It’s well known that Naval Aviation is a dangerous profession. From navigating through canyons at high speeds to landing on pitching air craft carriers at sea, the profession has many risks. Excellent training and continual practice helps lessen the risks and increase survivability if the worst should happen.
Where do aviators go to learn these vital survival skills?
The Aviation Survival Training Center (ASTC) at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif., is one of eight ASTCs within the Naval Survival Training Institute (NSTI) detachment of the Navy Medicine Operational Training Command whose sole purpose is to teach students how to prevent or survive most mishaps. The NSTI’s ASTCs, which are spread across the United States, collectively train on average more than 15,000 joint warfighters annually. NAS Lemoore’s ASTC trains roughly 600 joint warfighters per year - mostly USN/USMC aircrew, such as pilots, NFO/WSOs and enlisted aircrew – but it also trains some students from the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and even international aircrew and GS and contract staff flying in U.S. Navy Aircraft.
The NASL ASTC’s staff - made up of HMs, PRs, AWs, AMEs, NDs, Naval Aerospace/Operational Physiologists and civilian GS engineers and instructors - trains students year-round in areas such as first aid, correct parachute landing techniques, managing hypoxia (lack of oxygen), exiting an aircraft while underwater - blindfolded and upside down - and many other vital survival skills.
“There is no way to measure how many mishaps have been prevented by the training that is delivered at the ASTCs. We are proud that our training has saved lives or reduced injuries after mishaps or combat action. Occasionally, we will have aircrew who survived an event come back to our command to explain how the training helped them survive the event,” said LCDR Juliette Ruff, Director, Aviation Survival Training Center Lemoore.
LCDR Ruff goes on to explain, “Aviation, like many military operations, has some inherent risk. If (aircrew) ever have to escape the aircraft, they are provided with vital skills and hand-on training to utilize their survival equipment so they can be successfully rescued.”
All personnel must take an initial training course, no matter what their job in the aircraft is. Aircraft carry all sorts of personnel, from Intelligence officers, meteorologists, aircraft maintainers to scientists and more. These personnel are not designated as aircrew but have a responsibility on the aircraft for a certain mission. As such, they will go through non-aircrew training.
Once the initial training is complete, USN and USMC designated fleet aircrew must refresh their aviation survival training every four years.
The ASTC in Lemoore also has the capability to provide a variety of special aeronautical survival training courses like “High Altitude Parachutist” and “Flying in Chemical Biological Radiological (CBR) Flight Clothing.”
The knowledge and professionalism of the NASL ASTC staff is apparent to all who go through the survival courses; the staff members are proud of what they accomplish every day, while serving as a remarkable example of how seriously the Navy takes the safety of aviators, flight crews and others.
| Date Taken: | 05.31.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 05.31.2023 17:28 |
| Story ID: | 445909 |
| Location: | LEMOORE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 242 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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