The Pipeline

The Pipeline

cEDOYx9spiLYVepeomXD21GzOjkcMWQ8hu81M7rpoq4 Welcome back. Today, we’re going to talk about THE PIPELINE.
 

Excerpt from True Honor

At seven minutes after midnight, Chris gave up the battle and dialed the phone.

“You can’t sleep, either?” Claire said when she picked up the phone.

“Not for weeks, it seems.”

“Where are you?”

He smiled—it came hard. “Is that like what are you wearing?”

She laughed. “No, I just wondered if you were in bed.”

“That doesn’t sound much better, Captain.”

“I’m thinking that attorney-client relationship doesn’t include phone sex, Champ.”

He laughed. “That’s all right. I have a headache.”

“Really?”

“For weeks, it seems.”

“You want to come swim in my pool?” she said.

“It’s not closed for the night?”

“It’s not locked. What are they going to do, throw us in jail for swimming after midnight? I know a good lawyer or two. We’ll be out in five on good behavior.”

“I’ll meet you there in fifteen minutes. And Claire, be quiet about it.”

In the end, they didn’t swim much after the first burst of frustration had them racing. She was good. He was better.

Then, they sat on the steps in the pool—the water was warmer than the air—and talked.

He told her about the pipeline. She’d been unfamiliar with the nickname.

“It’s a succession of schools for pararescue—Superman School. Let’s see. Indoc. Airborne. Combat Diver. Underwater Egress.” He enumerated on his fingers. “Basic Survival. Freefall. Combat Medic. Recovery Specialist. We had to swim two thousand meters in open water in BDUs, drown proof. You name it, we did it. Few of us got through without drowning at least once.”

“I’ve heard you guys are actually better trained than SEALs.”

“Don’t let a SEAL hear you say that.”

U.S. Air Force Capt. William Chase, a pararescueman with the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, looks out as red smoke from a smoke grenade engulfs his position during a joint mass casualty exercise near Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, on May 20, 2009. A Guardian Angel team from the unit worked alongside U.S. Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit to recover simulated isolated personnel in an austere environment. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph L. Swafford Jr., U.S. Air Force. (Released)A recent article from GruntStyle named the Air Force PJ school the hardest of all special forces schools.

Here’s the list from the Pararescue.com:

The process of becoming a PJ is informally known as ‘The Pipeline’. Almost two years long, it’s one of the longest special operations training courses in the world. It also has one of the highest attrition rates in the entire U.S. special operations community at approximately 80%.

Air Force Basic Military Training – 9 weeks

Air Force Pararesuce/Combat Rescue Office Development Course – 2 weeksdc27bd6fa6c65753457529c5eeb5c10c

Air Force Pararescue / Combat Rescue Officer Indoctrination Course – 9 weeksAir Force Combat Diver Course – 6 weeks

Air Force Underwater Egress Training – 1 day

Air Force Basic Survival School – 3 weeks

Army Airborne School – 3 weeks

Army Military Freefall Parachutist School – 5 weeks

Air Force Pararescue EMT-Paramedic Course – 22 weeks

Air Force Pararescue Recovery Specialist Course – 24 weeks

***

You see why Claire was impressed?  Better trained than SEALS?  Well, don’t tell a SEAL that.

Jax Blue