S.E.R.E. Military Question?

Question

In order to become a S.E.R.E. instructor, do I have to be in the military, or can I join as a civilian, go through the S.E.R.E. specialization courses and instructor courses, and then be an instructor?

Also, can I specialize in more than one course (for example, desert, artic, jungle, etc.)?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You have to be AD and they draw their S.E.R.E. instructors from the Special Ops community.  

Answer 2

Active Duty.  Even IF they have any privately contracted civilians, you would have to have experience already.  Meaning, you would have to be prior Active Duty S.E.R.E. from the U.S. Armed Forces.  They won't just pick you up off the street and send you through the school.

So long story short, if you want to be S.E.R.E, then sign the dotted line, and get a guaranteed contract option.

Aimwalk, If you are talking about the Air Force, then no they do not pull all their instructors from the Spec Ops community (if you mean another service thats fine).  The AF has people who come in with guaranteed contracts before they set foot in basic, they offer the job to everyone during basic training (one of three or four career fields that do this), and they take cross trains from many other career fields.  The reason they have to beg/borrow/steal from so many sources is it usually falls under the chronic/critically manned list.

Answer 3

I'm only familiar with the Navy's SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape) program... ALL those who work there as instructors ARE active-duty personnel. So YES, you have to be in the military.  Perhaps the Air Force has civilian employees...

SERE is only one portion of the various Survival courses... the West Coast SERE was a "high-desert" survival course (along with the POW portion) based outside of Warner Springs, California.  The East Coast was near Brunswick, Maine and was a wood-land / artic course.

The Navy USED to run DEST (Desert  Environment Survival Training), JEST (Jungle Environment Survival Training), and WEST (Water Environment Survival Training) at various other locations.