The Green Beret Survival Guide for the Apocalypse, Zombies & Lesser Disasters
By Bob Mayer
This book will save your life and the lives of those you love.
Introduction This book will save your life and the lives of those you love
We are constantly being bombarded by images from both natural and unnatural disasters. They appear on our television screen and we watch the devastation, confusion and chaos with a combination of relief and fear. Relief because it’s not us and fear because even though we bury the emotion deep, telling ourselves that won’t happen to us, we know deep down that catastrophes, accidents and emergencies, whether man made or natural, do not discriminate and can strike anyone, anywhere at anytime.
Are you prepared? Most of us aren’t. No one is immune to an accident, a disaster, or some type of life-threatening emergency. These events come in numerous ways and at the most unexpected times. You, and someone you love, will undoubtedly face at least one of the topics covered in this book, especially when you look at the long list of specific emergencies and accidents in Chapter Ten. I’m going to define three types of survival situations/emergencies and will use these definitions throughout the book for disasters: Mild: You experience some discomfort from your normal routine for no more than 48 hours, but it is not life threatening. Example: Your power goes off for a day or two. Moderate: You experience a large change from your normal routine, either natural or man- made, which is not immediately life threatening but has the potential to become so if not dealt with, and/or it continues. Example: Your power goes off for five days or more. Your car slides off the road in a remote area and you are trapped inside. A powerful hurricane is approaching. A 5.0 or greater earthquake strikes. Extreme: A catastrophic natural or man- made event that immediately threatens your life, and if it continues, will be a constant threat. Example: A tsunami hits your coastal town. A tornado destroys your home. The apocalypse. Nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. A 7.0 or greater earthquake. The collapse of civilization. An alien invasion. A pandemic with a high transmission and kill rate—ie zombies.
You get the idea. It’s bad. This book is structured differently from most survival books in that I’m going to walk you through preparing for, and then dealing with emergencies in the order in which they are most likely to occur. So we’re not getting to zombies until near the end. Sorry. Also, this book focuses on preparation and immediate action. The second book in this series The Green Beret Sustainment Guide After The Apocalypse, Zombies & More covers long-term survival; I define long term as having to cope after 30 days. I broke the two apart because this book covers the things most likely to happen in a digestible format and I didn’t want to overwhelm you. The second book is as long as this one, but for starters you don’t need to concern yourself with sustainment; you need to co ncern yourself with preparing for and getting through the initial disaster. You can’t worry about sustainment without dealing with survival first. This book focuses on what you have to do NOW in order to be ready for the array of possible calamities that could befall you, and then gives a step-by-step guide for surviving the accidents, emergencies and disasters. This is the next thing that makes The Green Beret Survival Guide different from most other survival manuals where the focus is on how to survive. This book’s first focus is how to prepare to survive and deal with accidents and emergencies. Preparation is half the battle and the easiest to do, yet most people ignore it. In the Green Berets, perhaps the most important thing that made us elite was our planning. We not only thoroughly planned our missions, we also Catastrophe Planned all the possible things we could imagine going wrong.
Every locale has a natural disaster that is a distinct possibility.
Do you have a plan in place and the equipment ready to deal with that possibility?
We also have man- made emergencies, such as terrorist attacks, accidents, or technology failures. Let’s say the electricity goes out. Whether due to a storm, an
overload of the grid, or larger, more dangerous and longer-lasting possibilities such as a massive solar flare.
Are you prepared to survive five days without power? Weeks? Months? Forever?
You Catastrophe Plan for 3 reasons: a) To try to avoid the catastrophe. b) To have a plan, equipment, training etc. in place in case the catastrophe strikes. c) To give you peace of mind in day-to-day living so you don’t constantly have to worry about potential disasters because you are prepared for them. This allows you to experience a higher quality of life.
Why listen to me? If a disaster struck, whom would you want at your side, helping you? A doctor? Lawyer? Policeman? Teacher? While they all have special skills, I submit that the overwhelming choice would be a Special Forces Green Beret. Someone trained in survival, medicine, weapons, tactics, communications, engineering, counter-terrorism, tactical and strategic intelligence and with the capability to be a force multiplier. This last one is key, because another way this book is unique is your goal should be to plan for surviving with a team, not a lonely individual holed up in a bunker deep in the hills. Ultimately, for civilization and law and order to survive, we will need teams. Because, unfortunately, in extreme survival situations it is the ruthless who wield the greatest power because of their willingness to quickly ignore law and order. To defeat them, you will need a well-prepared team. Most importantly, you want someone who has been hand-picked, survived rigorous training, and has the positive mental outlook to not only survive, but succeed, and knows how to be part of a team. This book is a step-by-step guide giving you the tactics and techniques Green Berets use to plan for and train to succeed under the toughest of circumstances. More important than the practical guides, though, is the insight into the mindset of the Green Beret; which is the mindset you will need in a survival scenario.
What else makes this book different from all the other survival manuals? First, it’s written by a former Green Beret and a NY Times bestselling author, so rather than just giving you checklists, I’m going to give you narratives and examples, because I’ve found stories are the best way to learn and remember. I will also refer to not only survival case studies, but examples from popular media about survival and the postapocalyptic world. Some examples are Alive by Piers Paul Read, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Touching the Void, Castaway with Tom Hanks, Contagion, and the 1960 film Panic in the Year Zero directed by Ray Milland. You might think such examples odd at times, but there are lessons to be learned everywhere. Also, with the movies and books, I highly recommend, after reading this book, you sit down with your family/team and watch some of these movies together and/or discuss the books after reading them. Note the survival techniques. What was done right, what was wrong and what was pure Hollywood? You’ll find such discussions to be very enlightening. It is also a window into the mindset of your various team members. Second, this book uses the strategies, tactics and techniques of the Special Forces, the most elite soldiers in the world. I also employ humor, because that is an essential ingredient of survival: keeping your sense of humor. I apologize if I offend anyone with my off- hand comments at times, but I think we can get too serious and depressed reading this material. Also, where I have gone completely off the reservation, such as describing how to deal with vampires, you will note this material is separated from the rest of the book by page breaks. If you’re reading the print version, you will see a flame logo on those pages and nothing on the backside. To make these apparently useless pages (except for the humor) useful, they are K indling pages. You can tear them out and use them to help start a fire. The kindling pages with the logo are included in the eBook edition. (However not throw your eReader in the fire, except as a last resort.)
Kindling Page Flame Logo
Third, it focuses not only on individual survival, but TEAM survival. The Special Forces A-Team is the most elite and efficient team in the world. I assume you want to survive with those closest to you, whether they be family, friends, co-workers, neighbors. As you will see, after the initial event, the greatest danger you are going to face is not food, water or the environment, but other people. You need a cohesive team in order to not only survive, but thrive. And you must form, train and prepare that team prior to the disaster.
Do you have a rally point for your family and friends where you will link up if disaster strikes and all electronic means of communication are no longer functioning?
Have you even considered this?
Fourth, I incorporate the Rule of Seven, from my upcoming book: 7 by 7: The Anatomy of Catastrophe. No extreme catastrophe happens in isolation. What I mean is that often there are multiple causes that overlap. Even if the root cause is a single event, such as an earthquake, the sum total of the catastrophe includes your own actions before, during and after. There are always at least seven things that go wrong in an extreme disaster and one element is usually man-made (even if it’s not the initiating event). This book teaches you how to plan for, avoid, deal with and most importantly, have peace of mind, regarding that man- made factor. It also teaches you to watch out for that man- made element and perhaps avoid a disaster. Peace of mind allows you to plan for success and act, not react. As you will see as you read on, I keep looping back to PREPARATION being the key to dealing with any situation. Finally, as I began to research the amount of information out there about survival, I quickly got overwhelmed and I’ve been extensively trained in this area. Between the books, the videos, the internet and the “reality” shows, the casual person will get swept under. I’m trying to keep this is as simple as possible and looking at it from the point of view of your “average” person living in an apartment or house who has to face situations
they are probably not prepared for right now.
Are You Prepared for Mild to Moderate Disasters? Short of the total collapse of civilization, we all face the possibility of a localized disaster, whether natural or man- made.
Hurricanes, floods, terrorism, earthquakes,
tsunamis, fire, accidents, etc.
Are you prepared for whatever disaster has the highest possibility of occurring where you live and work? Do you even know what the probabilities of natural disasters are where you live and work?
For example, most people when they hear earthquake, think of the west coast. However, the New Madrid Fault lies in the center of our country, along the Mississippi River and is a direct threat to millions of people in that region. A quake in that area in 1812 made the Mississippi run backwards and produced Reelfoot Lake. If you live in an earthquake zone, do you have your Grab & Go bag ready? If in a tsunami zone, do you know where you should go? What evacuation route you should take immediately? Do you have both a vehicle and on- foot route? Have you rehearsed your evacuation route? If near a high profile terrorist target, do you know how to deal with nuclear, biological or chemical attacks? If you work in one of the tallest buildings in the world, do you have a way of escaping it if all normal means are blocked? We’ve seen glimpses of what’s coming. The Indian Ocean tsunami; Katrina; 9-11; Haiti; the Japanese quake and subsequent tsunami, Hurricane Sandy, and so on. I could quote thousands of examples where the power went out and the results. Even power outages of a few hours have had a tremendous effect and caused thousands of people to die. Think of no power for the next year? Whatever you believe about global warming/climate change doesn’t matter. Water levels are rising, weather patterns are changing. What is causing it isn’t important to our topic. It’s reality. This is the third lesson: Same as the first. This is real.
A key tenet of success for the Green Beret is to act rather than react. When the disaster strikes, it’s too late. The clock is ticking.
Are You Prepared for Extreme Emergencies? In The Green Berets we were taught to worst-case scenarios. Unfortunately, the sub-title of this book, the Apocalypse, Zombies & More, is not about a possible worst case. Some of these are, indeed, inevitable. You will be in an accident, a natural disaster, and possibly, if you live long enough, see our way of life as a civilization fall apart (it’s happened before in human history). By the way, the reference to zombies, while adding a bit of levity, refers to the inevitable event of a very lethal, highly contagious pandemic breaking out. It has happened regularly in history and it will happen again. It is not a matter of if, but when. This is not theoretical. This is real. In The Green Berets we were taught to face facts, no matter how unpleasant. That is what this book is about. The reality is that our civilization is built on a system that has to fail to some degree. The more sophisticated and interdependent we get, the more quickly we will fail. And the failure will be sooner rather than later. No one knows how large the failure will be or how long it will last. Think how long civilization will survive if the power goes out for a week? It will. And for much longer than a week. How would you deal with that? (Which brings up a curious point if you are reading this in eBook-- not that I don't appreciate the sale-- but seriously consider backing up your e-version with a print version because, well-- enough said. I sell this book at a lower price in eBook so that you can read it and decide if it is for you, but in a disaster, you’re going to want a hard copy of this and other reference material; plus you want the Kindling pages for fire). For all those who decry to downfall of print, take heart: when we’re back living in caves, print will triumph over the eBook. Then we’ll be back to stone and chisel. Then cavedrawings. Read the classic book Earth Abides, the book on which Stephen King says he based The Stand.
Special Forces Assessment & Selection Thought: Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage.
Do You Know How To KISS? Keep It Simple. The best information does you no good if you don't remember it. This book could easily be 10,000 pages long and even then I would be leaving some thing out. I've forced myself to go in the other direction: giving you the essentials and leaving out a lot of material. In survival, less is better. There is only so much you can remember. Focus on the priorities, which you will get in this book. A few things done correctly are much more effective than a hundred done poorly. In many places you are getting an overview. There are plenty of practical survival books that go into intimate details of areas you desire more information about. Use them to supplement this book once you understand the overall concept and mindset of survival that you'll get from this book.
Here are some simple Rules of Three to keep in mind: You can survive three minutes without air. You can survive three hours without a regulated body temperature. You can survive three days, give or take, without water. You can survive three weeks without food. Prioritize accordingly.
What Is The Flow of This Book? The flow of this book is the way a Green Beret would prepare for a mission. We’re going to start with the mindset of survival. It all starts with the mind and attitude. Then we’ll go to the body. From there, we’ll have an over-view of the five essentials (water, food, shelter, fire, first aid) so you understand their changing priority depending on situation with a focus on the essentials you need to consider right now for mild and moderate survival. Next we’ll go through the Special Forces Area St udy and how you will apply it to where you live. This is a key step in order to know what further sections of this book will be of particular significance to you and also in terms of
preparation. Next will be team building, as you will want to start on that immediately. We’ll talk about how you can build your survival team, something that has to be done NOW. Once disaster strikes, it’s too late. And the sad thing is you need a team, because in extreme disasters, history shows it is the most ruthless who will try to rule. You will need a team in order to prevail against them. Several movies and TV shows have shown this, such as Revolution. We'll discuss some fundamental tactics to keep you and your team alive in the face of hostile elements of the populace, but I’ll put more focus on that in Sustainment as your first goal is just surviving. From teams, we go to what you need, as the right gear is a key part of preparation. It will be too late when disaster strikes to gather most of this, so this sectio n is a key part of your preparation. You’ll learn how to pack your “grab and go” bags (note plural). We’ll discuss survival gear along with field expedient equipment. I break out separate chapters to deal exclusively with your home and your car, because you spend most of your time at those two places (besides work). Which is why you need more than one G&G bag. Then, I’ve added a buffet of special emergencies and accidents and how to deal with them, ranging from a plane crash, to robbery, to various types of destructive weather, nuclear fall out, terrorism, etc. etc. It is very likely you will face one of these situations, so I’ve put them in their priority order in the overall scheme of this book, before extreme survival. Then we’ll do a brief discussion of navigation, tracking and evasion. Can you navigate without a GPS? Do you know how to read a map? Do you even own a paper map? Can you tell north from the stars? We’ll briefly discuss caching and your hide site, a subject I delve into in much more depth in the Sustainment book. We’ll do an overview of the four major types of special environments: desert, cold weather, tropical and sea survival. I then focus on two of the key areas in more detail: Water and first aid. The Sustainment book has the five essentials in detail, with a focus on extreme survival and sustainment. It also discusses how we interact and can use other living entities such as animals, fish and plants. And avoid their dangers.
At the end we will discuss the worst-case scenario: extreme emergencies and the complete collapse of civilization as we know it for an extended period of time. It’s happened before and it will happen again. What special preparations and skills will you need in order to survive this? My goal with this book is to get you to at least the thirtyday mark.
If recovery is not on the horizon at that point, you are shifting into
Sustainment mode. Dust off that book and start using it. Remember, that often I am giving you broad templates. You must adjust these templates to your particular situation. I also am a big fan of SOPs: Standing Operating Procedures. Make your plans and write them down. Practice them. Be prepared. We discuss SOPs under mindset. Yes, a lot can go wrong and some thing will go wrong. And this is exactly the book that will teach you how to deal with it all. End of Excerpt
Purchase your copy at these outlets .
About the Author
West Point Graduate, former Green Beret and NY Times bestselling author Bob Mayer has had over 50 books published. He has sold over five million books, and is in demand as a team-building, life-changing, and leadership speaker and consultant for his Who Dares Wins concept. He's been on bestseller lists in thriller, science fiction, suspense, action, war, historical fiction and is the only male author on the Romance Writers of America Honor Roll. Born in the Bronx, Bob attended West Point and earned a BA in psychology with honors and then served as an Infantry platoon leader, a battalion scout platoon leader, and a brigade recon platoon leader in the 1st Cavalry Division. He joined Special Forces and commanded a Green Beret A Team. He served as the operations officer for 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and with Special Operations Co mmand (Special Projects) in Hawaii. Later he taught at the Special Forces Qualification Course at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, the course which trains new Green Berets. He lived in Korea where he earned a Black Belt in Martial Arts. He's earned a Masters Degree in Education. His books have hit the NY Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and numerous other bestseller lists. His book The Jefferson Allegiance, was released independently and reached #2 overall in sales on Nook. Bob Mayer grew up in the Bronx. After high school, he entered West Point where he learned about the history of our military and our country. During his four years at the Academy and later in the Infantry, Mayer questioned the idea of "mission over men." When he volunteered and passed selection for the Special Forces as a Green Beret, he felt more at ease where the men were more important than the mission. Mayer's obsession with mythology and his vast knowledge of the military and Special Forces, mixed with his strong desire to learn from history, is the foundation for his science fiction series Atlantis, Area 51 and Psychic Warrior. Mayer is a master at blending elements of truth into all of his thrillers, leaving the reader questioning what is real and what isn't. He took this same passion and created thrillers based in fact and riddled with
possibilities. His unique background in the Special Forces gives the reader a sense of authenticity and creates a reality that makes the reader wonder where fact ends and fiction begins. In his historical fiction novels, Mayer blends actual events with fictional characters. He doesn't change history, but instead changes how history came into being. Mayer's military background, coupled with his deep desire to understand the past and how it affects our future, gives his writing a rich flavor not to be missed. Bob has presented for over a thousand organizations both in the United States and internationally, including keynote presentations, all day workshops, a nd multi-day seminars. He has taught organizations ranging from Maui Writers, to Whidbey Island Writers, to San Diego State University, to the University of Georgia, to the Romance Writers of America National Convention, to Boston SWAT, the CIA, Fortune-500, the Royal Danish Navy Frogman Corps, Microsoft, Rotary, IT Teams in Silicon Valley and many others. He has also served as a Visiting Writer for NILA MFA program in Creative Writing. He has done interviews for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, PBS, NPR, the Discovery Channel, the SyFy channel and local cable shows. For more information see http://bobmayer.org and http://coolgus.com.
Copyright Š 2012 by Bob Mayer
http://coolgus.com All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever without permission.
Disclaimer: Neither the publisher or author accept responsibility for any loss, injury, or damage caused as a result of techniques presented in this book; nor for any prosecutions or proceeding instigated against any person or organization resulting from use of these techniques. The reader must use their own good judgment in using the information presented. This book is sold without any warranties or guaranties of any kind, and the author and publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for personal injury, property damage, or any other loss or damage, however caused, relating to the information in this book. If I don’t cover something in this book feel free to drop me an email at Survival@CoolGus.com. In fact, if you have any comments, suggestions, a better way of doing things, etc. about the material presented here, feel free to drop me a line.
eISBN: 9781621250463 Print ISBN: 9781621250470