Many survival case histories show that stubborn, strong willpower can conquer many obstacles. One case history tells of a man stranded in the desert for eight days without food and water; he had no survival training, and he did nothing right. But he wanted to survive, and through sheer willpower, he did survive.
With training, equipment, and the will to survive, you will find you can overcome any obstacle you may face. You will survive.
______Preparing to Survive______
Two things that you can do now to help you prepare are (1) train for survival in different environments and (2) learn about the area where you are going.
Learn how to find and get food and water, how to use natural environmental features for shelter, how to build shelter, how to determine direction, and how and when to travel through different types of terrain.
You should learn how to maintain your health, how to avoid environmental hazards, and how to doctor yourself.
Most important, you should learn that rest can be more valuable than speed. Whether you are struggling through jungle undergrowth, facing a dwindling water supply in the desert, making your way across arctic ice or even enabling yourself to retire financially, you should plan and make your way carefully; do not dash blindly on.
You should learn about natives in the area(s) where you expect to go. This knowledge and common sense will enable you to make contact with them. If you reach an area where the natives are not allied with the enemy, you will have little to fear and much to gain by thoughtful contact with them. By knowing their customs in advance and by being courteous by their standards, you may be able to get their help.
Learning about the different environments how to get food and water, how to take care of yourself is not enough, however. You must have the right attitude. That is, you must accept the fact that as a soldier you may find yourself in a survival situation for an extended period of time, alone, with minimal equipment. You must understand that the situation could come about without warning, and you must be prepared.
If you have the opportunity, go through a survival school in which you can train and practice your skills before they really count. The training you receive will give you confidence in yourself. A few hours spent in applying what you learn – find that it works, finding that you can accomplish things that previously seemed impossible – will remove any doubt about your personal ability and stamina.
______Survival Stresses______
You must understand the emotional states associated with survival just as you must understand survival conditions and equipment. In a survival situation, you (and your companions, if any) are the most important element in determining your success or failure.
You have probably never given much thought to –
· How do I react to various situations?
· What do the various signs, feelings, expressions, and reactions in me (and others) mean?
· What are my tolerances to different physical and mental stresses?
· How can I maintain and use my abilities effectively to perform and to control myself?
· How can I influence my companions in a way that will help them and me?
Yet, knowing these things – knowing “thyself” – is extremely important in a survival situation and bears directly on how well you cope with serious stresses: fear and anxiety; pain, injury, and illness; cold and heat; thirst; hunger; fatigue; sleep deprivation; boredom; and loneliness and isolation.
Your body has reaction mechanisms that generally help you to adapt to stress. For Example, when you are scared or angry, these mechanisms cause changes within you body that tend to increase you alertness and to provide you with extra energy. These reaction mechanisms, however, can betray you under survival conditions. For instance, your “normal” reaction to hunger (a stress) might cause you to cast reason aside and forage for food in enemy territory, exposing yourself to capture.
Two of the gravest general dangers to survival are the desire for comfort ad a passive outlook. You must recognize that these dangers represent attitudes – attitudes that follow lines of least resistance, that overrule your effort or desire to cope with stress, that make your primary concern the immediate situation rather than the overall problem of survival.
To overcome the first danger – the desire for comfort – you need to change the way you think of comfort. And the key to changing is reasoning: You compare your present discomfort with the discomfort you will face if captured. You present discomfort is a temporary problem; as a prisoner your discomfort would probably continue indefinitely and be more intense. Knowing how much discomfort you can take and understanding your demand for comfort will help you carry on. Comfort is not essential!
To avoid the second danger – the passive outlook – you should know what can bring it on.
Some Physical conditions contribute to the passive outlook. They include exhaustion due to prolonged exposure to cold, excessive loss of body fluids (dehydration), excessive fatigue, weakness and illness. You can avoid these conditions by proper planning and sound decisions.
Lack of the will to keep trying can also result in a passive outlook. Lethargy, mental numbness, and indifference creep in slowly, but they can suddenly take over and leave you helpless.
Recognizing the onset of a passive outlook in a companion is important. The first signs are an air of resignation, quietness, lack of communication, loss of appetite, and withdraw from the group. The best way to deal with such an outlook is to stop or counter the physical and mental stresses that produce it.
Following are the enemies of survival. They are common physical and mental stresses that will impact on your ability to cope with a survival situation.
Pain. Pain is your body’s way of telling you that you have an injury. Pain, in itself, is not harmful, but it does make you uncomfortable. You may not notice pain if your mind is concentrated on other matters. But if you let it, pain can get the best of you. It can weaken your will to survive. You can tolerate pain, however, if you –
· Understand its source and nature
· Recognize it as something to be tolerated
· Concentrate on things you need to do (think, plan, and keep busy)
· Take pride in your ability to take it.
Cold. Being cold lowers your efficiency, your ability to think, and your will to do anything but try to get warm. It slows down the flow of blood so that you get sleepy. These effects of cold are dangerous. You should immediately seek shelter and build a fire to warm yourself before the cold weakens your will to survive.
Heat. Weakness is the principle symptom of unaccustomed exposure to heat. You can, however, become accustomed to high temperatures. It may take 2-6 days for your circulation, your breathing, your heart action, and your sweat glands to get adjusted to a hot climate. When you are in direct sunlight in hot climates keep your head covered. If your situation allows, do not exert yourself during the hottest hours of the day.
Thirst. Two of the most serious problems of survival are thirst and dehydration. Thirst, even though not extreme, can dull your mind. Drink plenty of water when there is an ample supply available, particularly when eating. If your water supply is low, cut down your food intake. You body must use extra water to carry off waists from food. This causes the body to become dehydrated more quickly. You can reverse almost any stage of dehydration simply by drinking enough water.
Hunger. Unrelieved hunger will affect attitude, morale and will to survive. If this condition does not change, undernourishment/starvation will bring on the following symptoms: Loss of weight, weakness, dizziness and blackouts on standing up suddenly, slowed heart rate, increased sensitivity to cold, and increased thirst. In many areas you can find a lot of edible material that you many not regard as food [see ‘Wild Plants for Food’] to survive, you must overcome your food dislikes and prejudices and eat whatever edible items are available.
Fatigue. Tiredness can reduce your mental ability, make you careless, and give you an I-don’t-care feeling. Overexertion causes fatigue; but so does mental outlook: hopelessness, lack of a goal, dissatisfaction, frustration, and boredom. Rest, of course, is the primary means of overcoming fatigue caused by overexertion. You can tell when you have reached the state of tiredness that affects your mental and physical ability. Often, you can summon the strength to go on if you recognize the danger of a situation. Fatigue caused by mental outlook can sometimes be overcome by a change of activity, by mild exercise, or by conversation with others.
Boredom. Repetitiveness and uniformity are two sources of boredom. And with boredom comes lack of interest, feelings of strain, and anxiety or depression, especially when you can see no relief and are frustrated. To overcome boredom, you must keep your goal – survival – in mind and realize how the tasks you must perform fit into your overall survival plan.
Loneliness. To be isolated under trying and threatening conditions will often bring on another stress – a feeling of loneliness which can lead to feelings of helplessness and despair. Self-sufficiency plays a major role in overcoming these feelings.
You have been developing self-sufficiency all your life. You learned how to do things by yourself, how to be comfortable while alone, how to accept new surroundings, and how to cope with new problems. Added to that, you military training has provided you with additional knowledge on problems and conditions you can expect. You are prepared to be active, to plan, and to think with a deliberate purpose. These are countermeasures to loneliness.
You can increase you self-sufficiency – your ability to function competently on your own – with practice. You have opportunities to do so each day of your life: Make you own decisions and rely on yourself; explore new situations and solve problems. You must learn to accept the reality of a new situation or of an emergency and then take suitable action. This is one of the most important psychological requirements for survival. Do not sit down and worry. Stay busy!
______Attitude______
Having a “survival attitude” for whatever may occur is extremely important. Mental and actual rehearsal of emergency procedures prepares a person to take automatic action. Knowledge and rehearsal of survival procedures will give you a feeling of confidence – a “survival attitude” – and will prepare you for any emergency, even though you may be semiconscious at the time. A person without a positive mental attitude may panic under dire circumstances.
______Personal Qualities______
Personality also plays an important role in survival. In fact, it may have more bearing on survival than danger, weather, terrain, or the nature of the emergency. For example, whether a person’s fatigue dulls or sharpens his mind, overcomes or intensifies his ability to take necessary survival actions, or lessens or increases his determination to carry on depends, to a large extent, more on that person than on the situation. The following personal qualities are important to survival:
· Ability to make up your mind
· Ability to improvise
· Ability to live with yourself
· Ability to adapt to the situation – make a good thing out of a bad thing
· Remaining cool, calm, and collected
· Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst
· Having patience
· Being prepared to meet the worst that can happen
· Ability to ‘figure out’ other people – to understand and predict what other people will do
· Understanding where you special fears and worries come from, and knowing what to do to control them
Work Cited: US Army Survival Manual – Reprint of the Department of the Army Field Manual. United States of America, Barnes and Noble Inc., 1992. pp. 1-1:1-6.
