SERE TRAINING - Key Persons
With or without a weapon in his hands Chris is not a man you want to mess with! Serving 14 years in two branches of the U.S. Armed Services, Chris began his Military service an Air Force S.E.R.E Instructor and later went on to become an officer in the United States Army - reaching the rank of Captain in the Army Reserves. He is one of SERE Training School's top weapons and self defense instructors, with years of experience training others in the use of the Baton and various firearms after having been certified as a Firearms Instructor by the FBI.
Beyond his skills in the wilderness and with a weapon in his hand, Chris is also trained in Biological and Chemical warfare. He's a certified training instructor in other classes as well, to include Blood Borne Pathogens, Communicable diseases, and Chemical Agents used in Law-enforcement. Chris has also served the public as a Correctional Sergeant with the California Department of Corrections.
Despite his intimidating resume and skills, Chris is also well-known as a warm and friendly family-man who enjoys teaching others and describes himself as a "kind, caring, and sensitive individual." This solid combination of skill-sets and demeanor set him a cut above the rest when it comes to training the public.
Internationally renowned as a primitive survival specialist, Dan Baird is one of the world's foremost providers of global back-country survival expeditions.
In addition to 15+ years experience guiding back-country adventures, Dan is also a Nationally Trained DHS/FEMA C.E.R.T. Instructor, a Wilderness First Responder, and a member of Search & Rescue in California. Dan's own survival training programs, California Survival School and WilderSkills, are responsible for teaching primitive living skills and modern survival tactics to thousands of people each year throughout the world.
Dan is proud to take an active role as a SERE Training School program development adviser, incorporating certain aspects of non-combat oriented survival training into the School's global survival program offerings that help make the SERE Trainings School's exceptional curriculum offerings even more so.
Jessie Krebs is a former U.S. Air Force SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape.) Training Instructor from the old school days when instructors were simply called "Survival Instructors". As one of a handful of women in the male dominated S.E.R.E. career field, Jessie outsmarted and out-toughed many of her male counterparts in the Air Force to make it through the intense S.E.R.E. training program (class 91-02) and earn her right to a coveted position as an Air Force SERE Specialist.
In 1994, after training hundreds of Air Force personnel to survive in hostile environments world-wide, Jessie received an honorable discharge from the Air Force and began putting her tremendous outdoor leadership skills to use as a back-country mountain guide leading recreational and wilderness therapy expeditions across many stretches of the American Southwest.
In addition to being the Founder & Head Instructor of SERE Training School's SERE-oriented survival training programs for both civilians and outdoor professionals, Jessie is highly sought-after as a technical consultant and on-screen survival expert for a number of international survival shows including Science Channel's Hacking The Wild, Fox's Kicking & Screaming, and National Geographic's Mygrations where Jessie became one of only a handful of modern human beings ever to complete a primitive crossing of hundreds of miles of Tanzanian Serengeti on foot.
Liesl is a former U.S. Airforce Master Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Instructor (July 93-99), including four years as a SERE Open Water Survival Instructor that trained 1200+ USAF and DOD aircrew members annually.
In addition to substantial background as a SERE Instructor, Liesl has served her country as a Special Investigations & Counterintelligence Officer (99-01) and as an Antiterrorism Specialty Flight Team Leader (01-04) where she was awarded a Bronze Star for leadership in a combat environment as the first AFOSI commander on the ground in Iraq. Liesl also has the distinction of being the first woman in that career field to conduct combat operations.