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.
SOPs Codify individual and institutional knowledge Special Operations has always relied on SOPs. If you get a copy of the current US Army Ranger Handbook (available free on-line), which every good Infantry and Special Forces officer should be packing, in the very beginning is a list of Roger’s Rules of Rangering. The first Rangers were formed in 1756 and Rogers wrote his rules in 1759 after three years of combat experience on the frontier. Some of these sound quite simple but they were learned, as many of the lessons in this book were, at the cost of blood: Standing Orders Rogers Rangers 1. Don't forget nothing. 2. Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute's warning. 3. When you're on the march, act the way you would if you was sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first. 4. Tell the truth about what you see and what you do. There is an army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don't never lie to a Ranger or officer. 5. Don't never take a chance you don't have to. 6. When we're on the march we march single file, far enough apart so one shot can't go through two men. 7. If we strike swamps, or soft ground, we spread out abreast, so it's hard to track us. 8. When we march, we keep moving till dark, so as to give the enemy the least possible chance at us. 9. When we camp, half the party stays awake while the other half sleeps. 10. If we take prisoners, we keep 'em separate till we have had time to examine them, so they can't cook up a story between 'em. 11. Don't ever march home the same way. Take a different route so you won't be ambushed. 12. No matter whether we travel in big parties or little ones, each party has to keep a
scout 20 yards ahead, 20 yards on each flank, and 20 yards in the rear so the main body can't be surprised and wiped out. 13. Every night you'll be told where to meet if surrounded by a superior force. Don't sit down to eat without posting sentries. 14. Don't sleep beyond dawn. Dawn's when the French and Indians attack. 15. Don't cross a river by a regular ford. 16. If somebody's trailing you, make a circle, come back onto your own tracks, and ambush the folks that aim to ambush you. 17. Don't stand up when the enemy's coming against you. Kneel down, lie down, hide behind a tree. Let the enemy come till he's almost close enough to touch, then let him have it and jump out and finish him up with your hatchet. Major Robert Rogers 1759 http://goo.gl/Jn43S
Soldier Handbook SH 21-76 US Army Ranger Handbook SOPs are guidelines. There are times when situations can overwhelm what has been dictated. SOPs are not written in stone. SOPs need to be checked every once in a while to make sure both that they are applicable and that they are being followed. And SOPs that are out of date can cause more harm than good. As you go through this book, you can make SOPs. Do you have the equipment in your Grab & Go Bag? Do you have a schedule for checking your home food store? Do you have an SOP for linking up at the ERP with the members of your survival ATeam? The key to SOPs is that they must be written down. And in today’s digital age, they need to be written on paper so that they can be accessed no matter what the
circumstances. Specific Survival Stress Factors In 1967 Dr. Thomas Holmes and Dr. Richard Rahe developed the Holmes Stress Scale. They developed a stress point system for various life events. For example, the death of a spouse had a 100 point stress value. The holiday season had a 12 point stress value. You can go down the list and add up the events in your life and get the score. This is outside the survival situation. You might consider an extreme survival situation well over 100. Then Holmes and Rahe predicted, based on your point total, the percentage chance that you have an illness or accident within the next two years. The higher the total, the higher the percentage. Here are some of the most common, significant stressors: Death—not your own, or else you wouldn’t be reading this, I hope, zombies notwithstanding, but of someone close to you. Moving—this is change in your life pattern. Job Change—again, change and a degree of uncertainty. Public Speaking—fear about how you will perform and how the audience will react. Uncertainty—you don’t know what is going to happen next. Now, figure where a mild, moderate and extreme emergency would rank. Consider the fact that if you already have considerable stress in your life and you’re high on the Holmes Scale, you might already be close to the breaking point. Think about these stressors and the most common emotion they bring: fear. I don’t think you can eliminate fear, nor would it be good to completely eliminate it, as there are times when fear serves a very useful purpose. In a survival situation, one issue is that there are many problems occurring at once. Often you will be overwhelmed. Your reaction will be the classic fight or flee. You will have a physiological response: your rate of breathing increases; your muscles will tense up; your body’s stored fuel will be used at greater rates (carbohydrates and then fats); if you’re bleeding, blood clotting increases; your senses become acute; your heart rate will increase, leading to a rise in blood
pressure, in order to provide more fuel to your muscles. While this physiological reaction can help deal with the initial situation, it cannot be sustained for an extended period of time without adverse effects. Stressors have a multiplying effect and you need to sort them out and deal with them individually before they overwhelm you.
Here are some in a survival
situation: Death, wounds, illness You might well be surrounded by dead and dying people and also face the real possibility of your own mortality. The fact your death could come from multiple sources is also very hard to deal with. If you’ve been wounded or injured, this adds stress as it makes you consider the possibility that injury is mortal and also limits your ability to do the things needed to survive. Think of the last time you had the flu. Imagine being in a survival situation feeling like that. The reality is that illness has killed more soldiers over the course of history than battle. Over 600,000 men (lately revised to more likely 750,00) died in the Civil War, but two-thirds of those died from illness, not wounds. Guilt Why me? Why was I spared? Was it luck? Fate? While we can’t help but ask these questions after an event that kills others and spares us, they also can be used either positively or negatively. A negative response can lead us down the road of depression and despair. A positive response can be that whatever the reason, it is now your responsibility to value your life even more and try harder to survive. The case study I will use at the end of this section is Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which is also known as both the Andes Flight Disaster and the Miracle in the Andes, depending on which point of view you take. This event was told in the book Alive, and most people know about it because of the cannibalism involved, but my focus is more on the incredible will to live show by the survivors and a few in particular.
Uncertainty and lack of control How do you deal with uncertainty? If you don’t do well with it, start wrapping your brain around the fact that a survival situation is uncertainty to the max. Are you a control freak? Accept that you will have little control and little information in such a situation other than your immediate circumstances. Extreme environment Later in this book I’ll describe specific survival issues for extreme environments. One out of every six people who go up Mount Everest in an attempt to summit, die. Few people have ever experienced a night out in nature at 15,000 feet and minus 60 degrees. Or a desert at 120 degrees and a blasting sand storm. Ever wade chest deep through a swamp filled with snakes and alligators? All of those can be additional stressors. As I write this, I can see a Coast Guard helicopter and boats coming to the rescue of a capsized boat in Puget Sound. There was a small craft advisory out this morning, but it’s the first day of boating season. There are people in a survival situation, in cold water and high waves right now. Were they prepared? Did they have their life vests on? It appears not, as the water is dotted with dozens of life rings and vests thrown from boats racing to the rescue. Hunger and thirst What’s the longest you’ve gone without eating? Do you know how much water you need to intake in your current climate every 24 hours to survive? Being hungry and thirsty not only debilitates you physically, it stresses you because you will get more and more consumed with preserving and gathering water and food. Fatigue People have literally fallen asleep into death. They become so tired and dispirited, that they curl up in a ball. There are situations where you simply cannot afford to fall asleep, such as when you are on guard duty for your team. In the movie, The Way Back, you can watch as some of the members of the
team simply can’t go any further. The power of the human spirit is immense, but once someone surrenders the will to live in a survival situation, it is often over very quickly. http://goo.gl/6H5XH
The Way Back Isolation I focus on building a team, but the reality is that there’s a good chance you will be alone in a survival situation, at least initially. How do you deal with being alone? Think of Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away. Even though he was surviving on that island, ultimately the loneliness drove him to put his life at risk and go out to sea. http://goo.gl/VReIe
Castaway This factor is a big reason why I’m a fan of putting together a team and having a way for that team to link-up after a disaster happens, if they aren’t together while it occurs. We’ll discuss emergency rally points and link ups later.
In conclusion, you will find that the traits of the survivor are also the traits, in everyday, normal living, make a person successful. So you can use this book not only to prepare, but also to learn traits that will make your current more fruitful and positive.
End of Excerpt
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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 Command (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, and multi-day seminars. He has taught organizations ranging from Maui Writers, to Whidbey Island Writers, to San Diego State University, to the University of Geor gia, 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