SERE 100.2 is a computer-based foundation course of the US Department of Defense that prepares personnel for military isolation, capture and recovery. It is delivered through Joint Knowledge Online, or JKO, under the identifier J3TA-US1329, with the full title “SERE 100.2 Level A SERE Education and Training in Support of the Code of Conduct”. The programme covers Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape and contains different module sets for military members and civilian DoD personnel. The designation 100.2 identifies this particular US course; Level A identifies its foundation level.
Purpose and deployment preparation
The course prepares personnel for situations in which contact with their own unit and its support breaks down. After an attack or accident, a person may be separated from their unit, evading capture or already being held. They must preserve their physical ability to act, avoid enemy detection and return to friendly control. An adversary may extract information from the person or use them as leverage against the United States. SERE preparation therefore also addresses conduct after capture.
SERE 100.2 builds on force-protection preparation before deployment and is based on capabilities required by US combatant commands. These commands establish requirements for their operational areas. The single course provides foundations for that purpose and differentiates its content according to military or civilian responsibilities. A person's module set follows their personnel status, rather than their preferred level of difficulty.
Military and civilian course paths
The civilian audience includes DoD civilian employees and CAAF, Contractors Authorized to Accompany the Force. CAAF are contractor employees and subcontractor employees authorised to accompany US forces in applicable operations outside the United States. Their status is conferred through a Letter of Authorization. Working for a private company alone does not establish that status.
For members of the US armed forces, the Code of Conduct provides the national military framework for behaviour. It requires a service member not to surrender voluntarily, to continue resisting after capture and to make efforts to escape. For prisoners of war, it requires solidarity, avoidance of information or actions that could harm fellow prisoners, and military leadership within the prisoner group. During questioning, it specifies name, rank, service number and date of birth as the required identifying information; further answers are to be avoided to the utmost of the person's ability. These provisions explain why information protection and responsibility towards fellow captives form part of military foundation training.
DoD civilian employees and CAAF who are being held have a separate framework called the Principles of Behavior. The civilian course path accounts for this audience and its responsibilities. The distinction therefore concerns expected conduct in captivity: military requirements concerning rank, command and the Code of Conduct do not become civilian behavioural duties merely because the person works in the same operational area.
Isolation, survival and evasion
US foundation training connects planning and preparation, survival, evasion, resistance to exploitation, captivity resolution and support to recovery. An isolated person must first assess their own circumstances: what injury or exhaustion limits them, what equipment remains available, where are they and what is known about the enemy? This assessment determines what movement and provision for essential needs are possible with their remaining resources.
Survival preserves the physical ability to continue acting. Protection from the weather, water and rest must be organised while accounting for detection risk. A place to stay therefore needs more than protection from rain or cold: it should conceal the person and allow observation of its approaches. Evasion connects these needs with avoiding enemy detection and capture. Movement makes a person visible; loose equipment creates noise, light reveals a location, and repeated use of an approach can lead to a hiding place. The person must observe their surroundings and consider both their condition and enemy activity when deciding whether to remain or move.
Resistance addresses exploitation after capture. In the military context, it includes protecting information and fellow prisoners and maintaining the person's own behavioural framework under enemy control. Escape means getting out of captivity; afterwards, the person must continue to meet their survival needs and may have to evade again before returning to friendly control. The four components describe different tasks within a connected isolation situation.
Support to recovery
In personnel recovery, the isolated person must be located, identified as the person being sought and safely taken aboard or brought under friendly control. When communication is possible, their contribution includes their position, the number and condition of people, enemy activity, obstacles at the recovery site and available signalling equipment. Authentication follows the plans and instructions provided for the operation: it allows the forces to check the person's identity. The necessary arrangements must be known before isolation.
A radio needs power and an answering station within reach. A visual signal may help when no radio is available, but recovery forces must be able to see it, and it may also attract enemy attention. Signalling is therefore combined with observation, concealment and agreed procedures. Once recovery is actually imminent, the person secures their equipment, avoids threatening or sudden movements and approaches the vehicle only when instructed. With a helicopter, rotors, loose objects and uneven ground create immediate hazards.
Place within Level A
SERE 100.2 connects the US foundation level with a particular computer-based format and two course paths determined by personnel status. A separate instructor-led Level A package was developed for larger military units with limited computer access or bandwidth. It covers preparation, survival, evasion, resistance to exploitation and recovery, but does not cover the civilian Principles of Behavior. The choice of delivery format therefore also concerns the audience for which the content was developed.