Survival & Physiology Training

I've finally started my navigation training. So far it's been a lot of "hurry-up-and-wait." We started with indoctrination paperwork and receiving all of our study materials and equipment. Our first classroom subject was wilderness survival, covering the basics of first aid and survival. Second was aerospace physiology, covering the effects altitude and flying puts on your body. Next will be basic navigation.

Here is my basic chain of command so you know where I stand in the world.

President Bush
Department of Defense
United States Air Force
Air Education and Training Command
19th Air Force
12th Flying Training Wing
12th Operations Group
562 Flying Training Squadron
Echo Flight, Class 09-01
A Section
Me

Our stack of books from indoctrination

Airman Sharma explains the dangers and venomous anatomy of snakes. She is completely oblivious and later embarrassed by her phallic references such as the glands, the slanted eyes and the venom sacks.
Practicing putting on the anti-exposure suit

We took a trip to the Lackland AFB pool to simulate a wet ditch (water landing)


Connecting and testing our oxygen equipment in the Altitude Chamber. We spend 30 minutes denitrogenating by breathing through the masks to prevent decompression sickness.
They simulate taking us to an altitude of 25,000 feet where there isn't enough atmospheric pressure for us to survive more than 10 minutes. We remove our oxygen masks and see how long it takes before we feel the effects of hypoxia AKA starving of oxygen in the brain. After noticing a few symptoms (euphoria, blue lips, dizziness, blurred vision, mental confusion) we gang load our regulators and suck 100% oxygen through our masks until we're back to normal.