ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 25 March 2003 — Twenty-first century technology might keep US fighter pilots at a safe distance from their targets in Iraq but they are keenly aware they may be taken prisoner if they are ever shot down.
After Sunday’s gruesome television footage of dead and captured US soldiers in Iraq brought protests from around the globe, the men aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt confronted their own fears of finding themselves in enemy hands.
Commodore Richard O’Hanlon took a fatalistic approach to the war when he said: “You have to prepare for the worst.” He explained that all aviators receive training in what the Navy calls survival escape resistance and evasion (SERE).
“They are taught basically how to act as a prisoner of war, how to attempt to escape, how to resist, all those other kinds of things,” O’Hanlon said.
But he denied that fear of capture was uppermost in the fliers’ thoughts. “It’s on their mind but it is not affecting what they are doing currently,” he added.
Before embarking on a mission over enemy territory, every pilot is issued with a handgun and two rounds of ammunition and a survival kit for use in the event of being shot down, crashing or being forced to eject. The kit includes portable equipment to help potential rescuers pinpoint their position — a radio transmitter, flares and smoke canisters — as well as food and water.
A pilot identifying himself only as “Mongo”, a member of the “Golden warriors squadron” which leads the assaults on Iraq, admitted to being “concerned” about being shot down and taken prisoner, especially as his plane came under Iraqi fire barely 48 hours earlier. But he said: “I am not gonna shoot unless it’s absolutely necessary to protect someone else I’m with, or realistically to get myself out of harm’s way”.
Facing up to the prospect of being shot down, he said: “First thing I’m gonna do is inventory myself, see if I’ve sustained any injuries in the fall, and then realistically I’m gonna try to find a place to hide real quick, get myself back together, collect my thoughts, inventory all my survival gear, and then start to come up.”
He admitted that his combat experience in Afghanistan counted for little in the current conflict. “There’s a huge difference,” he said.
“The Afghan countryside wasn’t completely protected by an air defense. They did have surface-to-air missiles and gunnery. However, it wasn’t the magnitude of the effectiveness that Iraq has, so in effect we had more freedom over the skies in Afghanistan.”
