The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency’s (JPRA) Personnel Recovery Academy (PRA) is a Chairman’s Controlled Activity (CCA) under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The PRA provides tailored, specialized Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) expertise to individuals at high of capture and exploitation. Through education, training, and product development, the PRA supports the USG departments, agencies, and approved partner nations in preventing, preparing for and responding to isolating events. Specialized SERE training meets Joint or Interagency requirements not found in Service or Combatant Command programs by providing unique SERE knowledge and skills to personnel whose missions, positions, or operating environments make their exploitation highly valuable to an adversary. The Academy, located on a 98- acre site called White Bluff, a former NIKE Air Defense site, 10 miles Northeast of Fairchild AFB, has a long history of support to the Personnel Recovery (PR) mission. Established in October 2001, the PRA traces its history back to the government's response to Cold War detention incidents such as pilot Francis Gary Power's 1960 U-2 shoot down over the Soviet Union. In 1961 the Air Force developed training addressing this new captivity environment at Stead Air Force Base, Nevada; the training program moved to Fairchild AFB in 1966. Today, the PRA continues to set the pace with national PR training requirements by modernizing and adapting both its in-residence and mobile training team training to meet emerging threats to joint forces. The PRA is proud to advocate for "the person on the ground" by ensuring potential isolated personnel receive proper PR education, training, and support enabling their ability to live by the Code of Conduct and successfully Return with Honor.
PRA Seal Symbolism: The American bald eagle, an emblem of strength and freedom, has a long association with our country and its military establishment. The "old fashioned" eagle is set over a ring of barbwire representing the dangers and harshness of potential isolation or captivity of personnel while protecting and defending the United States. The gold stars represent the articles of the Code of Conduct- the moral benchmark and guide for all who may find themselves isolated or captured while serving our country. The stars, emblazoned over the barbwire, and the eagle standing forward, symbolize the concept that freedom can never be confined or suppressed. The PRA commits itself to the protection and preservation of individual freedom through support to the warfighter- that they may RETURN WITH HONOR as written in Latin at the base of the seal.
(Current as of May 2025)