Interview with a member of the UME 👩🏽‍🚒

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"The operation that has impacted me the most has undoubtedly been Balmis, both because of its duration, as we were deployed for more than a month, and because of all the vicissitudes that surrounded this operation."

1. Where were you posted before joining the UME?

I served in a couple of cavalry units, in Vec and tank squadrons. During that time, I took part in two international missions.

2. What are the entrance exams and the admission process like? 

The first requirement for joining the UME is to be a member of the armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force or Common Corps). Once you have completed your initial term of service and/or the minimum required time in your posting, you can apply for vacancies under the conditions set out in the announcements periodically published in the Official Defense Bulletin (BOD).

Once applications for the posts have been submitted, a pre-selection process will begin in which the merits you possess are evaluated, and after a final selection that takes place in Toledo, where physical tests, psychophysical assessments, and personal interviews are conducted, the process will conclude with the allocation of posts.

Subsequently, all personnel assigned to the UME must pass the Basic Emergency Course as a requirement to secure their position, if stipulated in the vacancy announcement.

3. To enter the UME, is it necessary to take any specific course? Once inside, do you continue training? 

Upon arriving at the unit, it is mandatory to complete the Basic Emergency Course (CBE). The CBE has a distance-learning phase that lasts about 7 months during which a body of theoretical knowledge is acquired. At the end of this theoretical part, 6 weeks of practical training are conducted in Toledo. During these 6 weeks, various phases of instruction are covered, encompassing different subjects such as firefighting, medical training, vertical rescue, flooding...  The CBE provides basic knowledge to students that they will later develop in their battalions.

Later,  once personnel arrive at their battalions, training is continuous and a multitude of courses are held, some of them in the civil field.

4. What is day-to-day life like in the UME? 

The day always starts with a physical training session. This is very important because most operations are physically demanding. After showering, each platoon normally has its own training session. As a rule, each Company / platoon trains for the current operational season, such as firefighting in summer, and also for the next one, which in this example would be the flood season. Daily training also depends on the platoon’s alert level that week. If it is high, training takes place near the base, with efforts to keep physical exertion low so that personnel remain fully capable if they have to deploy to a real emergency that day.

5. Within the UME, what specialties are there? 

Once assigned to the UME, and after completing the Basic Emergency Course, the specialization phase begins. Although all personnel have training in forest fire fighting, response to winter storms, or floods, there are assignments where a more specific specialization is carried out through the courses taught by the Military Emergency School.

6. How do you arrange leave in the UME? 

Leave is taken as in other armed forces units, with the proviso that the particular availability requirements of UME units for each operational season must be taken into account.

7. Are there many maneuvers in the UME? What do you usually practice in these? 

Company exercises are usually held before the start of each operational season. These normally include specific firefighting exercises covering all aspects of responding to forest fires. We try to include prescribed burns to make the exercises as realistic as possible. Other exercises take place in winter conditions and involve movement in the mountains, vehicle recovery, off-road driving and avalanche search and rescue, etc. Others, which we call multi-risk exercises, combine water rescue, containment/pumping and the principles of vertical rescue. Alongside these are the battalion-level Beta exercises, in which one of the platoons normally takes on the simulation role and prepares different incidents so that the rest of the unit can  train in conditions that are as realistic as possible.  

10.  Is it easier to join the UME from the ET than from the Navy or the E.A? 

It is not easier to join. UME personnel are simply drawn from the branches in these proportions: 90% from the Army, 7% from the Air and Space Force, 2% from the Spanish Navy and 1% from the Common Corps.

11. In which fires, floods, or other disasters have you been deployed? Which one has impacted you the most? 

The list would be very long. Among the best-known are the floods from the Dana in Murcia, the Balmis operation, and the Filomena storm. The last two this summer would be the wildfires in Navarra and Aragón. The operation that has impacted me the most has undoubtedly been Balmis, both because of its duration, as we were deployed for more than a month, and because of all the vicissitudes that surrounded that operation. 

12. How do you organize yourselves during fire season? Do you have to stay close to the base in case you need to be deployed? 

The unit is organized into several alert levels. The first consists of personnel on alert who stay overnight at the unit. They are divided into a reconnaissance team of 4 people, led by the platoon commander or 2nd-in-command, and one of the two squads of the platoon (Sc). The reconnaissance team leaves no later than 15 minutes after receiving the alert. The squad on alert overnight at the unit must leave with its vehicles within a maximum of 1 hour of receiving the alert. The 2nd squad of the Sc must leave the base within a maximum of 2.5 hours. Most of its support elements, such as medical personnel, Pm and engineering machinery, would leave with it. From then on, most of the unit normally has a response time of 3 hours. This deadline is not for reporting to the unit, but for already leaving in convoy for the emergency area.

13. How do you see the future? Do you see yourself finishing your military career in the UME? 

I would like to stay in the unit but I know I can return to any other unit to continue my military life. 

14. If you had to give advice to someone who wanted to join the UME, what would it be?

I would say it is a  great and rewarding unit to serve in. I would also say that being assigned to the UME demands a very high level of availability, with everything that entails: we know when we leave, but not when we will return.

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