SEAL Survival Guide (7 page)
Read SEAL Survival Guide Online
Authors: Cade Courtley
You should practice the various self-defense techniques I will demonstrate in this book, such as the correct way to throw a punch to immobilize an assailant or use your elbows to ward off an attacker. Gaining that extra second could very well be what enables you to survive.
By practicing emergency conditioning, visualization, and rehearsal techniques, you essentially do the following:
• Minimize fear of the unknown by preconditioning your mind (emergency conditioning).
• Make unimaginable stressful scenarios more familiar (visualization).
• Increase your capability and gain confidence (rehearsal).
• Practice how to remain calm under pressure (rehearsal).
For a SEAL, one of the requirements is to go through SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape), or POW school. This training includes an extremely realistic imprisonment scenario following several days of trying to evade capture without food, water, or sleep. Mental and physical abuses, including the now-infamous waterboarding, were all part of the training. I gained a few bruises and lost over twenty-two pounds. My girlfriend didn’t even recognize me when I was done. It was challenging, but nowhere near as challenging as what actual POWs face.
SERE school is a classic example of fear of the unknown transforming into confidence. High-risk training performed in a controlled setting will give you the best chance at success when actually confronted with fear in an uncontrolled environment.
Create a Trigger
One of the last things you need to do as part of creating mental preparedness is develop what I call your
trigger.
In order to do this, you must dig deep and identify the single most important thing in the world to you and make a mental portrait, so to speak, of this image. This is what you will use to ignite many of the essential qualities needed to survive. This trigger is the thing that makes you want to live, no matter what comes your way. The most effective trigger will be different for everyone. For some, the trigger will be the image of their child, whom they want to be there for and whom they want to see grow into a man or woman. For others, the trigger image could be elderly parents who need them.
Your trigger image can change as priorities in your life change. When I was going through BUD/S, my trigger was seeing myself walking across the stage at graduation and looking out at family and friends as I was handed my certificate of completion—that image made me endure. But once I got to a SEAL team and took on the incredible responsibility of leading men into life-threatening situations, my trigger was the image of all my men returning from a mission
unharmed. I was not going to attend any of my guys’ funerals—not on my watch—and that made me pull my trigger and do whatever needed to be done to keep my men alive.
Your trigger could be an aspirational one—i.e., thinking that nothing is going to rob you of your life before you achieve your goal. It’s as powerful as a protective trigger, such as saving the life of a loved one or protecting a member of your team. Both work, as long as you take the time to make this an extremely vivid visualization. Let it burn into the files of your mind. You must be able to say, “I will live and endure anything for this.”
This image or visualized goal is now your trigger. You will use this most important memory file as the ultimate motivation to get you through anything life throws at you. But to maintain the effectiveness of your trigger, you should save it for only the direst situations.
Life or death . . .
Pull that trigger!
Violence of Action
In the SEALs, we use the phrase
violence of action.
It simply means that we apply complete and unrestricted use of speed, strength, surprise, and aggression to achieve total dominance against an enemy or an adversarial situation. When the trigger is pulled and violence of action is employed, you are telling your mind and body, “
I am unstoppable.
”
You don’t have to be a SEAL to implement violence of action. If your trigger is strong enough, tell yourself, “What I do in the next thirty seconds will determine whether I will live or die.” Then it will happen, and the violence of action will be an unexpected advantage for success in many situations.
I know it is difficult for many people to imagine their own death, so try to understand how important the concept of violence of action is by dissecting your trigger. What if even the slightest hesitation or that 1 percent less than total effort causes you to fail? What if the death of a loved one results from the one second that you paused or the less-than-full-strength tackle you made? Then imagine an hour later as you are contemplating what has happened and realize that you
didn’t fully commit to the event. Make sure you never find yourself in this position. When the trigger is pulled, the full concentrated and coordinated effort of mind and body can transform a ninety-pound elderly woman into a tiger.
Situational Awareness
In military-speak,
situational awareness
is defined as the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening to the team with regard to a mission. More simply, it’s being aware of what is going on around you.
During CQC (close-quarters combat), which is a technique used for hostage rescue and for raids, as team leader I had to be aware, for example, of multiple teams who were all moving in numerous directions in a building and all assigned to various floors. I had to make sure we were simultaneously engaging targets while being certain that no one was ever in an adjacent room in which a bullet could penetrate the wall, hitting one of us. In this extreme example of situational awareness, I had to know what was happening to the troops on the exterior of the target building, who could have been engaging enemy fire, while at the same time coordinating the use of our air assets and artillery to help suppress enemies advancing on our position.
Because I know the importance of situational awareness during battle, I must admit I get annoyed by the vast number of people who go about their lives without paying even the faintest attention to where they are or what’s happening around them. It puts them and the general security of society at risk. These are the very people who most often get victimized or end up on the casualty list. The next time you go to a crowded shopping mall or airport, you will be amazed to observe how many people seem to be oblivious to their environment, insulated in their own world. As we will see, airports and malls, in
particular, are two places where you should be absolutely vigilant and aware of your surroundings.
Of course, there are environments that require different levels of situational awareness. If you’re at home or at a resort, you should fully enjoy the peace and relative security these places afford. As you will learn, these places can be made safe and allow us to relax and enjoy life. On the other hand, airports, the streets of a foreign country, or crowded stadium events, for example, are not the environments in which to take a mental vacation. You owe it to yourself to stay alert.
Just like visualization, situational awareness drills can be practiced anywhere. Make it a game you play using the following checklist:
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS CHECKLIST
Try to guess what individuals around you are thinking or doing.
