ll link their community page on the Air Force’s official website to you. You also find the requirements for them over there. And for those who are just here for the information, let us know what you think of this career field in the comments below. Well, that is the down and dirty of Air Force Sear specialists. If you learned something from this video, make sure to give us a like and subscribe to our channel. As always, thank you for watching. Do you even want to be here? A big shout out to all of.
Our YouTube members and our patrons over at our Patreon. Thank you all so much for taking the extra step in supporting our channel. It is much appreciated. If you’d like to be featured on a general discharge video, consider joining our membership with the link in the description or the join button to the left of the subscribe button. Or go give our Patreon a look and join the team. Here’s nickname all your friends are subscribing to general discharge and you don’t even want to be here.