What is propaganda SERE?

Answer 1

SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, & Escape) Training

SERE training is designed to help stiffen soldiers' resistance to the use of torture to turn captured military personnel into propaganda tools. ..

SERE as related to propaganda goes like this: It is the training that military personnel receive to avoid being used as a propaganda tool for the enemy if captured. This is important especially for pilots of military aircraft, in the case that they are shot down over hostile territory (Bearing in mind our brave fellows, the abused and tortured U.S. pilots during "Vietnam Conflict" that the North Vietnamese Government then used as propaganda). Now by using more advanced/refined SERE methods, modern POW's are less likely to make mistakes at the hands of any vicious enemy's torture....therefore having more training at his disposal to utilize to deny the enemy the propaganda he wants.

Here is more detail to clarify the relationship between SERE and Propaganda, regarding the use POW's as pawns in the enemy propaganda machine;

American prisoners of war rely on training (for tools to resist coercion), faith in one's comrades (to come get them), faith in America (that they will not be forgotten and their families will be taken care of), and faith in God (for personal strength). The resistance portion of SERE provides the tools necessary to resist the enemy and return with honor. Today resistance training is taught by the USAF Survival School.

Lt. Col. Rob Sweet was captured by the Iraqis during Desert Storm after ejecting from his stricken aircraft. Sweet was a former SERE school instructor and noted "the Iraqis threw everything at me I'd already seen… out of my weeks of captivity, I only saw one trick I wasn't expecting." Unfortunately, British Sailors and Marines taken prisoner by Iran had not had resistance training and unwittingly provided propaganda for the Iranian regime. One British sailor (mistaken for a US Marine) stated on Iranian TV (click here to watch the streaming video):

To my family, I am sorry. They're waiting at home worried. To the government, to my boss, I'm sorry for my mistake. To the Iranian people, I am very very sorry for the mistake. It will never happen again. I will never forget this. This has been a very good lesson to me. I will not do it again. I will tell them the same thing: I made a mistake. But the Iranian people are very good people. That is the first time I have met Iranian people. They have been very kind….

Iranian military commanders exploited the opportunity by remarking:

Captain Seifollah Bakhtiarvand: They saw a boat heading toward our territorial waters in the Arvand River. They surrounded it, and led it to our port. When the American [sic] Marines disembarked, one of them peed on himself out of fear.

Admiral Ali Fadavi: The truth is that "Marines" means "defeated man." When he faces forces of believers and he realizes where he is, he is so scared that he pees on himself.

Admiral Ali-Reza Tanksiri: They raised their hands, and then one of them peed on himself. It was obvious that they were very scared. The cowardice of the enemies was to that extent.

In contrast, trained US Gulf War POW's did all within their powers to avert propaganda material for enemy. Lt. Jeffrey Zaun hit himself in the face to look worse for the cameras, USAF Major Jeff Tice spoke in a bizarre accent, and Col. Dave Eberly gulped down glasses of water set in front of him to avert the appearance that he was being taken care of.

SERE trains aircrews with a combination of classroom instruction and field training. The resistance lab provids each trainee with several days in a simulated prison camp complete with interrogations and other physical and mental challenges encountered in captivity. More recently, the Air Force expanded the training to include battlefield airmen.

Answer 2

Propaganda SERE is a program used by the US Military to train personnel on how to resist enemy interrogation and exploitation techniques. The program aims to prepare individuals to withstand psychological and physical pressures, as well as effectively deal with propaganda efforts aimed at influencing their beliefs and behavior.