Navy Seal

Some basic survival skills everyone should know

We live in a techno-centric age. Everything is at our fingertips. We have cell phones that can navigate our roads from point A-to-point B. Our phones also have GPS grid coordinates at the quick typing of an app, that can pinpoint your exact location. But what happens in the event of an emergency and you don’t have your cell phone, or it breaks or it just doesn’t get a signal out wherever you’re at.

And don’t say it can’t happen. It can, it does and all too frequently. So, unless you want to be a statistic, you should know at a minimum some basic survival skills if you are ever stuck out in the wilderness somewhere.

You don’t have to be a Green Beret or Navy SEAL and be a SERE School graduate but it certainly helps if you are comfortable out in the wilderness, far from home and have good outdoor survival skills.

So, if the unthinkable happens and you are just your average Joe, not all is lost here. You can survive, thrive even as long as you perfect a few basic outdoor skills and we’ll get to them in just a second, but first, if you ever find yourself in a survival situation, just remember the word Survival and that will help you plan your way to safety

S – Size up the situation

U – Undue Haste makes waste

R – Remember where you are

V – Vanquish fear and panic

I – Improvise

V – Value living

A – Act like the natives

L – Learn basic skills … simple no? Let’s move on.

We’re going to use the KISS Principle here, Keep it simple, stupid. And we’ll start with the first of the basic skills you should know how to do.

Remember “The Rule of Threes.” A person can survive for:
– 3 minutes without air
– 3 hours without a regulated body temperature – hypothermia (shelter)
– 3 days without water
– 3 weeks without food

With that in mind, it brings us to our very first and most important skill.

#1 Build a Survival Shelter: Are you alone or with another person or group? What kind of materials are at your disposal? Hypothermia can and will kill people quickly, long before they feel the effects of lack of food or water. So the first thing a person or group must do is to build a shelter, that will allow your body heat to keep you warm and dry during the night. Some basic consideration for building a shelter are:

Location – (just like real estate, location, location, location is very important) Don’t build a shelter in a low-lying area next to a river or stream. A flash flood can happen quickly, pick higher ground and preferably a spot that is protected from the wind.

Insulation – the ground can sap the warmth right from your body, ensure that bed that you lie on has four to six inches minimum of pine straw, leaves etc, that will insulate from the ground. Double or triple that for the sides of the shelter
Heating – is the shelter just body heated or is there a fire?
Personal or Group Shelter – if you’re in a small group, a group shelter although harder to construct, will keep everyone warmer, and don’t be shy, the closer you are to each other, the warmer you’ll stay.

The simplest design is a simple lean-to, building one isn’t particularly difficult. Just find a downed tree resting at an angle, or set a large branch securely against a standing tree. If you have cordage, you can secure it that way or use any vines in the area to lash it all together. Then stack smaller branches close together, weaving them together if possible. Then layer debris, like leaves, pine straw etc. until the walls are thick as well as wind and waterproof as you can make them.

#2 Starting a Fire: Having a fire is not only a tremendous tool for warming your body as well as your shelter but it can cook food, and boil water. Having a fire is also a big psychological boost for all involved. It provides a sense of security and safety.

A fire can also be used as a signaling device if an individual or group is being actively searched for in a rescue type of situation. A large smoky fire is easily visible from the air and can be seen from far away.

One should always carry field expedient fire starting devices but it is always a plus knowing the skills of starting a fire without matches, a lighter or flint. Use small tinder to start with and then add tiny sticks and twigs until you get a bed of coals going well enough to add some larger logs.

#3 Finding a Fresh Water Supply: If at possible, water should always be boiled before drinking. Depending upon your situation, that may not be possible. But finding a clean potable water supply is a must. If you’re in a winter survival situation, rain, snow or dew can be captured using a bandana or t-shirt and drank as it is more often than not in a purified state. Many vines will have water that can be wrung out as well as certain cacti.

#4 Finding Food: When it comes to a survival type of situation and food, the best rule of thumb is to think small. Unless you have a weapon of some kind, trying to trap or snare a large animal will waste more energy than it is worth. Become familiar with what edible plants are in your area. There are plenty of edible plant guides out there that will help you become more familiar with what it edible and what isn’t.

A couple of common plants that can help sustain you in most areas include:

Cattails – The “super Wal-Mart” of the swamp, almost every piece of the cattail can be eaten, the roots, shoots and the pollen heads are all edible.
Conifers – Most evergreen, cone-bearing trees, with the exception of the Yew have a soft, pulpy inner bark that is called the cambium. It is full of calories and starches and will sustain you
Oak trees – Acorns from oak trees can be eaten once the bitter tannic acids are removed. Native Americans used to put a basket full of acorns in a fast moving stream where the water would leach the tannic acid out in a day or two. The other method is to boil them. Place the acorns in a pot and cover them with water, once the water boils and turns the color of tea, dump the water out and repeat the process until the water no longer turns brown.

Now as a word to the wise, these are survival foods and the taste isn’t going to make one want to give up prime rib for a diet of cattail, cambium, and acorns. But it will get you thru a tough situation if the need arises.

These are just a few of the skills that one should master if you ever find yourself in a survival type of situation. But the weapon you have at your disposal is your brain. To quote Tom Hanks, “that’s the lump three feet above your ass.” Keeping a positive mental outlook on things, keeping your wits about you at all times is imperative.

And by all means, take a course on outdoor survival. There are a plethora of them in all parts of the country. And there is no shortage of very good ones in every area. Do your homework and check them out.

One (unsolicited by the way) course you should check out is run by former Special Forces officer Mykel Hawke. Many of you may remember Hawke from his television show that he and his wife had called “Man, Woman, Wild” on the Travel Channel. He runs a couple of different survival courses including a Couples Survival Course. So bring your significant other and take an outdoor survival course and learn some new skills while bonding with your spouse. Then they’ll have a greater appreciation of what you do… Stay safe, be prepared and don’t quit.

Photo: Wikipedia

Courtesy of Special Operations.com

Where does the term ‘operator’ come from?

Operator – someone who operates.

In the civilian world, that could be someone operating an excavator, a wheeled tractor, and other similar heavy equipment. Historically, the term applied to people who worked in the old-school telephone centers and operated the manual telephone switchboards that were necessary in order from someone to call another number.

In the military, conversely, the term operator has come to be associated with troops serving in Special Operations Forces (SOF). A Navy SEAL operator, a Special Forces operator, a Marine Raider operator has become standard nomenclature, even in official communique and statements.

But what’s the actual origin of the term? For many in the spec ops community, an operator is someone who is serving or has served in one of the Joint Special Operations Command’s (JSOC) Special Mission Units (SMU). This would apply to members of the Delta Force, SEAL Team Six, also known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), 24^th Special Tactics Squadron (24^th STS), Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), or one of the other smaller, blacker SMUs.

The office of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) historian, however, posits that the term originated from with the Green Beret community. In support of this claim, there is a document from the late 1950s. Dated April 2, 1959, the document’s headline reads: “The Code For the Special Forces Operator.” It includes 10 provisions to which a Green Beret must abide to. They range from the volunteer and highly dangerous nature of Special Forces – during the Cold War, Special Forces Operational Detachment Alphas (SFODAs) were designed to remain behind enemy lines once the Soviet mechanized onslaught had been unleashed on Western Europe; their role, as it is today, was to organize, train, and lead indigenous forces in waging an Unconventional Warfare (UW) campaign against the Communists – to superb physical fitness, soldiership, and professionalism, among other things.

“I realize,” the document’s sixth provision states, “it is my responsibility as a Special Forces Operator to undergo more intense and more rugged training than is required of the average soldier of the United States Army.”

The document was signed by Captain Albert Clement, 1^st Company, 77^th Special Forces Group (SFG), and witnessed by John Hanretty. The 77^this one of the original Special Forces Groups and the predecessor of the modern-day 7^thSFG.

So, there it is. According to the existing historical evidence, it is the Green Berets who have the claim over the term “Operator.” Does a title matter, though? Not to those who operate.

This article was written by Stavros Atlamazoglou at NEWSREP

Feature image courtesy of the U.S. Navy

A Green Beret’s guide to choosing the right survival knife

A survival knife is a tool and not a fashion statement, but for any guys out there that have been in a survival situation or a school environment as in a training course, you’d know that. So it becomes a case of practicality over all else.

While I’m admittedly no expert on knives, I know what works for me and what I’ve used. And as in anything, when it comes to gear, much of what we choose comes down to personal preference. I’ve tried a lot of different knives and found some that I’ve liked and some that I didn’t. The one design that I’ve kept coming back to is the Bowie knife design.

Some guys don’t care for them, but it’s been around for about 200 years and it will work in about any situation. For most of the small mundane tasks, you’ll come across, a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman will work just fine, I never went anywhere without one of those in my pocket.

And the part of the world you’re going to be working in will have a factor in the decision which one to carry. A heavy-duty knife for working in the jungles of Latin America would be a very different choice than one working in the arid environments of the Middle East. So, with that in mind, you’ll still want a mix of a bigger knife for the heavy-duty tasks and a small one for the more intricate stuff will be the best way to go. Some of the other considerations include:

When looking for a heavy-duty knife, a fixed blade is better than a folding one. I look for one with a full tang, which is the part of the blade that extends down the entire length of the knife. The ones that don’t have a full tang tend to snap off at the most inopportune of times.

Most of the best knives are made from either carbon steel or stainless. Each has their good points. I prefer carbon which holds an edge better but saying that I’ve had a stainless steel one for the past decade and a half.

The handles come in a variety of styles, hardwood, bone, rubber, and polymer. All have their strong points. It just comes down again to personal choice. Blade type and length are the next criteria. I prefer the straight blade rather than a serrated one. It is better for chopping and those serrated blades are much tougher to sharpen. Blade length should be between 6-12 inches. I personally think a 6-inch blade may be a bit too short. A 9 to 10-inch knife is ideal. My Bowie is just under 11 and a half inches and at times is a bit too big for many applications.

The sheath is a very important part of the knife, the design will affect where you carry it and how it is drawn. But a couple of considerations to look for are The strap to keep your knife in place, some are Velcro or snaps but they should be located at the top so as to not allow the knife to slide out. A Belt loop, preferably a wide one is best so that it can be carried on your belt or as part of your kit. And a lower attachment strap or hole is nice to have so that you can strap it to your leg if need be.

Here are a couple of (but not all) good choices for survival knives to pick from:

SOG SEAL Team Elite:

SOG has updated their SEAL knives and has added a nice addition to their catalog. This is a very good heavy-duty knife that is at home with the avid outdoorsman as it would be during an operation. The blade is powder coated black or coated with hard cased black TiNi to prevent rust.

The black handle comes in ballistic nylon or Kydex. The sheath is made of nylon and has MOLLE attachments. Just over 12 inches in length, with a 7 inch partially serrated edge blade. It is a tough customer and will withstand heavy use.

Overall Length: 12.3 inches
Blade Thickness: 0.24 inches
Tang: Full
Blade Material: AUS 8
Price: $186.50 (+10.25 for the Kydex handle)

Ka-Bar BK-22 Becker Companion:

Ka-Bar has been putting out quality products for generations and this knife is a nice addition to their line. This offers great value for the money and will be a nice piece of equipment that will last for years.

It is an excellent overall tool that is heavy enough to do the chopping and splitting etc that you’ll need but versatile enough to handle smaller tasks while not being too bulky. It comes with a polyester sheath with MOLLE attachments and a front pocket.

Overall length: 10.5 inches
Blade Thickness: 0.25 inches
Tang: Full
Blade Material: 1095 Cro-Van
Price: $121.75

Caraway Cutlery Bowie:

This was a gift from a very good friend of mine nearly 20 years ago and whenever we’re out in the outdoors, this one comes with us. It is the least expensive of the three but is a good quality knife for hunting or camping. The overall blade length is a bit too long for my taste, but it keeps a razor-sharp edge with the stainless-steel blade and is a great chopping tool.

The handle made from bone and has a brass plated guard as well, so injuries are properly prevented when the user gets carried away with chopping in the base camp.

The knife comes with a leather sheath which I never cared for in steamy jungle environments but works just fine in the Northeast. It is just a little too big for most uses.

Overall Length: 15 inches, 9.75-inch blade
Blade Thickness: 0.25 inches
Tang: Full
Blade Material: Stainless steel, plain edge
Price: about $60

For those of you who are looking for a custom-made knife, I would encourage you to check out Naylor Forge. Ashton Naylor is a retired Special Forces officer who commanded a battalion of the 5^th SFG in Iraq and was the SWC Group Commander. He is a self-taught blacksmith who puts out some tremendous quality knives, tomahawks, and axes.

And he’ll tailor them to your needs and specifications. He can give you some good tips on what will work best for you. And what will fit your needs. Check out his website here:

Photo courtesy YouTube

*Originally published on Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

How to protect your family from an Active Shooter — A Navy SEAL sniper weighs in

Editor’s note: This piece was originally published last year, but because of the unfortunate events of recent weeks, this issue has weighed heavily on my mind as a father, husband, and person that prides myself on being prepared for a bad situation. We’re not a massive media conglomerate, we’re a small group of guys that have a great deal in common with our readers: a passion for preparation, a desire to provide for and protect our families, and looming concerns about what we can do to keep our kids safe in the worst of situations. So, if you find yourself wondering why I’ve chosen to republish this piece now, I can answer that question simply: because I found myself looking it up last night… and if it helps me brush up, maybe it’ll help you too.

If you love your family and friends then you need to share this with them, it could save their lives.

My kids are visiting me in New York for the summer, they spend most their time with their mom on the west coast. On our first day in the city I briefed them on what to do if we encountered an active shooter, or a terrible situation like what happened in Paris, or more recently in Orlando.

Regardless of your position on gun rights and Muslims in America, the one thing we should all agree on, is that we live in a dangerous world, more so since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Mass shootings continue to rise, as does the threat of terrorism at home and abroad in Europe. If you visit a crowded metropolis your risk increases, especially in a city like New York.

So here I was, having a serious talk again with my little ones (we’ve had this talk before unfortunately), about what to do, and what our plan is going to be, if God forbid, some gun wielding lunatic or Islamic terrorist opens fire in the subway or Times Square.

How to protect your family with an Active Shooter. A Navy SEAL sniper gives you a life saving plan — My daughter and I at Grand Central Station, NYC. She knows what to do in an emergency. Author’s personal photo, all rights reserved.

As a former military guy and a SEAL, I’m a big fan of the KISS (Keep, It, Simple, Stupid) rule when it comes to planning. The important thing is to have a plan. When shots ring out in a crowd it is not the time or place to come up with a plan, it’s too late, and that’s how people get killed. They freeze, close their eyes, or try and conceal themselves behind something that doesn’t stop bullets, I’ll get to that next.

So first thing to do is develop a simple plan for what to do in a public place, or an additional one if the kids are in school or somewhere by themselves. Everyone should know the plan in advance and who the chain of command is (Dad, mom, uncle Wayne, big brother, and so on).

Have a plan, period. Simpler the better.

A framework for a plan

Establish a leader who makes the decisions in an emergency. Everyone knows to follow the leader (Dad, mom, etc.)
Run like hell. It’s extremely hard to hit a moving target, snipers train hours to do this with skill. For someone nervous, or who’s an amateur, it will be very hard to hit a moving target, especially under stressful conditions. You need to create as much distance as possible between you and the shooter. The effective range of most handguns is 25 meters, and an assault style rifle is around 5-600M.
Hide only as a last resort, and with the idea that you will eventually need to move (there’s exceptions of course, this is up to the leader to decide). If it’s a single shooter, listen for lulls in fire, this could indicate a weapon jamming or the shooter is reloading. Either one creates an opportunity to run and distance yourself from the shooter and escape with your life.
There could also be a scenario where you are forced to fight your way out of a situation. If this is the case then use cover if possible. Cover actually stops bullets and is stuff like concrete, large planter beds and brick. I saw many people mistaking concealment (hiding behind tables, glass and curtains) for cover in Paris and they got shot, they died because concealment doesn’t stop a bullet, cover does.
Have a communications plan (who is going to call or contact who. Police officer, a parent, etc.) and a rally point in case people are separated or by themselves. A rally point should be simple, Grand Central Station, Entrance of the Empire State Building, a friends home, etc.

3 Tips

Subscribe to The NEWSREP, or join a tactical gear club, if not ours here, then another one run by experts. Joining a community or club like this is not that expensive (how much is your family worth?) and gives you access to a community of experts that provide value Q&A.
Purchase a ballistic insert for your backpack, your kids backpack, mom’s purse, or suitcase, you get the idea. NIJ protection level II as a minimum. There are plenty of places to buy this from with a quick Google search, don’t buy used on online unless you really know your stuff. Consult with your local shooting range if need be.
Have an EDC (Every, Day, Carry) medical kit. It should consist of a tourniquet, two super absorbent large gauze pads, and medical tape at a minimum.

My hope is that this helps better prepare families who are, rightfully scared, and concerned about the increased trend in mass shootings in America, and Europe.

Afghanistan 2002, forward deployed as a sniper with SEAL Team 3. Author’s personal collection, all rights reserved.

Feature image courtesy of Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs

Important tips on transitioning from military to civilian life from a Navy SEAL

I lost everything I owned three years after leaving the Navy, including my marriage. Then I picked myself up, dusted off, and built a new life outside of my service. It was a tough, lonely, and sometimes scary, road. As we are experiencing one of the largest migrations of combat veterans to civilian life since World War II, it is my goal to share my own transition experience with the hope I can make it a bit easier for others by learning from my mistakes.

It’s tough going from a predictable routine, and group of people you can trust to an unscripted life on the outside. It must be similar to being in prison for ten years and getting out with no routine and in a strange world. For me, it was hard because when I left the Navy and the SEAL community, I had just made chief petty officer and many were resentful that I was leaving mid-career. They saw my leaving as wasting an E7 billet. There were more than a few rumbling voices at command. But, I’ve always had a strong opinion about doing 110% of something straight to the end, and if that meant putting my all into the job and getting promoted early, only to leave it all behind, then so be it.

I didn’t get too much support when I left, outside of my immediate family. Many veterans do not and that’s unfortunate because I think a lot of vets end up drifting off into bad places because there’s a genuine lack of community outside the military once you leave. If you’re thinking of the known veteran groups, most just aren’t relevant to the modern vet in transition. I keep hearing about the “Brotherhood,” but it really exists in a small part at the unit level only. It is heavily glamorized in film, TV and social media — mostly by those who never served or worse, veterans who can’t leave their career behind and are clinging to some false narrative.

I’ll summarize my story as quickly as possible below, and then get on to the top ten transition tips I think will be most helpful to my fellow veterans.

My Story

I left the Navy in the summer of 2006 just after my youngest son was born. I extended to make sure we had good healthcare in place. Aside from paying for college, another huge benefit to serving is the healthcare is really good. You’ll not have the same healthcare on the outside but I’ll get to that later. My plan was to do overseas contracting for a year and to start a business on the side. My best friend, Glen Doherty, recruited me to a special program and I was approved for deployment during my paid leave in the military and already had my first deployment date to Iraq.

I did several deployments over the first year and a half which allowed me to save enough money to support my family. I enrolled in school to take several business courses and started writing my first business plan for a racetrack facility with government training. We spent a year just looking for land and eventually found a nice parcel. After we got the project approved through the local government, the economy completely collapsed under the mortgage loan crisis. (Watch “The Big Short,” a great movie that explains what happened.) Our funding dried up, and to make matters worse, an environmental group sued the county over the environmental report, and the project was dead. Welcome to development in the People’s Republic of California.

Then, just to make things more interesting, my marriage ended. We tried to work on things but realized we’d be better off apart and thankfully, have developed a deep connection and friendship for our kids’ sake. I’ll write more on this later because if you have children, it’s worth making the investment and sacrifice to maintain a good relationship with your co-parent. And contrary to many stories I’ve heard, divorce can have a positive outcome. So there I was, no business, no money (in fact, I was in debt), and no family. I went from being an involved dad to one who saw his kids on the weekends. It was rough but, one of the greatest gifts I took from working as a sniper instructor was the time I spent with some of the best and brightest with a positive mental outlook. This saved me a lot of pain, and it was an extremely humbling experience all-around. I cried many nights alone as a 30-something who went from the top of my career as a Navy SEAL to losing it all on the outside.

I ended up taking a few odd jobs, then landed at an amazing division of L-3 Communications in San Diego. I had incredible co-workers and an amazing woman boss, and they trained me up as a business development executive. I did this for about two years as I was starting to write and blog on the side.

Shortly after taking the job, I submitted a book proposal to publishers in New York. Everyone turned the book down except one editor, Marc Resnic at St. Martin’s Press, who liked my story. The book would go on to sell well and it made the New York Times bestseller list. At the time it sold, there was very little in the market in the form of Navy SEAL books and nobody really knew about the SEAL Teams or cared. This has obviously changed. In fact, there are more SEAL books than I can count these days.

Since then, I’ve built a business around blogs, podcasts and e-commerce. It’s had ups and downs like every business but continues to this day, seven years later. I’ve also had the privilege of being appointed to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Veterans Advisory Board. This was a great experience and really opened my eyes to the things the SBA could, and should, be doing for veterans.

So, that’s the short version. Now for some advice.

Top transition tips

Have a plan

A plan gives you purpose, and trust me, you’re going to need it to be your North Star. This helped me tremendously and pulled me through some dark times.

Education

If you have the GI Bill, going back to school can be a great cushion transitioning back to civilian life and helping with the integration. The housing allowance given is more than enough to rent a nice place and cover living expenses.

Get a job

There’s nothing stopping you from interviewing for jobs on the outside before you separate. I had my first civilian paycheck before my military pay ran out and this is a comforting thing. The defense industry is a great place to start, because you’ll be incredibly relevant to most these companies and they pay well. There are also a lot of non-profits that have partnered with big industry to place veterans. This is a good place to look and Google is your friend.

Clean up your social media

Most companies will check your social media accounts whether you know it or not. They will also monitor your social media while you’re an active employee to make sure you’re not posting inappropriate content that is out of alignment with company values. I’ve experienced this first-hand. We gave gainful employment to a veteran, it didn’t work out, and that person goes off half-cocked on social media looking like a complete jerk. People are watching and making assessments all the time. My company now has a code of conduct around social media and everyone has to sign it.

Start or buy a business

If I had to do it all over again, I would have bought a business. There are so many good franchises and you can get a small government-backed loan through the SBA to start. I think most veterans have what it takes to manage and grow a small business. You have tremendous freedom and autonomy and this would be my number-one advice for veterans. Start your own business. There are literally tens of thousands of businesses for sale by people who just want to retire. They put their kids through college and the kids don’t want the business because they’ve gone on to be doctors or lawyers and the parents just want to sell to someone who’ll take care of their baby. In many of these cases, you can buy these with owner financing and use the business to pay off the debt and take home a good, solid six-figure income. Do your homework on this, take classes, and look at the SBA’s website.

Trust but verify

The military puts you in a system that forces trust and you come to take that for granted. It is NOT this way on the outside. We have to trust people, but don’t get taken advantage of. Always ask for references and proof points and follow up. I’ve seen too many veterans get scammed by loan sharks or crazy schemes.

Find a good mentor or two, or three…

You just have to ask. I have several mentors and they’ve been critical in many phases of my transition. Some want to give back to the military community and some I’ve had to approach with a value proposition. “What can I offer them in exchange? How can I be valuable to this person?” Sure, people will respect your service but nobody owes you anything. Remember that. It’s up to you to do the work and prove your value on the outside.

Learn which military skills do (and don’t) translate

It should be easy but I see veterans using skills that don’t translate all the time. Hazing (all forms), threatening to kick someone’s ass to settle a dispute (while gratifying at times, it’s a sure lose-lose), and worse. Several skills translate well: Showing up on time, doing what you say you’ll do, teamwork, strategy, execution, taking initiative, and problem-solving. These are a few skills that will serve you very well on the outside.

Build a solid external network

There are plenty of great professional organizations you can join. You need to join one because you have to start building a solid external network. The Masons, Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), start-up groups, sports clubs, Young Presidents Organization (YPO), and so on. EO and YPO have both been incredible for me since I lost a lot of military friends in the war, and largely wanted to surround myself with positive, business-minded, successful people. You are who you hang out with. Remember that.

Which brings me to the most important tip I can give you:

Live by the Golden Rule

This sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how many veterans I’ve seen shit on each other in public. My own community is the worst at this! It only makes them (and all of us vets) look extremely unprofessional, and is a huge red flag to potential employers or future business partners. They’ll just de-risk and decline you before you even know it. I’ve worked hard to reverse the veteran stigma that exits and it’s hard to keep defending this to the business community when folks act like children. We have to police ourselves. It makes it harder for other veterans to gain future employment when veterans do this. So, treat people professionally and respectfully at all times and it will come back to you in a big way. If in doubt, ask yourself this question, “Is what I’m doing going to reflect positively on the veteran community?” If the answer is no, don’t do it. The Golden Rule, live by it.

Thanks for listening and I hope my story and experience helps. If you know a transitioning veteran, please share this with them. I’m also glad to DM any veterans who have follow-up questions on my Instagram: @BrandontWebb.

See you on the outside.

About the Author:

Brandon Webb is a New York Times bestselling author, pilot, tech investor, former Navy SEAL, and founder of the Crate Club Group.

SERE School from the perspective of a Delta Operator: Surviving as prisoner of war

While taking part in a training course for a special mission, I understood that I would be attending SERE school at some point during the six-month course, though I didn’t really know when. Our SERE training was split into an administrative phase of classroom training, followed by a no-notice internment phase in a prisoner-of-war camp… but when?

Of the few rumored details of events while in captivity that were thrown out there for me to dispel or believe was the notion that there would be a constant barrage of ear-splitting music and other audio annoyances designed to wear down prisoners over time, lowering their ability to “resist.” Of the the various speculated details, I chose that one to embrace.

I recall in James Rowe’s book “Five Years to Freedom” how he had managed to stash away a piece of rubber from a tire during one of the bouts when he was punished by the North Vietnamese, his mosquito net removed for several nights. As the dusk settled and the vermin descended, James produced and ignited the rubber, generating a noxious black smoke that drove away the mosquitoes. James held them at arm’s length for several minutes until the rubber was burned, whereupon the mosquitos proceeded to swarm on him and mercilessly bite him for the rest of the night.

What’s the point you ask? As James put it, it was a small victory, ever so small, but he had robbed his enemy of their control of his discomfort, if even for just several minutes. Even a small victory such as that afforded him a much-needed charge of resilient energy. To me, that was the most memorable passage in his book, and I understood what he meant.

I knew I would hate the loud audio barrage, and I set out to orchestrate my small victory. I got pairs of earplugs, the soft, spongy, yellow kind, and, popping out several loops of thread from the cuffs of my combat blouses, compressed the earplugs and pushed them into the holes in the cuffs. Then I sewed them back up. If my blouses were not taken from me, this might work. I imagined our uniforms could be taken from us entirely and we’d be issued a separate uniform in prison, but I would have to deal with it if/when the time came.

I became caught up in the dynamics of the SMU training course. Mission after mission came and went. In the woods of North Carolina, we found ourselves on a patrol for a few days and nights searching for pilots who had ejected from their burning aircraft over “enemy territory.” This was a combat patrol like any other, with strict tactical discipline at all times, very little food, and almost no sleep. We found our pilots, and began an 18-mile march out of “bad-guy” country back to our home base.

We broke our march for rest at a small lake several miles from our compound to await transportation that would take us back home. A box cargo truck arrived on time and target, and we piled in. This is great, I thought, this hump will finally be over. The ride was somewhat longer than expected, and I found the pressure on my bladder was more than I could stand. I emptied the contents of my least-full canteen onto the floor of the truck.

“Hey don’t dump that in here, man!” one of my buds snipped.

“Really? Do you want to know what your alternative is?” I asked.

We came to a halt, the rolling rear door of the truck flew open, and bursts of automatic fire ripped through the air. Men in nondescript uniforms screamed and clawed at us, roughly pulling us off the truck. This was it; this was captivity, and the POW phase of SERE had begun.

Night was falling and we were forced to lie face-down in the dirt. Our hands were bound behind us and hoods placed over our heads. My hood was tight and made my breathing labored. I could feel oxygen deprivation-inspired panic trying to creep over me as I took a chance and turned onto my side. The enemy guards spat questions and commands at us in phony accents. I felt my clothes being stripped from my body until I was nude, and I was commanded to sit on the ground.

The ground in this case was a cold, concrete slab. It was winter, I was naked, and now sitting on a concrete slab. I shivered. Finally I heard, “Stand up, criminal!”

Was he talking to me?

“I said stand up!”

I was jerked up onto my feet. At that moment, I sensed that something was attached to my buttock; I reached with my hand and brushed off what turned out to be dry winter leaves from oak trees.

“What is that…what did you take from your rectum, criminal?!” the guard shrieked.

“Sir, it’s just some leaves that were stuck to my ass.”

“And so what else do you have in your rectum, criminal?”

“(Sighs and rolls eyes)…just the leaves, sir.”

I was allowed to recover my pile of clothes minus my boots. I was led into a building and stuffed into a wooden box. The door to the box was closed and latched shut.

“Take off your hood, criminal,” the guard barked.

I pulled the hood and saw inches from my head a square hole in the top of the box just big enough to poke my head through, which I didn’t dare at the moment.

“Place the hood on the top of the box, criminal.”

I did.

Now the guard covered the square hole with the hood. I began the unspeakably awkward challenge of getting my clothes back on in a box too small to change your mind in. I found that if I wedged my butt into one corner, I could just barely lock my leg out straight in the diagonally opposite corner. I pitied one of our class officers, Major Ben S., a man well over six feet tall.

And so it began, the audio stimulation. Piped through loudspeakers at tinnitus levels came recordings of morbid music, screams, babies crying…all measure of unbearable loudness. I bit at the thread on the seams of my blouse cuff until I popped the seam and extracted the ear plugs. WONDERFUL EAR PLUGS! I put them in and the fevered pitch of the shrill cacophony went dull. Of course it didn’t go away altogether, but this was my James Rowe victory, to be sure.

Even with my clothes on, I continued to shiver. I chanced to poke my head through the top hole of my box, just enough to clear my eyes and have a peek. I was in a room with two other boxes at either side of me, both with hoods covering the head hole. The door began to open and I sank back down.

“Do you wish water?” I heard.

Was he talking to me? The hood swept aside and a sour face filled the hole on top.

“Criminal, do you wish water?” it shouted.

“Yes sir, I do, thank you.” I responded.

When I looked up at him, I had made sure to not turn my head to either side, revealing my yellow ear plugs. As the door hasp rattled, I quickly pulled the plugs out and pushed them in a corner. The door opened briefly to allow the guard to push in a can of hot water. I got it: This was water for the sake of thirst, and the temperature was intended to keep our internal thermostats up. Every few hours, we were given a can of hot water. All that hot-water drinking quickly inflated my bladder, though, and I was eventually compelled to urinate in a number 10 soup can that was provided in a corner of my “cell.”

“Do you wish food?” the guard would ask from time to time. Despite my affirmative responses, the guard would laugh and walk away, never to impart food. It was a game.

After an indeterminate number of hours in the box trying to stave off the torment of the raucous tirade of noise emanating from the speakers, my door latch once again began to rattle. I plucked my plugs and corner-stashed them.

“Get out, criminal!”

I crawled out and stood long enough for the guard to cover my head with the hood. I was being led through the building and finally forced to make an awkward climb up some wooden stairs to an interrogation room.

I was put in a chair and my hood removed. The room was large. I sat at a small field table with a video camera on a tripod pointed at me. I momentarily combed my fingers through my hair for the sake of the shoot. My interrogator sat across from me, staring grumpily at the documents to his front. Behind him was a small window high up on the wall, which gave way to a blacked-out room.

“State your rank and full name, criminal.” the interrogator hissed.

“What about my serial number?” I joked.

“Get to your feet, criminal!” the guard growled as he groped at my lapel. Gripping me by the lapels, he slammed me hard against the plywood wall. The wall buckled in, easily absorbing the shock of my body, leading me to believe this room was quickly and temporarily constructed for this event.

“Criminal do you think this is a game?” the guard queried as he delivered several hook punches to my gut, dumping me onto the wood floor. Lesson learned: No attempts at humor with your interrogator, even if it is just a game.

Read Part 2 and Part 3.

Feature image courtesy of the Dept. of Defense