Thinking about attending PJOC?

Before you send in that enrollment form, take a word of advice from the man who runs APJOC: twenty-one year veteran of CAP’s PJOC program and USAF Pararescueman MSgt George Miller: “If a Cadet is attending PJOC they need to get into excellent physical condition. They should be able to pass our PT evaluation.”

But don’t get the idea that PJOC is just one long PT session, MSgt Miller adds the following caution: “Cadets should not come to PJOC with any preconceived ideas of what PJOC is or is not. They need to be willing to learn.”

PJOC began in 1977 and was designed to introduce CAP Cadets to some of the training that PJs receive. That year, PJ School had moved to Kirtland AFB in New Mexico from Hill AFB in Utah. LtCol Norman Sorenson, USAF, who is also a CAP member, had helped with the move and he thought that CAP might benefit from exposure to the PJs. Fifty Cadets from around the country attended that first PJOC. The 2001 classes mark the twenty-fifth year for the course. There are now four PJOC encampments - three Basic and an Advanced - in three different locations: Kirtland AFB New Mexico, Ft Knox Kentucky and George Washington National Forest West Virginia.

An important point: while ‘PJOC’ has a ‘J’ in it, MSgt Miller is quick to correct the unwary user of the term ‘Pararescue Jumper’, “Pararescue Jumper is a politically correct term and is incorrect. The terminology is ‘Pararescueman’ or ‘Pararescuemen’.”

MSgt Miller started with PJOC only a few years after it began. “I became involved during the summer of 1980, when I was newly assigned to the Pararescue School as an instructor. Since that time I have been involved with most of the BPJOC schools in New Mexico. I didn’t work at any of the other BPJOC locations until 1992. Since then I have been to every one of them, one year with a broken leg.”.

Basic PJOC gives Cadets a chance to rappel, learn land navigation, and to practice some basic survival skills. But the main goal of BPJOC is to challenge the attendees; to inspire Cadets to overcome their self-imposed limitations. It does this in an environment of physical and mental stress.

MSgt Miller helped start Advanced PJOC because so many BPJOC students wanted something more. APJOC was originally a week long and was mostly an extension of the Basic course. Since then, as a result of student input, it has become a fifteen day activity with two different courses of training. Now in its sixteenth year, APJOC offers BPJOC graduates training in emergency First Aid, semi-technical and technical rescue skills, advanced rappelling, GSAR procedures, land navigation and survival. The APJOC program continues to evolve year to year based on student input.

“To attend APJOC,” MSgt Miller notes, “students must be everything a BPJOC student is, but they must also want to work in rescue. Either volunteer or paid, but they must want to work in rescue.”

And he should know. MSgt George Miller has worked in rescue for most of his life.

Originally from Connecticut, MSgt Miller grew up as a Navy dependent in sunny San Diego, California. As a young man he was a Boy Scout, which taught him many of the skills and - more importantly - gave him the attitudes and philosophy that make him the man he is today. He credits the mentoring he received in the Scouts and points out that this is something that Civil Air Patrol can provide as well.

He joined the Air Force in 1972 rather than wait for the draft to catch up with him. It was in boot camp that he first heard of Pararescue. “About a week into Basic Training I had a choice between going to a briefing about something called Pararescue or cleaning latrines. It was a hard choice, but I decided to go to the briefing.”

On learning that the Air Force had a group of people who got paid to parachute, mountain climb, SCUBA dive and who were survival experts and paramedics to boot, MSgt Miller knew what he wanted to do with his career. “When my DI told me there was no way that I could make it, then I really knew I wanted to be a PJ!”

Anyone who knows anything about Pararescuemen knows that determination is an important part of any PJ’s personality. Their grueling school, called The Pipeline, is designed to weed out those who aren’t completely determined and focused on their goal and willing to change themselves to do it.

Like any elite group, PJs are tight-knit. “One of the best things about being a PJ is knowing that I have a group of fellow PJs who are my brothers,” MSgt Miller says. “We know we can depend on each other.”

However, MSgt Miller points out that The Pipeline was not the inspiration for PJOC. “PJOC does not reflect my experiences as a PJ. It provides just a glimpse of Pararescue training. It’s like trying to imagine what a piece of fruit tastes like by looking at a picture of it. You know what it looks like, but that’s not the same as knowing what it is.”

The Basic PJOC courses have changed very little over the last two decades. Those changes have mainly been to combine the differences between the three to make the training more common. “There still are unique parts to them, but they are now very similar”, MSgt Miller says. Additionally, this year PJOC will start out with a Physical Fitness Evaluation test. This new test is based on a combination of CAP standards, Presidential Physical Fitness standards, and the PT evaluation given to Airmen interested in becoming Pararescuemen.

All this goes into the primary goal of PJOC, which is to challenge those attending. “The goal is for Cadets to realize that limits, for the most part, are self-imposed. If they keep going they can do almost anything.” There are certainly plenty of challenges for Cadets to overcome. PJOC instructors use many different techniques to inspire Cadets to exceed what they think are their limitations. Some of the tools used by PJOC instructors include: uncomfortable living conditions, a minimum amount of food, uncertainty about schedule, close tracking of the time spent on tasks, a limited amount of sleep coupled with a maximum amount of activity and strenuous physical activity.

MSgt Miller does take time to point out that these techniques are not tools for everyday leadership. “A misconception about PJOC is that we use physical activities - especially push ups - as a leadership tool. This is completely incorrect. Push ups are not a leadership tool. A leader’s job is to prevent and relieve stress on his troops. Physical activity should not be used as a leadership tool, it has no place in the Civil Air Patrol other than as part of a PT program.”

He also strongly believes in teams. “Another goal of PJOC is to teach teamwork. You can do more with a team than you could ever do by yourself. It is because of teamwork that PJs accomplish their missions.”

The PJOC staff is divided into two parts: the instructor staff and the support staff. The instructor staff is mostly made up of PJs, Combat Controllers or SERE instructors. The support staff ensures that the encampment runs by taking care of all the logistics and vital behind-the-scenes work. They are mostly active duty and reserve Air Force personnel with a few CAP Senior members. MSgt Miller speaks proudly of this team: “All of my staff are professionals, experts in what they do. They are also interested in helping and mentoring young people.”

All this hard work bears concrete results, sometimes his young students even join him as Pararescuemen. “I know of at least six former Cadets who are now PJs. I also know of some who are Combat Controllers or SERE instructors. Even more of them go on to receive commissions as officers. The best part about working with Cadets is helping to shape the future. Helping shape a Cadet’s future is helping to shape our country’s future.”

MSgt Miller will be attending the graduation of one of his former students this spring at the Air Force Academy.

MSgt Miller has been with the PJOC program for most of its twenty-five year history with no inclination to stop now. “It’s been fun,” he says. “Hopefully it will keep going for another twenty five years.”

A final thought for those who will be joining him this summer: “Be prepared. But also realize that you are not prepared, since I make up the rules.”