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Government map in jest, or???


PNWexplorer

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A good friend of mine is a former US Air Force SERE instructor.  For those of you not familiar with the SERE program, it stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape.  The SERE folks are responsible for teaching mostly military pilots how to survive and avoid capture if shot down over enemy territory.

 

Their main school is in Spokane, Washington and they are frequently in the wilderness and being as stealthy as possible.

 

My buddy brought in one of the maps that the US government issues to SERE people for use in training and agreed to let me take photos of it.

 

This is an official US government map with a listing of known species that could be hazardous to personnel.  

 

Not sure if doe in jest, or is an official acknowledgement of their existence.  The government never jokes about anything, in my experience from years of military and government service.

 

I asked my buddy if he believed in Bigfoot and he nodded his head, but won't share the details.

ATQeSq-vTkuZWeRWS6oa7g.jpg

Sasquatch on military map 3.jpg

Sasquatch on military map 1.jpg

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My understanding is that this dates from the 60's or early to mid 70's. Yeah, I have heard about it for years (late 90's or early 2000's?), but had never seen it until now.

 

Thanks PNW!

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I have seen pictures of this map for years, but this is the only real first hand account of this SERE map that I have ever seen.  

 

@PNWexplorer. Just to make sure that I am clear here... These are actual pictures of the map your friend brought over?   If so, that's awesome.

 

I have often wondered about this...a lot of people say that it is just a little bit of humor injected in to lighten the subject matter.  That doesn't make sense to me.  SERE school is, by nature, taken seriously.

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Not sure how many noticed this from the first photo above.

243722701_map1.PNG.9ad05a87bb581bc87ec7ffbdcfcdbd02.PNG

 

All the previous pictures from this document I've seen are from the mid 1970's or that era. This edition is only 13 years old. 

 

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Correct BRB, DoD typically does not have a sense of humor. And this was printed with taxpayers monies so any frivolous items would be omitted. 

 

For those who are unfamiliar with SERE school, students get a lot classroom and "lab" time to learn and work on their skills. The final test is a several day field exercise where they are dropped in the middle of nowhere (literally) and they have to make their way back to the school. They are given a minimal amount of stuff to begin with and they have to forage for the most part in order to survive. In addition, there are patrols out looking for them during the entire time. A fun time for all....

 

I did not see that Airdale. That is certainly more recent than what I heard about. To me it gives validity that it is not a joke. It would be beneficial to hear what the instructors say about the map when they hand them out.

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I’d have to say it’s most certainly a joke.   The US government would not go to all the trouble of covering up BF nation wide and then just print handouts for training that blow all that coverup work.    Even if printed with taxpayer money it’s not like this would cost significantly extra per print.   On top of that when have they ever been overly budget conscious with our money.   :D

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From October of '72 to March of '73 I was on detached duty from my squadron deployed on USS Enterprise to the air wing beach detachment at Naval Air Station Cubi Point in Subic Bay, P.I. We were assigned to transient housing in WWII Quonset Huts built in a hilltop clearing cut out of the jungle, complete with the kind of fauna one might expect: monkeys, monitor lizards (some five plus feet long), king cobras and numerous smaller vipers and of course plenty of ever thirsty mosquitoes.

 

Next door was the HQ of the J.E.S.T. (Jungle Escape and Survival Training) school. They had a mini zoo with living examples of the various slithering critters that could kill you. The head man was a friendly Filipino of an age to have been in the resistance during the Japanese occupation and who was always happy to show you around and answer questions. The Quonset adjacent to ours housed a Marine EA-6B electronic warfare squadron. A Marine Corporal was walking between the huts one morning when a six foot snake struck at his leg, bouncing off the top of his boot and the blousing ring in his starched BDU's. Being a Marine, he of course reached down, grabbed the snake behind the head and carried it over to the J.E.S.T. school; the head man informed him it was a young king cobra and happily accepted it to add to his collection. We had a good laugh about it over adult beverages at the EM Club (which just happened to be across the road from our huts) that evening.

Edited by Airdale
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23 minutes ago, Airdale said:

.......Next door was the HQ of the J.E.S.T. (Jungle Escape and Survival Training) school........

 

Shirley, you jest.

 

(Who said DoD doesn't have a sense of humor? Just the acronym game is a freaking joke.)

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12 hours ago, BlackRockBigfoot said:

I have seen pictures of this map for years, but this is the only real first hand account of this SERE map that I have ever seen.  

 

@PNWexplorer. Just to make sure that I am clear here... These are actual pictures of the map your friend brought over? 

Yep.  Absolutely actual photos I took while at work when he brought it in to teach me how to use a compass.  I have had compass training years before in the military, but seeing as we worked a 12 hour shift together, we were both bored and he thought it fun to teach me SERE stuff.  I learned how to get out of various bindings, navigation, fire starting, and edible plant info.  Really just a tiny fraction of what this guy knows.  If you watched the last season of "Alone" on Netflix, the SERE guy in that show is a friend of my friend.

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I had a SERE buddy long time ago. He was extremely impressed by my axe splitting skills. I told him that had been my chore every year since I was 11-12 years old. 12-15 cord a year, not counting camping, hunting, fishing, etc. Just the house stove and sometimes dad cut cord wood for his Mayflower warehouse. He would use wood to get his coal fired furnace going there. Used stoker coal in a hopper.

 

I Used to enjoy splitting wood. 

 

 

Edited by norseman
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I have also seen this map around on the internet for awhile and also in different threads on this site. 

 

My son went through that training recently (last five years or so) and they gave him a similar map for classroom training on map-reading skills, but it is for the DR and Haiti.  Looking at it now, everything you see in the pictures above generally matches the map he got (and left w/me).  Meaning, the title is the same, the bar code is there, the camouflaged heavy-duty paper is similar, the sky chart showing you how to find North is there, etc.  

 

So I would guess that it is an actual map from a long time ago (note the unusual spelling of Big Foot).  However, I would also guess that Sasquatch was added to "punk" or freak out the flatlanders, city folks, and Air Force Academy grads coming into the school's backyard for training.  Not saying I know for sure, though.

 

 

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