NY Air Guardsman Graduates from Brazil’s Jungle Training School

For New York Air National Guard Technical Sergeant Jeremy Miter, adapting to the heat and humidity of the Amazon basin was the toughest part of the six weeks he spent at Brazil’s jungle warfare School from late September until mid-November 2022.

“Once we got into the jungle it was a whole other level of heat,” Tech. Sgt. Miter said.
“The triple canopy rain forest keeps the heat in and all around you. It creates a pressure cooker.”

Despite the heat, Tech. Sgt. Miter became the fifth New York National Guard member to graduate from the course that the Jungle Warfare Training Center (CIGS) conducts for foreign military personnel in Manaus, the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas State.

The class the Brazilians run their own soldiers through takes about 10 weeks.

New York soldiers and airmen have been attending the school since 2019 as part of the State Partnership Program relationship between Brazil’s military and the New York National Guard.

To operate in the heat and humidity, the students — who came from India, France, Spain, Portugal, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, as well as two other Americans from the 7th Special Forces Group — learned how to stay hydrated to keep up with the sweat loss, Tech. Sgt. Miter said.

The course starts out with physical fitness tests and proving that you can swim and stay afloat in your uniform and with combat gear, Tech. Sgt. Miter said. The next step is learning to survive in the jungle. The students learn what to eat and not eat, how to find drinkable water, and how to find shelter.

“They put us out in the woods for 48 hours on our own to survive without food and only the water that you bring with you,” he said. “I don’t think anybody ate for the entirety of the survival event. Luckily it rained at the end.”

Tech. Sgt. Miter, 33, is a joint tactical air controller, or JTAC for short, assigned to the 274th Air Support Operations Squadron.
He was picked to attend the course because “he has the mental focus and physical strength” needed to succeed, said New York Air National Guard Command Chief Master Sergeant Denny Richardson.

Swimming is central to the training, Tech. Sgt. Miter said. The students learned to use the rivers to move around. They would swim with their rucksacks full of equipment and using makeshift rafts. They also learned how to use boats to infiltrate into an area, Tech. Sgt. Miter said.

The round the clock training kept the 25 class members so tired that nobody had the energy to worry about the caiman — Brazil’s version of the alligator — or piranhas in the river, he said.

Students also learned how to navigate in the dense jungle using terrain association, Miter added. They also practiced rappelling from helicopters.

“The exchange of knowledge between us and Brazil was great. Plus working with soldiers from other countries you don’t normally work with was valuable, “Miter concluded.