SERE
High-Risk Capture
Spokane, Washington
Summer
My name is Max [REDACTED]. Friends just call me Max. A few weeks ago, I graduated Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) school in Brunswick, Maine. Although a required training for “high risk of capture” folks like me, this in itself was a huge kick in the balls. I found myself thrown into a few million acres of a government proving grounds to evade a hostile, organized, and well-armed opposing force. I learned bushcraft and evasion techniques in the field. Like everyone else, I was eventually captured, given the identification number war criminal 38, and tossed into a cage where I was enhanced interrogated for days. After that bout of training, I was a little nervous when I was ordered to Spokane, Washington, for follow on survival training. My foot blisters were still in the healing process when I stepped through the doors of the windowless building that was home to a very unique schoolhouse.
I’m documenting all this for good reason, but I’m not really ready to share why. Putting it down here means it’s real; tangible, touchable … well, as touchable as digital can be.
I didn’t know anyone inside this secure facility. We were sternly told by a man in a black uniform to take our seats; they were checking on our security clearances, and the class would begin in a few minutes. In striking up a quick conversation with the man sitting on my left, I learned he was an Air Force major that flew U-2 spy planes; the man to my right, after a few back and forth questions, admitted that he worked at Fort Meade. Wasn’t difficult to deduce he was from the National Security Agency. Soon, the small auditorium filled with even more people I didn’t know. A few of them looked like spooks, but it was tough to tell these days. Some talked, some didn’t. I watched the ones that didn’t. A middle-aged man with that traditionally handsome gray fox look walked into the room wearing jeans, and a pullover fleece with elbow patches a few shades removed from the rest of the garment; he carried a metal clipboard. He quietly took his seat at the very top and back of the auditorium, underneath two large panes of mirrored glass.
As the students became more comfortable, the chatter increased, eventually to that uncomfortable crescendo when you just knew that the teacher would walk in and tell everyone to shut up. That never happened. During my small talk with the U-2 major, I scanned the room, noticing small cameras positioned along the ceiling at every conceivable angle. I also noticed the small microphones overtly hanging throughout the auditorium. It was thirty minutes past the class start time when the room got quiet, and the man in the black uniform entered, stepping out in front of the class.
“You all are probably wondering why you’re here.”
Most of the thirty-student class nodded.
“You’re here because you know things, or you are going to know things, that could get the United States into a serious shit storm if you were compelled to talk. My name isn’t really important. You can call me Mr. Embassy.”
Laughter from the class elicited a smile from Mr. Embassy.
“I’d like to ask a question and get a show of hands. Who in this class has never in their life attended regular SERE school?”
I couldn’t help myself; I had to look around the auditorium to see which sucker would take the bait. I couldn’t see anyone with a hand up behind me.
Embassy startled me when he looked at me and said, “You, stand up.”
I started to get to my feet, but the NSA guy sitting to my right was the one who got up. His spring-loaded folding seat cushion slapped against the backrest as the NSA guy stood there under the watchful eyes of Embassy.
“So you’ve never been to SERE?” Embassy asked the man.
“No, sir. Never heard of it,” said the NSA guy.
“What’s your name?”
“Charles.”
“All right, Charles, thank you for confirming that.”
Mr. Embassy nodded towards the back of the room. In a flash, two men wearing black uniforms and hoods, and armed with AK-47s, rushed into the room, snatched up Charles, and took him away. Just like that, I sat next to an empty chair, still warm where he existed seconds before.
Embassy continued, “There’s always one.”
The crowd snickered.
Sadistic assholes. That could have been you, I thought to myself.
Embassy continued.
“In regular SERE school, you were taught the basics of staying inside the metaphoric resistance circle. Of course, you were instructed in this art over two weeks of field survival, with some P.O.W. camp fun sprinkled in for good measure. The training you’ve received is quite valuable, but this school is going to add a few more skills to your portfolio.”
Embassy paced back and forth in front of us as he spoke. “The things you already learned in regular SERE will help you in situations like this.”
Embassy signaled a shooting gesture with his hand to someone at the back of the auditorium. The entire wall in front of us retracted into the ceiling, revealing an interrogation room that was concealed behind it. If someone were to ask me to describe what I thought a World War Two Japanese interrogation room might look like, it would be what I saw behind the glass. I was looking at a cutaway of a bamboo hut, with various chains and odd instruments leaning against and hung on the bamboo walls. A man with a hood over his head slumped quietly near his ski-masked and hostile interrogator.
The slumping, hooded man wore Charles’s clothing.
It was no surprise when the interrogator violently yanked off the wet black hood, revealing a very distraught NSA employee sobbing beneath.
Charles’s interrogator began to question him.
We all watched in horror through the thick two-way glass as the masked interrogator pulled a bamboo floor panel away, revealing a pool of black water beneath. With a quick turn of an ancient brass valve, more dark water gushed from a faucet into the pool. It reminded me of a nice tranquil koi pond for a moment until the interrogator started in on Charles.
“Who do you work for?” the interrogator asked calmly, in a thick Arab accent.
Charles fixated on the deepening dark pool of water at his feet. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this!” he screamed at his captor.
The interrogator wasted no time in slapping the shit out of Charles with the back of his hand.
Charles gasped for air and looked out into the auditorium. The two-way glass gave him no quarter, no faces but his own to look back on him. His eyes pleaded to all of us. My stomach began to do cartwheels as I watched Charles suffer behind the glass.
“Help me!” Charles gasped just before the interrogator kicked his legs out from under him and forced him face-first into the water.
The interrogator slapped a timer on a nearby shelf as Charles head submerged. The man followed some cryptic protocol that I noticed, but didn’t understand. I never got the impression that he wanted to really drown Charles. I somehow knew that this portion the training was strictly regimented to avoid any long-term damage, physical or mental.
It must have felt like hours to Charles, but after about fifteen seconds, the interrogator yanked him from the water and asked, “Again, where do you work?”
Briefed by his employer to stick to his cover statement when interrogated, Charles said, “I work for Naval District Washington; I file papers!”
Charles was lying. This was a very dangerous game to play in captivity. The bad guys have Google, and they use it — trust me.
“Really? Your wallet has a Fort Meade library card inside, and your car has a mathematics bumper sticker on the rear window.”
The interrogator slapped Charles with an open hand.
“Okay, I work for NSA! Now stop! Please!”
The lights went out behind the glass. The false wall slowly fell back into place, hiding the horror behind it — for now. The students, including myself, all exchanged glances at one another wondering what could possibly be next. Mr. Embassy ducked out unnoticed during all the drama, but returned with Charles at about the same time the familiar crescendo of classroom conversation peaked. Dead silence ensued. Remembering my training, I stood up and went to escort Charles back to his seat, welcoming him back to the group. This was important after experiencing these levels of stress inoculation.
I sat Charles down and let him know that everything was fine. He didn’t appear catatonic, but he definitely wasn’t the same. I offered him a stick of mint gum, and he took it. The towel wrapped around his shoulders was soaked with the water from the terrible pit behind the wall.
I was not above the horrors of the schoolhouse. I had my turn in “the tank” on three (or was it four?) separate occasions during my short time in Spokane. Just take a deep breath and keep it in the middle, I kept telling myself over and over again when the smelly, snot-stained hood was ripped repeatedly from my head. The first time the hood came off, I was standing under bright klieg lights. Sitting at the table in front of me was a large man holding a metal tray of syringes sitting on a thin layer of salt. I tried not to look at them, but I couldn’t help myself; I was fixated on them. I could see the micro bubbles in each syringe, forming unique patterns.
“Sit down,” the man sternly ordered.
I did as he asked and looked through the interrogator as he prepared one of the syringes. He flicked at it and squirted the piss-colored liquid into the air. It seemed to fly in a slow motion arc and land on my brown boot, leaving the leather a little darker in spots.
“You know what this is?” the man asked.
“No,” I responded.
“Sodium Pentothal, also known as truth serum. We already know you’re a spy—now we’re just going to make it official.”
He stood up, walked to my side of the table. I closed my eyes to brace for impact, but it never came. When I risked opening my eyes again, I saw the man pull a latex tourniquet from his cargo pocket. He placed it tightly on my left arm.
“We don’t have to do this,” he said. “If you’ll just sign this document, we can end this right now and return you to your country.” He produced a single-page document, written in Chinese and with my name in English below a signature line.
“I can’t read what I’m signing, so I wouldn’t know what I’d be agreeing to.”
“It just says that you understand that we are feeding and clothing you, and that we are taking care of you in accordance with international law.”
“Does international law include shooting me up with drugs?”
The man reached across the table and backhanded me across the face.
“Sign it!” he screamed.
I took a moment to regain my composure. “I don’t know what it says. If you get me a copy in English, I’d be happy to read it over. But I’m not a spy—I’m just a college student and traveler.” I made up a cover on the spot, knowing that if I could run out the clock, the interrogator would be out of time and I’d soon be back in my seat, safe on the other side of the black glass three feet from my right shoulder—where everyone in the auditorium was now watching me flail.
The man would ask a question, and I would vaguely answer or evade it.
“That’s it—time for the truth juice.” The man slapped my veins and grabbed the syringe, observing my face as he pushed the needle closer to my arm. “Last chance, before this goes into your veins . . . oh, and by the way, I can’t promise you that truth juice is the only thing in that syringe.”
He watched my expression. I was a little frightened that he would do it, but I didn’t give in. I told myself to stick to the training, don’t deviate—resist by any means necessary.
As the needle touched my arm, a black hood was tossed over my head and I was forcefully whisked from the room.
Graduation Day
We were told to gather inside the auditorium at 0600. It was 0630 and we were still sitting there, waiting, looking at each other. At about 0640, Mr. Embassy walked in, followed by familiar but hated faces—the interrogators.
“We’ve reached the end of your training here in Spokane and overall I’d like to say: great work,” Embassy said. “I’d like War Criminals Thirty-eight and Seventeen to stand up now, please.”
I sat in my seat, wondering who the hell they were. One of the other guys stood up and looked around curiously, probably for the other number that had not yet done so.
“Thirty-eight, don’t be shy. Stand up!”
I sat there thinking that this Thirty-eight guy better stand up right now or he might get another dose in the interrogation room, when Mr. Embassy looked at me and said: “Max, on your feet.”
I bolted up faster than my officer candidate school days. I don’t know how, but I had forgotten my original assigned SERE school prisoner number, and was embarrassed when the class began to snicker at me for not rogering up. I tried to play it off to the people around me. “I was too scared to stand up—I thought another tray of rusty needles was on tap.” I said, half laughing.
Mr. Embassy continued. “Thirty-eight and Seventeen, you are the honor graduates for the spring class. I’d like everyone to give you a round of applause — you’ve earned it.”
The room filled with golf claps and whistling, applauding us for what I thought was only an average performance. I noticed the gray fox guy with the clipboard standing in the back, whispering something to another faculty member that I did not recognize. I thought I caught him glance at me during the conversation.
After a performance debrief, including the viewing of all video surveillance of the various interrogations of the students, we were dismissed to outprocessing.
On my way out of the auditorium I was approached by Mr. Embassy.
“So, you’re headed off to [REDACTED] now right?”
“Yeah, I guess it looks that way,” I said.
“Is that what you want?” He asked this as if I had a choice. I’d soon find out that I actually did.
“Well, if it’s not spooky, it’s not really worth doing, is it?”
“No, Max, it’s not.”
The auditorium was clear of students except for me. Embassy looked to the two-way glass and gave a thumbs-up. The wall at the bottom of the auditorium began its slow, deliberate climb to the ceiling, revealing the brightly lit interrogation room. Inside was Gray Fox and his aluminum clipboard. He sat at the desk, head down. He seemed to be diligently reviewing his notes.
Mr. Embassy cleared his throat. “I’ll give you one guess as to who that guy works for, and another guess as to who he wants to talk to right now.”
I nodded to Embassy and followed him down the steps leading to the room behind the viewing glass.
I was now one of the sheep-dipped.
