Byron Kerns Survival School

"Welcome to our Internet campsite. As a former U.S. Air Force Survival (SERE) Instructor,
Class 71-02, there exists within me a duty to share the survival skills and knowledge I've
learned over the past forty years. Sometimes I even share a few wilderness stories. And,
most of them are true. Every now and then, I'll do some teachings in a rustic classroom or
in a fancy building, but most often my students and I are in the woods and learning in the
woods. In the heat and humidity. In the cold and in the rain. With the bugs, the snakes, the
gators, the bears, and all the other critters. One day, two, three days, or more. Come and
get some of this knowledge. Gain some experience. And, get ready ... get ready ... to feel
your confidence soar."

Laurence Gonzales, National Geographic Adventure editor and author of "Deep Survival," hits the mark in his
description of Byron: "As I climbed out of the cockpit and onto the wing, I caught my first glimpse of our instructor,
Byron Kerns. He swaggered across the fueling ramp toward us wearing an 18-inch Panamanian machete, a big,
macho-looking guy. He had worked at the famous Air Force Survival School in Washington State. When I saw him,
I thought: We're in for it now. Byron turned out to be soft-spoken, polite, cheerfully earnest, and gentle to a fault. He
moved slowly, never hurried, and was always carefully assessing himself and his environment. He wasn't prone to
high emotional states. He carried with him a contagious air of calm. Even after a lifetime in the wilderness, Kerns
entered the woods with a deep sense of respect and humility, like a man approaching a magnificent, dangerous,
and unpredictable creature."

Having received some of the best and toughest survival training in the world at the US Air Force Survival Instructor School, Fairchild AFB
near Spokane, WA, Class 71-02, Byron is one of a select few of former USAF SERE instructors who have designed and created from
start-up a successful survival school for civilians. Byron has done it twice. His first school, Mountain Shepherd, which Byron founded in the
hills of Virginia in 1995 and sold in 2005, brought Byron's teaching abilities national notice, not only in the book Deep Survival, but in the
Washington Post, Reader's Digest, National Geographic Adventure, and Esquire, to name a few. Now with his headquarters in Florida, his
mission continues with a passion to deliver outstanding teachings "so that others may live." Whether Florida ... or anywhere in the United
States ... Byron is ready for an adventure at your request. It's not often you'll find a wilderness survival instructor that has met and exceeded
the needs of thousands of students - from Navy nurses to corporate managers to fulfilling a contract with the most famous team of the Navy
SEALs. Byron is the real deal and a unique and outstanding choice for your survival adventure.