SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES

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

Worst War Movies Ever | Don’t Waste Your Time on These Stinkers

Back in May around Memorial Day, we listed some of our favorite War Films that are guaranteed to entertain and keep your interest. We could have easily added a couple of more as the genre always has some worthy additions by Hollywood’s filmmakers. This year’s blockbuster “Dunkirk” could easily make its way into that list.

But today’s list is going in the opposite direction. These are some of the worst war films, in our humble opinion out there. In every genre, especially one as chocked full of entries as the war film category, you’ll have plenty of lousy films, that are just groan worthy from military veterans and war film buffs alike.

So watch these following films…if you dare. But as a word to the wise. You may turn it off before it is over. As some of these films are just plain awful. Normally we’d say, drum roll, please. Instead, we’ll play a dirge. In no particular order here is your Wall of Shame of Worst War Films:

Battle of the Bulge (1965) – Despite a stellar All-Star cast of Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Dana Andrews, George Montgomery and James MacArthur this one got nearly everything wrong. The uniforms, the tanks, the history was skewed horribly.

Less than a minute into the film, the narrator, William Conrad uttered this: “To the south lay Patton’s Third Army, to the North Montgomery’s Eighth”….What? Field Marshal Montgomery’s Eighth Army, for which he rose to fame in the desert, was in Italy, not the Northern edge of the Bulge. That should tell you right away that this stinker was not going to get things right.

The German Tiger Tanks were actually M-47 Patton tanks and the American Shermans were portrayed by M-24 Chaffee light tanks. Filmed entirely in Spain, the terrain resembled the wooded, hilly Ardennes, not at all.

The film wasted a good performance from Robert Shaw, as the fanatical SS officer Col. Hessler who was tasked to break through the Allied lines. Shaw’s Hessler was loosely based on SS Colonel Joachim Peiper. No mention is made of the counter-attack from Patton’s forces from the south, the 101st Airborne’s holding of the key road junction of Bastogne or the Allied air power, which after the skies cleared, decimated the Germans on the ground.

Instead, this film would have you believe that the only thing that stopped the Germans from reaching Antwerp was the lack of gas. The climactic tank battle at the end was another loosely based big tank battle at Celles. In the film, the Germans wipe out the American forces. In reality, it was the opposite. The 2nd Armored Division left 88 German tanks smoking in the hills. This film was so bad that General Eisenhower came out of retirement to excoriate it for its lack of historical accuracy.

Inchon (1979) – This stinker was produced by the religious leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon, head of the powerful Unification Church in the 1980s. He put up $30 million of his own cash to make this limp, tepid offering. The production costs ballooned up to $46 million, which would be near $150 million today. Sir Laurence Olivier was paid $1 million bucks to play General Douglas MacArthur and it is clear, he was there for the paycheck only.

Rev. Moon claimed that the spirit of MacArthur visited him during the filming giving his blessing to the project. OK…does anything else need to be added here?

The cast of Olivier, Ben Gazzara, and Jacqueline Bissett was wasted here with dialogue as dry as a buffalo fart. Olivier looked more like Emperor Palpatine than MacArthur in this one. And Moon threw in a little sex action between Gazzara and a Korean hottie while cheating on Bissett who was his wife at home to take away from the rest of this potboiler I guess to show that the war was the cause of marital infidelity. It was actually filmed in 1979 and Moon shopped for three years for a studio to release this turkey.

I didn’t make it thru the original release, falling asleep in the theater and guarantee if you are having sleep issues watch this and it will do the trick. This one was so bad that MGM didn’t even release it on video. You can find it on YouTube if you care to.

Pearl Harbor (2001) – Michael Bay took a 90-minute action film about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and squeezed it into a 3-hour 3-minute monstrosity that took severe creative license with the actual history. Starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale who are involved in a complicated love triangle during the and immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack that kicked the U.S. into World War II.

Pearl Harbor had a huge operating budget of $140 million but made a respectable $450 million at the box office. Some of it was filmed in the huge Baja Studio that James Cameron built for Titanic. And the ship scenes filmed there were still visible (the wreck of the Arizona) a few years later when I got to work on the beginning of a Narnia film there in 2009.

The numerous factual inaccuracies were pretty numerous, the Marlboro Lights in a sailor’s pocket…was inexcusable. A pretty amusing scene is where Affleck is talking to Colonel Doolittle in his office and behind the Colonel are his trophies for air racing. Look closely and there is an F-86 Saber jet from the Korean War. Affleck’s supposed action in the “Eagle Squadron” with the RAF is flawed. No American Army pilots were allowed to join. Only civilians. And what in the wide, wide world of sports is the intelligence officers and Beckinsale listening to during the Doolittle Raid? It certainly wasn’t radio chatter from the planes over Japan. They were on strict radio silence.

This one at least had some good action scenes during the actual bombing of Pearl Harbor which Bay did well although again inaccurately and had the always enchanting Beckinsale in the lead. A curious decision was the one to portray Mrs. Ben Affleck (Jennifer Garner) as a dowdy nurse, perhaps to take away from Beckinsale’s draw.

Redacted (2009) – If you’ve never heard of this one, don’t be alarmed, you aren’t missing anything. Normally I love the films of Brian De Palma but he swung for the fences with this one and missed. De Palma took a real incident about a rape of a young Iraqi girl and the murder of her family and tried to create an anti-war film about the U.S. involvement in Iraq. Surprisingly, some of the medium’s most well-known critics loved this film. Don’t waste your time, it was unmitigated trash, exploitation. He tried to shock the audience, right down to a slide show of gruesome pictures of Iraq’s war dead. We aren’t told who killed them, or who they are…it is just supposed to shock the viewer.

The message? here is that the war is making monsters out of American youth? I don’t know. It is kind of murky there but De Palma goes full-blown exploitive with the two Americans being the cartoonish, one-dimensional villains in the scene.The one perpetrator even wears a helmet mounted camera to catch the ugliness on film as the antithesis of the combat footage we’ve seen on screen during the war.

This was one of De Palma’s lesser efforts, the dialogue is atrocious and totally unbelievable for any grunts and sounds like a cliche machine.The way these guys interact with one another is a joke. Is this a unit that went to Iraq together or did they meet on the set just ten minutes before? It was just a crudely done, poorly defined film that even the “found camera footage” is unbelievable. It was a one-dimensional bit of schlock that is best left to the imagination.

Revolution (1985) – Ok, I know “The Patriot” also taking place in the Revolutionary War took tremendous liberties with the historical facts. But the cast at least made it entertaining. Revolution was one of the most horrible films I think I’ve ever been subjected to. A few years ago, I hadn’t even heard of it, and a friend of mine, said that I absolutely, positively had to watch it.

Well, I did and I agree with the original review published in 1985 with its release that it was quite probably the worst film of the year. The casting was absolutely ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love Al Pacino. Some of his performances are legendary stuff, Scarface, Heat, the Godfather saga. But casting him as a trapper caught up in the Revolutionary War is a head scratcher. Where was he trapping? In Brooklyn? His accent is not American Revolution-esque unless we had a lot more Italian immigrants in the colonies than what has been reported.

Speaking of accents, Nastassja Kinski, who back in the day was quite the box office draw, has a completely different one from the actresses who play her mother and sisters. I guess we’re supposed it ignore it or assume that she was adopted.

The British characters led by Donald Sutherland, are the unequivocal bad guys here. And just in case you don’t see it first hand, the director makes sure that you do by making most of them kiddy-diddlers. Pederasty aside, it is still a horrible film that is just not worth your time. The director wasted some nicely filmed battle scenes in Yorktown by making a boring, yawner who…like the ones listed above, took great liberties with history.

There are several more we could have listed here but you get the idea. And please feel free to chime in with some of your own Hall of Shame War Films. So with Labor Day Weekend upcoming, if you’re not making one last run to the beach this summer and you’re content with sitting home and watching some of your favorite war films, do yourself a favor. Skip these five. You’ll be glad you did.

Photos courtesy: IMDB

Courtesy of Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

Rucking for the SOF Candidate: ‘Wear it Until You Love it’

Recently we have revisited some of the basics of Land Navigation, one of the trio of the biggest obstacles that Special Operations candidates will face in their individual Selection courses. And now we’ll move on to the next one, and one we always get a lot of questions about. Rucking.

I look upon rucking just like any perishable skill in SOF. And a lot like shooting, it is one skill that requires a lot of practice and constant repetition to master. And it begins with a proper mindset. When wearing a rucksack, I think back to the film, “The Man in the Iron Mask” when King Louis XIV finds out he has a twin and places him in a prison wearing an iron mask so no one will realize there are two heirs to the throne. “Wear it until you love it,” Louis says… Sage advice

When it comes to rucking you will hear 100 different things from 100 different people. We all have our own tips of the trade and the vast majority of them are good. But I’ll share this; you have to find what works best for you. All that we’re doing here is just giving you the benefits of our own experiences and hopefully, these will be of value to you. But as a caveat, I’d be remiss in saying that what works for one man won’t necessarily work for everyone… So, with that in mind, let’s go.

Packing Your Ruck:

First up on the agenda is how your rucksack is packed. Sounds like a no-brainer…right? Not so fast. Like everything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. A common mistake that many young guys make is to put the heavy stuff on the bottom of your ruck and then put the lighter stuff on top of that. Don’t do it.

Now in preparation training for Selection, your ruck doesn’t have to have a packing list with all of your tactical needs. The weight, the correct weight is the important factor here. And a really, really, really good rule of thumb is to err on the side of caution.

If the cadre members tell you to have a 45-pound ruck without food and water, that’s exactly what that means and when I say err on the side of caution, the sword cuts both ways. 44 pounds and 15 ounces won’t cut it and that will be really frowned upon… Yes, that means, it could be a show-stopper. We always would add about 2-3 pounds extra just to be safe.

But just as being smart about adding a couple of extra pounds to be in the safe zone, there is such a phenomenon as “too much of a good thing.” If the cadre says “45-lbs”, while 50 is okay, going out there with 75-80 is not. Trust me, you won’t get Brownie points or extra credit for it. So, don’t go overboard with it. As always, be smart.

Your weight should be packed up high between the shoulder blades. If your ruck has radio pouch up high, that is where the sandbag or weight plates belongs. I prefer sandbags because it will mold to your pack and back and doesn’t have any sharp edges that can rub you on a ruck.

The guys over at GoRUCK sell these nice molded plates that will do the trick and they take all the guesswork out of it. I’ve used weighted plates in the past. And when the gym starts running short of 45-pound plates, someone will complain. But as I mentioned previously, I like to use sandbags.

We’ve talked boots in several different pieces before, in Selection, you will have to wear what the cadre allows, so the high-speed boots may have to take a backseat until you reach an operational unit. In the Army, that means boots that are compliant with AR-670-1. However, I recently acquired a new pair of boots and we’ll post a review of those ASAP.

Water and hydration are always very important even on days like the last couple where it is cloudy and cool and threatening rain. So, stay hydrated and force yourself to keep sipping while on the trail. Keep your hydration up in pre-training and it will be easier to keep going once you are in the course.

The trail we’ve been using in a power line cut so it was up-down without much flat terrain involved. When rucking it is best to lean forward and getting the arm swing going from side to side rather than a typical running type swing back and forth.

This spring, it seems the tick population has exploded. One can scarcely take a step without several of the buggers attaching themselves to you. Last night I took my dog on a quick jaunt down the trail. After only about 300 yards, she was covered. I pulled 10 off of her forelegs and cut things short. So, check yourself frequently.

But I digress, let’s talk about getting some speed going. When it comes to increasing speed, I don’t recommend that you run with a rucksack on your back while in training. They’ll be times in your selection course or the qualification course that you’ll have to make up time or want to pick your pace, especially on the downhill slopes. At those times, you’re going to have to do what you must, but for our training purposes don’t do it. Learn to increase your speed without running. Running with a ruck will hurt your knees and back…take it from the guy with two arthritic knees.

I like to lengthen my stride on the downhill slopes, some guys will tell you the exact opposite. Again, find out what works for you and stick to it. But the bottom line is don’t resort to running to increase your speed. You’re going to have to learn to ruck quickly without running sooner or later, and there’s no time like the present.

The standard is a 15-minute mile pace to pass the courses, you should be aiming to go lower than that. We were keeping a 14:30 pace on one of our practical exercise videos, which means we’ll have to step it up as well. Back in the day, I used to maintain around a 13-minute per mile pace which would bring myself in with around 20-25 minutes to spare on a 12-miler. And I could keep that pace for a 20-miler.

On one certification 20-miler at Ft. Bragg, our team maintained a 13-minute mile pace for the entire length of the course and that was with two 7-8 minute breaks built in to change socks and catch a breather. Of course, since the movement wasn’t considered tactical and was mapped out along a road, our communications supervisor (18E) strapped a boom box atop his rucksack and we rocked to AC-DC and Metallica. Much better than the sound of boots scuffling for 20 miles. We ended up with the best time in the battalion that night…the staff when learning of the music…were not amused. Always look for an edge, right? And sometimes it is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.

If anyone ever has any questions, feel free to send them along to [email protected] and I’ll be glad to answer them and we may use it in our next article or video.

Photo courtesy of US Army

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

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

More rucking tips from a Green Beret: Revisiting the hills with a 45-lb ruck

About six months ago in our SFAS training tips, we hit the trails with our rucksack and were hitting the hills as they present issues that as a Selection candidate that you will encounter in the various courses that the services will offer.

With the rain, we had in the area as the remnants of a hurricane dumped some needed moisture in the forest, what better time is there than to get out in the rain and mud and carry a rucksack? The one good thing is that the trails would be empty as most people that time of morning decided that hiking in the rain and muck isn’t the most fun way to start the day.

It should be noted, that my training companion bailed on me. My bulldog took one look outside at the rain and wind and gave me a look like, “you’ve got to be kidding me?” and flopped, not rolled over, flopped on her side with her back to me. Sigh. I was on my own.

On another side note, besides the training value of rucking for those of our readers who are aspiring Special Operations candidates, going out on an early morning hike/ruck is a great stress reliever for a bit. For those who need to clear their head and decompress, it is a wonderful tonic for the cluttered brain. And there has been plenty of that lately…Nuff said.

In getting the weight right for the rucksack, which should be a 45-pound minimum, I went back to using a sandbag that I placed in the top radio pouch of the rucksack. Back a few months ago, we got several questions about using bricks, which you can and for the purpose of that one exercise I did. But to me, and it is just my personal opinion, bricks are bulky and it takes quite a few of them to get the weight right.

For the purposes of training and just for the plain ease of getting it right, a sandbag is much easier and foolproof. But there is no right or wrong answer here, whatever works for you is fine as long as the weight is correct. And that is what it is all about…

We’ve posted some tips based on our experience that we feel will be of good value to you. I don’t claim to know it all, but after many years in SF, these tips and techniques worked for me and hopefully, they’ll work for you as well.

So, the weight, in this case, the sandbag should be packed up high between the shoulder blades as much as possible. The ruck that I’m using has radio pouch up high, that is where the sandbag was placed. And it bears repeating that I prefer sandbags because it will mold to your ruck and back and doesn’t have any sharp edges that can rub you on a long-distance ruck march.

On this particular ruck march, I once again used the waist strap on my rucksack, that way, the weight rides more on your hips and not on your shoulders. This way you can loosen your shoulder straps just a bit so that the weight isn’t all on them.

We covered boots in a several of our earlier pieces. I have several favorite pairs that I take on hikes depending upon the conditions. Since I had recently purchased a new pair of the Merrell MOAB2 boots. As we’ve stated before, these are great boots.

They are comfortable right out of the box, very stable, have excellent traction in all kinds of conditions (this day would be a mix of wet forest and rock) and the new footbeds fit better with improved arch and heel cup design. I almost went with the heavier Sawtooth boots but I’m putting them on a pitch count so to speak so that they last as I can’t get any more of them.

Someone emailed me a while back and asked what boots I rucked in back in the day. It is a very good question. I answered my issued jungle boots. Why? Because that is what I was going to use when I was either at home base or deployed and had several pairs broken in. Use what you are going to wear down range.

The closed loop trail in my favorite “Purgatory” hike gives plenty of varied terrain so it was up and down some steep hills. As it is a short trail I went back and forth (twice) to get some distance in which is guaranteed to get you some strange looks from any other hikers that you come across. But on this rainy, wet morning I was alone anyway.

I took my SFAS Cadre walking stick (The staff of Ra) on the course. But unlike Mr. Indiana Jones’ medallion, mine has a large snapping turtle skull attached. It makes for an attractive topper and a good weapon for the occasional dog that decides to attack the crazy person walking in the woods alone. Usually, all it takes is to point it and Fido thinks better of it. Of course, that is what the bulldog’s secondary (implied) task is for.

So, with the Apple iPod in place, some soothing Metallica in my ears, it is off to Purgatory. When hitting the upslope of the hills, I like to lean forward just slightly and lengthen, not shorten my stride. Some people do the opposite, whatever works for you. Try it. I’m not talking a big difference, just an ever so slightly longer one which keeps your momentum going. The walking stick will definitely help here and when you reach the downside of the slopes.

Running: This is a touchy subject with a lot of people and you’ll get 100 different answers from a 100-different people. But when it comes to increasing speed, I don’t recommend that you run with a rucksack on your back while in training. Learn to increase your speed without resorting to running.

Running with a rucksack puts an incredible amount of stress on your knees. On this trail, there are some steep downhill slopes where it is easy to pick up a shuffle for a short distance, and it can speed things up but there is a difference between doing that and for running a longer distance.

From one of our earlier articles on rucking while preparing for selection, “They’ll be times in your selection course or the qualification course that you’ll have to make up time or want to pick your pace, especially on the downhill slopes. At those times, you’re going to have to do what you must.”

I can’t stress enough as someone who now has two arthritic knees and a back to boot to learn to increase your speed without running. Lengthen out your stride and generate power with your legs and your speed will come naturally without resorting to running. But while in the course…do what you must, to pass. When I was becoming a SFAS Cadre member, we had to go thru the course before working there. I was one of the “dinosaurs” who went thru the SFQC before there was SFAS. And on one of our long-range rucks, I jogged the last mile and a half, almost two, just to get it over with as I still had plenty of time (why do people who give advice, never take their own?).

The standard is a 15-minute mile pace to pass the course. That is the minimum. You should be aiming much better than that. I used to keep about a 12-minute per mile pace. It is plenty fast enough for where you’ll finish a 12-mile with just over 30 minutes to spare and is a pace that you can keep up for an even longer distance.

Water and hydration are very important as we keep harping on in every PT piece every morning. On this day, despite the rainy, raw conditions, I drank quite a bit of water, close to 36 ounces. It is a good habit to get into during training to continue to push water all the time. If you get into the habit now, you’ll keep it up during the course.

Happy Rucking…now I have to have a word with a bulldog about abandoning me.

If anyone else has any questions, feel free to send them along to [email protected] or at my Twitter page @SteveB7SFG and I’ll be glad to answer them.

Photo courtesy of US Army, author

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

Ruck like the best of them: Former Green Beret breaks down the basics of hiking your gear

In our Selection preparation, we always stress the importance of Rucking and the value that all of the services put on it in the Special Operations community. The services will all stress the 45-pound minimum in training and one of the frequent questions we get is why train with 45-pounds when in reality the amount will be much more.

The 45-pound weight is considered the minimum, it is a baseline that everything is based on. That isn’t the ceiling but the floor. As we’ll get to in just a moment. Carrying a ruck is the basic mode of transportation that every Special Operations Forces trooper will have to master. In Selection, it isn’t just a physical test and yes you will be tested physically there, but a mental one. You’re going to get tired, hungry, sore and worn down. The rucksack is the vehicle by the cadre to see who has the intestinal fortitude to keep putting one foot in front of the other and drive on with the mission.

It is even more important in the Special Forces Selection and Assessment Course (SFAS). That 45-pounds as we said above is the floor. That is the baseline of weight before a candidate has to add his food and water. And then the cadre of SFAS have no shortage of events for the candidate to increase that weight exponentially each day.

So, if you aspiring SOF candidates are following along with physical training program, on Sunday (we always do a Sunday ruck, to pay homage to the SF gods) we had a five-mile ruck on the agenda and I, for one was looking forward to it.

We’ve had a pretty sustained heat wave with high humidity up here in the Northeast for quite a while now. On Saturday afternoon, massive thunderstorms ripped thru the area but in their aftermath brought crisp, cool air with an almost autumn feel with it. The air was dry and temps in the low ‘60s, perfect rucking weather.

So as I was trudging along in the dark at about 0520, I decided to take another route and extend the distance (arthritic knees and all) for about another mile and a half into my neighboring town. While trudging along I made some mental notes to pass along about the basics of rucking and ensuring that we all are doing the little things right.

Boots and Socks: Are we all wearing two pairs of socks, turned inside out so the stitching isn’t rubbing and causing hot spots? The inner sock should be one of those nylon or polypro socks to wick away the moisture from your feet and put on some foot powder as well to help with the same.

Your boots have to fit snugly but not too tight, especially in the heel and have them laced up to where they are comfortable enough without being too tight and cutting off your circulation. Are your second pair of boots broken in well enough?

Packing Your Ruck: During training or train up for Selection, you don’t need to have a bunch of gear in your ruck, just the prescribed amount of weight, in my case a sandbag in the radio pouch. Again, going over the basics here, the reason you want the sandbag up higher between your shoulder blades is that you don’t have the weight down low pulling on your lower back.

If you do decide to opt for a gear-laden ruck, follow the same guidelines, the heavier items go on the top and as close to the frame as possible. You don’t want heavier crap far away from your body. Why? It is a simple case of leverage. The next time you are in the gym, walk back and forth around the gym a few times with a heavy dumbbell pressed against your chest. Easy right? Now do it with those dumbbells extended away from your body.

It is a lesson that once learned will stick with you. Once during training, a friend tripped over an exposed root in the dark and twisted his knee up pretty good. We were going to walk him out to a road and have him exfiltrated to the hospital just to be on the safe side. In the dark, we divvied up his essential gear to be shared amongst the rest of us lucky souls. The boss asked me to carry his radio and I, of course, said sure. As I was helping the injured guy to his feet, the boss stuffed the radio in my ruck. We loaded up and moved out.

It took all of about a quarter mile to realize, in his haste, he stuffed it on the outside. A big mistake of mine for not checking. It felt like it weighed about three times the actual weight. If you doubt it, try it once and put the heavy stuff on the outside and feel it for yourself.

Have your Camelback system handy to where you can drink on the fly and not have to stop or fumble for it. In training, it isn’t a big deal but once you’re in the Selection Course it will matter a great deal.

Just as a force of habit, I still pack a basic survival kit, (photo) with stuff I’d need in the case of an emergency, which while rucking along a road or trail in town seems ludicrous but it is just a good habit to get in, and good habits die hard. Why do I carry an extra water bottle when I have a Camelback? Some of us, myself included, are weird when it comes to people drinking out of my Camelback. If I come across someone that needs a drink, I will gladly share and even give them my spare water bottle. But unless of a dire emergency, I don’t care for anyone else drinking out of my kit.

Stride Out Without Running: In your training prior to Selection, we stress always to go as fast as you can without running. It puts way too much stress on your knees and lower back and you don’t want to hurt yourself before you even arrive.

And of course, it goes without saying that when you are in the course and conducting a gated event such as a long-range movement that is timed, do what you have to do to pass. If you need to make up time, lightly jogging down any hills or the flat terrain will help get ahead of the power curve or makeup time if you were slowed down for any reason.

During your train up is the time to find your ideal pace. You know what the standards are, (15-minute mile pace), and of course, you want to better that each and every time you go out there. Once you find your optimum pace that you can say do a 12-miler for that is well within the time limits, keep that pace and use it as your baseline.

You won’t know the details of the distances during Selection and probably won’t know how far you’ve gone on the gated events there. That’s why having your pace down pat is so important. It is why we stress the leg training that we do in our PT program. It builds the strength and power to push you thru these ruck marches much easier.

A quick word about posture, while you don’t want to be bent over staring at the tops of your boots, (that won’t go over well in the course and is dangerous while rucking along the roads here), you’ll find that the best way is to bend slightly at the waist and lean forward as you ruck. On steep uphill climbs, you may want to lean forward even more so. It is all a personal choice there.

So strap on your ruck, ensure the waist belt is secure and snug and get to it. This week as I mentioned I changed my route and rucked along the road in a neighboring town. I guess I looked like a sketchy MFer to the local gendarmes and they drove past me slowly a few times. Either that or they wanted my walking stick.

Ah well, it is all good. Ruck on and if you have any questions, shoot them my way and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Photos: US Army, author

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