Navy Survival School Relocating
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS100917-01
9/17/2010
By Darryl Orrell, Center for Security Forces Public Affairs
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- The Center for Security Forces (CENSECFOR) is scheduled to relocate the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) School to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY), Portsmouth, NH on Sept. 30.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled that day featuring distinguished guests including retired Rear Adm. Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., Rear Adm. Mike White, Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) Chief Operating Officer and Congressional Representatives for the states of Maine and New Hampshire.
The new training facility was named in honor of Denton during the groundbreaking ceremony hosted by PNSY in August 2009.
Denton is a 34-year Navy veteran who spent a grueling seven years and seven months as a prisoner of war (POW) in Vietnam and suffered severe mistreatment. Denton became the first U.S. military captive to undergo four years of solitary confinement.
Relocation of the SERE school was prompted by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission's decision to disestablish the Brunswick Naval Air Station in 2011.
"Only the academic and administrative functions of SERE school are moving to PNSY," said CENSECFOR Executive Director, Larry A. McFarland. "The school will continue to use the 12,500-acre Navy range located in Redington, Maine for the practical field exercises."
SERE school employs approximately 100 military and civilian personnel and trains an average of 1,200 students per year.
The course is required for personnel who are designated as high risk of capture due to the nature of their military duties.
Existing since the late 1950s, SERE training is a 12-day Code of Conduct course designed to give students the skills necessary to survive and evade capture, and if captured, resist interrogation and escape.
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