Survival Training: U.S. Coast Guard Style
COMM105
04/18/2010

Survival Training: U.S. Coast Guard Style

Survival of the fittest has always played an important role in the advancement of the Human race. Our ancestors learned how to adapt to the harsh environments where they lived in order to survive. Ancient civilizations like the Native American tribes learned to hunt animals in large numbers and preserve the food they had, in order to make it through the cold winter months. Much like it was hundreds of years ago, today some people are still learning how to adapt to their environments in order to survive. My experience in the U.S. Coast Guard while I was stationed in Alaska is a constant reminder that adaptation to your environment is vital for survival.

Enlistment

In the early winter months of 2002, I enlisted in the United States Coast Guard with the hope of finding a direction for my life. I had signed all the necessary forms and waited for the date in January when I would be flown across the country to Cape May, NJ in the dead middle of winter. What had seemed to be the longest eight weeks of my life, up to that point, had finally ended and I graduated from boot camp. From Cape May, NJ I was sent to Yorktown, VA for six months of specialized training in order to become an electrician and serve my duty to my nation onboard the ships of the U.S. Coast Guard. With my new training fresh in mind and an excitement normally felt by small children awaking on Christmas morning; I departed my barracks room in Virginia for the last time and set off to report to my first duty station in Sitka, Alaska.

Reporting Aboard

Upon arrival to my new unit Alaska, it was very clear to me that my way of living was going to change drastically in a very short amount of time. The temperature outside was a cool 57 degrees, which in the month of August, was not something I was used to feeling outside of a crisp air conditioned room. The sky was riddled with the darkest of clouds engorged with rain, which threatened to burst at their seams at any moment. It was clearly apparent that my wardrobe of shorts and sandals may not have been the brightest choice to wear for that day. Four months had passed and I easily made the transition from the tan skinned boy from California, to the light skinned Alaskan resident. The weather in Alaska is very much the same of the local mountains in Southern California during the winter months. The air was cold and crisp year round and the majority of the days were spent shielded under a great canopy of rain clouds.

Preparation

As mandated by the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, all personnel reporting to units stationed in extreme climates must participate in a survival training course. The training course for my region consisted of four days of classroom instruction, followed by three days of practical training. The practical training was to be held on a small island 15 miles offshore of the mainland. The four days spent in the classroom were filled with information and stories that reminded me that a simple situation can turn deadly in a matter of seconds without the proper training. The instructor taught us which plants were edible and which ones to avoid; what sea creatures could be eaten raw and where to find them. The most important training of that class was how to build a fire and how to assemble an adequate shelter. With the end of the training session, it was only a matter of ten hours between my warm bed and the frozen Alaskan wilderness.

Into the Wild

As the small boat came to a sliding stop against the rocky shores of the island’s beach, snow began to fall upon the ground. “Of course it’s snowing” I thought to myself. The other members of my group carefully climbed out of the boat, trying not to get wet from the waves as they slapped the smooth stones on the beach. My group consisted of two members from my unit, John and Stacey; and two members from another unit, Mike and Josh. We had three rules that we had to follow: No wood fires the first night, always stay with a buddy, and don’t die. Upon finding an optimal location to setup our campsite, we began to collect hemlock branches to build a roof for our shelter, and bushels of tall field grass to use as cushion for our bed. The amount of daylight in Alaska during winter is only about 5 hours long, from sun up to pitch black. This meant that we had a very limited time to gather food and wood for the fire and a very long time in which we would need to have the fire burning. We developed a fire watch schedule to ensure that our fire would burn through the night the keep all of us warm in the frozen weather.

Survival of the Fittest

The first two days on the island were fairly uneventful. We would take turns gathering wood and more grass to ensure that our fire would stay lit. We made a journey around the island to inspect how the four other groups were doing. It was very interesting to see how each group came up with basically the same strategy that our group had utilized. The shelter styles of the other groups were very similar as well, although they were nothing like the shelter that my group had built. We were fortunate to find a fairly large tree that had fallen on its side from the harsh battles with the wind. When the tree had fallen, it had ripped its roots from the earth and pulled up soil along with it. The root and soil mixture formed a makeshift wall approximately six feet tall and ten feet wide. We used this wall to brace our hemlock branch roof off of and rested the other side of the roof on a large log which we had used to form a sleeping platform. The platform kept us elevated off of the cold island floor, and we packed the platform with bales of field grass. It was definitely not a room at the Hilton but, it was not too bad for some sticks and grass.

Rescue

The morning of the third day meant that we were to be rescued from the island. The order in which the teams were rescued was based upon who had the best signal. Each of the teams assembled a fair distance apart on the beach and created their best signals. The fire signal for needing assistance is the separate fires burning on the beach a short distance from each other. Naturally, every team had their three fires burning. So the prize of first rescue came down to visibility and creativeness so that the rescue team would know where you were at before they knew where the other teams were. Most of the teams utilized large foil blankets to construct visual signs. My team, thinking ahead, decided for one person to bring a handheld GPS device and one other person to bring a cell phone so we would be able to call the Coast Guard and report that we were in distress and reported our position. With technology proving superior in this case, me and my team were first to be rescued. I climbed aboard the small boat and had to stop short of kissing the deck once I was onboard. Once my other team members were onboard, we were racing towards home, victorious.

Conclusion

My three day adventure in the harsh Alaskan wilderness made me realize that without that this was how people actually lived many years ago. They did not have the luxury of houses with heaters and indoor plumbing, or a fast hot meal at the local McDonalds. They had to fight against the elements, which were fighting against them, every minute of the day. It was only through years of adaptation to their surroundings which made their lives a little easier each day. I now have the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to survive a tragic emergency in the unforgiving wilderness of Alaska.