But that was an aberration. SERE psychologists are actually supposed to stop torture if they observe it. And theyre supposed to provide guidance during the extreme training if students show signs of becoming mentally unstable, according to a recent solicitation for SERE shrinks from U.S. Special Operations Command. One of the ways theyll know is that theyll have had to experience all the pain of the SERE course themselves.
SOCOM clarified that before psychologists can ship out to San Diego to assist Navy SEALs pass the SERE course, they must be a graduate of a SERE level C training curriculum. Level C is the highest level of SERE training, the ones that commandos with a high risk of capture endure.
The importance of the training is underscored in a 2010 Army aviation document. Soldiers without fundamental SERE-C competencies are not able to mitigate certain risks inherent in military operations, the document reads, and become factors in the isolating incident and increased risks to others during personnel recovery rescue operations.
The solicitation specifies that it wont specifically provide SERE Level C training for interested shrinks. That gives quite the advantage to commandos-turned-psychologists.
The military is cagey as to whether waterboarding simulated drowning remains a part of SERE instruction after the post-9/11 torture controversy. Nor does it discuss what other tactics SERE Level C involves. But a former Navy SERE instructor, Danger Room friend Malcolm Nance, once explained what psychologists working on SERE may still have to endure, as he went through it himself.
Its a very rapid process where a person is put onto a table and, of course, water is introduced until it overcomes their ability to swallow or spit it away. And then of course it goes down into the esophagus and onto the trachea and starts filling the lungs, Nance told ABCs Brian Ross in 2007.
Its a far cry from a tweedy headshrinking practice. During days 7, 8 and part of 9? during the 10-day SERE course, the psychologist must be physically on site 24 hours during the SERE exercise in case of emergency. And it promises to push even psychologists endurance to the absolute physical limit.
