THE time was 0400, on a cold damp morning in San Diego, California. I awakened to the shriek of my alarm clock, screaming to be shut off. The desire to silence the infernal machine and roll over for a few more hours of sleep was great, but this was the day I had anxiously been waiting for. This was the day I was to attend DEST.

DEST is the acronym for the Navy's Desert Environment Survival Training. The training is conducted by the Fleet Aviation Operational Training Group, Pacific Fleet, headquartered in San Diego. Training consists of one half day of desert indoctrination in the classroom, and two days of practical application in the Sonora Desert, located in El Centro, California.

I was to report for classroom training by 0530. When I arrived, a few other students were already there, trying to catch a little extra sleep. I found the duty desk, and reported in.

About 0535, we were taken to a class¬room, where we filled out a medical history questionnaire. Everyone was through by 0600, and we were given a 30 minute break.

Most people took their break in the junk food machine area. We looked like con¬demned prisoners, consuming our last meal.

At 0630, the instructors entered, intro¬duced themselves, and briefly described what the course would consist of. They said we would listen to a little advice, col¬lect some water, make camp, take a couple of short walks, and have a real good time. It sounded good so far.

Through the course of the lectures, we learned methods to procure water that seemed the equivalent of squeezing blood from a stone. We learned about solar stills, a pit dug in the ground, and covered with a sheet of plastic. The heat caused by the sun shining through the plastic virtually sucks the moisture right out of the earth. We learned about transpiration bags, and vegetation stills too.

A transpiration bag is merely a large plastic bag, placed over a living bush or shrub, with as many leaves or other foliage as possible going into the bag. The open end must be tightly fastened around the branches. In just a little while, the natural processes that plants undergo, releasing moisture and oxygen to the atmosphere, will be put into high gear, due to the green¬house effect caused by the bag. The moisture the plant gives off will condense on the inside of the bag, and drip to the bag's lowest point.

The vegetation still is a variation of the transportation bag, and works on the same principle. If you were not able to find enough shrubs to use the bag method, you could pick grass, flowers, cacti, or any other vegetation that might be at hand. Put it inside a large plastic bag, and prop up the bag by putting a stick inside of it. Put the bag on an incline, so that the moisture

I found both these methods preferable to a solar still, as they took less effort to construct, and produced more water.

Just before lunch, we were taken to the gear issue area. Our equipment would con¬sist of a web belt, fanny pack, two can¬teens, a signal mirror, and a whistle. After getting outfitted, we were once again al¬lowed to converge on the candy machines, like a swarm of locusts on a wheat field.

Then we boarded the bus, and set off in search of the desert. Our route took us up into the Laguna Mountains, on San Diego's eastern border. The mountains were cool and green. Then suddenly, as if we had just turned the page of a travel book, we crossed the Laguna Summit, and started our descent. The mountains quickly faded into high desert, with lots of mesquite, cactus, and sage brush. But this too, soon faded, to low desert, with lots of sand, rocks, and little else.

The heat rolled in like a blast from a bake oven. When the bus stopped, so did any air movement.

It was hot. We were told the air temper¬ature was 94 degrees, and the ground temperature was 118. I believed it.

I was starting to have doubts about how easy this course had sounded while sitting in a cool classroom in San Diego sipping my morning coffee.

After piling off the bus, we were intro¬duced to what was to become our best friend. The water buffalo. A water buffalo is a large water tank, mounted on a trailer. We were told we could fill our canteens here whenever we wanted, and that from here on out, it would be our rendezvous point.

After topping off our canteens, we were paired off into two-man teams. Each team was issued a large canvas bag, containing four pieces of parachute, two shovels, some nylon line, and a few plastic bags.

Setting Off - Then we set off on our first hike. It was a short one, actually, but the heat made it seem like a marathon. We hiked down into a flat draw, where we were told to construct our water collecting devices.

We built our vegetation still first, since it was the easiest, and then put up our trans-piration bag. By the time we finished digging the pit for our solar still, we noticed we already had collected about two ounces of water from our vegetation still, and moisture was starting to form in our transpiration bag. We finished our solar still, and took a short break while we finished off our first canteen of water.

A little while later, our instructors came over and checked the progress we had made collecting water. Every team had at

Shelters varied from quick temporary shelters consisting of nothing more than a piece of parachute draped over a bush to create a little shade, to more elaborate ones, consisting of a pit about 18 inches deep, with at least two layers of parachute material suspended above it for a roof.

The reason for digging a pit is because the temperature can be as much as 25 degrees cooler 12 inches below the surface. It also allows the roof of the shelter to be high enough above the floor to sit comfort¬ably, yet still close enough to the ground to cast a shadow at all times of the day.

We then hiked back to the water buf¬falo, refilled our now empty canteens, and then proceeded to a large Tee Pee-type tent that the instructors had constructed from a full parachute.

Everyone welcomed the shade and opportunity to sit and drink while the instructors provided us with more survival tips, such as edible plants, animals, and how to start fires.

One of the most ingenious (and easiest) ways to start a fire I have ever seen was shown. It consists of stuffing a small piece of common steel wool (like that found in any kitchen) into the bottom of your flash¬light. It's light, highly compressible, and can be forgotten until such a time as it is needed.

To start a fire, gather some tinder, and some kindling, and have it ready to go. Remove the steel wool and batteries from your flashlight. Pull and stretch the steel wool with your fingers until you have a piece about six inches long, and about as thick as your finger. Put the steel wool next to your tinder, and sit the bottom of one of the batteries on one end of it. Stack the other battery on top of the first, just like it was in the flashlight. Then touch the loose end of the steel wool strand on the top of the battery. The steel wool will immedi¬ately burst into a shower of bright hot sparks. Let the wool fall into your tinder, give it a couple of puffs of air, and presto, instant fire.

After a few more demonstrations and discussions, we were given our evening meal, to be eaten later. The meal was a standard GI MRE. Then we were sent back to check on our water collection devices.

My transpiration bag and vegetation still were quite successful, but my solar still left much to be desired. The water we collected 'tasted strongly of the plants we had col¬lected it from, but it was drinkable, and would have definitely been better than no water at all.

After disassembling our collection devices,, we were sent to another area nearby to construct our shelters that we would sleep in that night.

My partner and I selected our shelter site, and started digging. The sand was relatively soft, and the digging was easy. For about the first six inches in depth, that