Geno Hartness is a senior who plans on joining the AirForce after graduating. He wants to become a SERE to learn how to teach so that he can become a pastor at church once he is done. 

“I will be joining the Air Force,” said Geno “Specifically my job would be SERE: Survival Evasion Resistance Escape, so it would help me learn how to teach people and just a lot of life-long skills. I plan on being a Pastor once I am done with the Air Force,” said Geno.

He had originally wanted to just join the military but God called him to become a pastor.

“I personally wanted to be a part of the military … I have a very close relationship with God, I had a calling for becoming a pastor and I want to spread the gospel,” said Geno.

Geno does not necessarily need to go to college but the programs he goes to are associated with college and he still needs to pay for it as if it was college.

“I don’t have to go to college, it’s enlisted, and what that means is I still have to go for a year-long course which for all special operations is a year or more, I’m on training plans so that when I go into basic I can keep up with strength so it will be smooth sailing and I can get past it all, which is a year-long course,” said Geno.

The training he does now is to help prepare him for the future. 

“I go and I train with people who are a part of special operations which would be people who go into the many different jobs like navy seals,” said Geno “ They just teach me how I can do that so that I’m qualified in the future.”

Training for this job requires him to be able to survive a lot of scenarios.

“I will be learning everything I need to know so that I can be a specialist in what I do, and that will range from the arctic open water mountain desert survival course so that I can teach others how to teach and live,” said Geno.

Initial Flight Training (IFT) is a test that is one of the first needs just to start.

“I go to development courses for the AirForce because I’m going in as special operations and you have to pass a beginning test called IFT to be considered for the selection just to go in,” said Geno.

For the whole year he will be in the course it will be one big test, having to pass certain goals to keep progressing.

“ so the whole thing is like a test,(the whole year) you can get kicked out easily there like an 89% of people can’t make it which is not including the IFT and the selection,” said Geno “So what the fitness test is to try and see if I have the determination to get through it, at the beginning of the test I will get tested on pull-ups situps and push up then I will do a 1 ½ mill run then after that it swim confidence,” said Geno.

Even though it will be hard he is prepared for the Unown and plains to keep going.

“I just got to get through it and see how that goes for me, most of the information is not disclosed to the public so I don’t even know what going to happen,” said Geno.