Learning to survive in the Philippine jungle

In the jungle, survival is calculated on a second-by-second basis.

That’s the message Army jungle training experts passed on to Australian, New Zealand, Filipino and US troops learning to live and fight in the Philippine jungle during Exercise Balikatan.

Combat Training Centre’s (CTC) Sgt Gaz McMahon said soldiers must first evade the enemy, find water and then maintain their physical condition.

“You got to ask yourself, is juice worth the squeeze,” Sgt McMahon said.

“Is the food I catch or the fire I start worth the number of calories I have to expend?”

Australian Army instructors from CTC’s Tully-based Jungle Training Wing teamed up with Armed Forces of the Philippines marines to run jungle tactics and survival lessons for troops operating near Oyster Bay, Palawan.

It was the first time jungle warfare training had been included on the exercise.

Platoons of soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and United States learnt survival skills such as trapping and jungle cooking, ambush and patrolling tactics.

The five-day training package culminated in a combat live-fire practice.

It was a series of firsts for Gnr Aiden Zohn - training in the jungle, cooking rice in a bamboo shoot, and starting a fire from scratch.

“We’ve been learning a lot of survival techniques. I really liked the lessons on finding drinkable water,” the 8/12 Regt, RAA forward observer said.

“You’ve got to look for bamboo, coconuts and sugarcane.”

Gnr Zohn was part of a combined Australia and New Zealand combat team, led by soldiers from 5/7RAR.

They trained alongside marines from the Armed Forces of the Philippines who specialise in reconnaissance.

“The Filipino force recon marines were excellent. They were knowledgeable and approachable,” Gnr Zohn said.

Jungle Training Wing instructors gave the Filipinos the lead for some parts of the training package, so the combined force could learn from local knowledge.

“The Filipino guys are fully capable jungle survivalists,” Sgt McMahon said.

“Even when we’re in camp, you see them go off fishing and trapping for their dinner; they’re self-reliant.”

Capt Brett Harmsworth is the Jungle Training Wing 2IC.

“We’ve leveraged the local knowledge of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and combined it with our jungle survival tactics, anchoring it to the expertise the Filipinos have in this location,” Capt Harmsworth said.

“The idea is to enhance the soldiers’ skill set so they’re more prepared if they find themselves in a similar situation.”

Jungle Training Wing has multiple training teams that travel overseas for activities with partner nations. Instructors support Rifle Company Butterworth in Malaysia, junior officer combat instructor training in Indonesia, and various joint activities in the Philippines, such as Exercise Balikatan.

Balikatan is the largest annual warfighting exercise between the Philippines and the United States. Australia has participated since 2014.